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Several MakeWork Grantees Will Showcase At Track 29 Thursday, December 15, 2011

Track 29 will feature local artists this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday December 15-17. For $10 a pop, these three nights of local favorites in three different genres cannot be missed. We can’t wait to kick the three-day Local Showcase off with tonight’s Electronic Dance Party featuring Digital Butter, and MakeWork Grantees Isaac Duncan and Phillip Allan as DJ Flux 308 and DJ K7.

Issac Duncan making music at the Southern Brewers Festival.

Friday night is Blues and Southern Rock Night, featuring The Blueshammer Band, The Collins Brothers Band, and the WTM Band.

Local indie night on Saturday will feature Raenbow Station, tHE HEARtS IN LIGHt, and Land Camera with MakeWork Grantee Charles Allison, who’s “A song a week” project can be found at http://charlesallison.org/

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Announcing a huge accomplishment for the future of MakeWork arts grants! Tuesday, December 13, 2011

We’re proud to say, MakeWork has reached its fundraising challenge goal! The Lyndhurst Foundation promised to match 2:1 all donations made to MakeWork up to $100,000 through December 15th, and we’ve raised the full $100,000 amount. This generates $300,000 for MakeWork!

Outside looking in at a Kerrick Johnson piece in glass, at the MakeWork Showcase during MAINX24

As the 5 years of CreateHere draws to a close at the end of this month to Supernova, several projects will continue on as independent organizations. This funding will allow MakeWork to be able to continue to offer grants to individual creatives, to challenge artists to challenge themselves, and to engage the community in conversations about contemporary art as the organization grows independently in 2012.

Christie Burns performs with friends at the MakeWork Showcase

“I’m raising a glass to MakeWork and all the hard work they’ve put in so far to make cool things happen around my town. A toast to your success as CreateHere becomes ‘CreateWuzHere’, to lots of future funding and a further refinement of the work you do. Cheers to the donors, big and small, who provide something of a ‘love fest’ for the arts in Chattanooga. And, finally, a big high five to my fellow grantees who stay in the game beyond their own projects, shifting from recipient to donor and back again—making sure they’re right there playing whatever role is needed when a focused community effort is required to make the arts thrive!”
-2011 MakeWork grantee Christie Burns, founder of The Folk School of Chattanooga

Andrew Gage of Velo Coffee explains the art and process. Stop by and ask him about cupping coffee.

Rondell Crier’s Sculpture at the MakeWork Showcase Gallery

To see many more photos of the MakeWork Showcase and the many wonderful performances, audio and visual displays, and sculpture, visit us on Facebook.

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MAINx24: A Dispatch from Allie O’Connell Wednesday, December 07, 2011

My friend Michelle turned to me and said, “Why can’t this happen every weekend!?” We were sitting on the floor at Green Spaces listening to local bluegrass musicians pickin’ and grinnin’ Saturday night during MAINx24. Main Street had turned into a huge party for the whole family all day and night. Musicians were out busking on the sidewalks on anything from a guitar to an electric organ. Arial performers hung from silks, and paintings were sold out of truck beds. Kids were drawing on sidewalks and chalkboards, and people and their pets pranced along with the parade.

The streets were lined with people. On Monday, all the CreateHere Fellows gushed about all the different things they did and saw Saturday on Main Street. Matt Adams discovered a grilled mac and cheese sandwich at the Famous Nater’s cart. Austin Reed was in awe of Mark “Pork Chop” Holder shredding guitar in front of the fire station. Dave Walker started the day off with a pancake breakfast at the fire hall, and was entertained by MakeWork Grantee Christie Burns and friends from the Folk School of Chattanooga performing there. Teal Thibaud was amazed by the tons of things to do at any moment, and the biggest crowed she’s seen at MAINx24 yet!

Prophets & Kings performed on top of the Discoteca building, and gave CreateHere a shout out for supporting their work. Kids were crawling all over rainbow hammocks by Color Cloud Hammocks. Allison Reedy spectated a bit of mechanical bull riding, and teams of corn hole players competed in a tournament as offices and businesses all along Main Street held events and gallery openings all day long. And then as night came, hundreds gathered around to watch Andrew Nigh’s huge sculpture burn with fireworks flying out of the blaze, and then move indoors for The Wailers at Track29.

The week leading up was full of painting, building, and planning for CreateHere’s last MAINx24. Inspired by Candy Chang, we installed three chalkboards along Main Street headed with prompts about community and creativity. Buddy Shirk coordinated students to play on Summitt Pianos’ Steinway D, the same grand piano the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera uses, and featured students of the Chattanooga Music Teachers Association, UTC-Cadek Conservatory and Lee University. The block was adorned with inspiring words and framed quotes, the office was transformed into a a gallery space for the MakeWork Showcase where artists performed and displayed their work, the sculptural Supernova Pavilion was completed and lit on the corner of Main and Market, and MakeWork Grantee Philip Andrew Lewis illuminated the Levin Building in a stunning feat of brick mapping. Seeing all the projects come together and live out in the bustle of MAINx24, where people could interact with them while enjoying the scores of community events, was a wonderful moment. Kate Creason said that seeing kids come up to the huge white Supernova Pavilion sculpture and wonder if it was a snowflake or an igloo, and just being amazed by the beautiful structure made the mad dash to construct it last week all worth while.

CreateHere was surrounded by friends and family as they joined together all throughout the day and night to celebrate five years on Main Street, and the emergence of Co.Lab as the designated economic incubator for Southeast Tennessee.

Posted by in Arts in Culture
Building the Supernova Pavilion Friday, December 02, 2011

Afternoon of November 30, 2011

Afternoon of December 1, 2011

Morning of December 2, 2011

Posted by in Arts
MAINX24 & CreateHere Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Join CreateHere at MAINX24 on December 3, 2011. This year, we plan to mark the distance CreateHere has come through a capstone public art experience, involving five very different major works:

CreateHere welcomes students to play on Summitt Pianos’ Steinway D, the same grand piano the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera uses, and will feature students of the Chattanooga Music Teachers Association, UTC-Cadek Conservatory and Lee University from 11-1 pm.

The MakeWork Creative Showcase performance will highlight 2011’s grant recipients. These 15 artists underwent a highly competitive selection process of 125 applicants. These grantees are excited to share their talent with you during MAINX24, including performance art, a bicycle wheel installation, sculpture and many other exhibits. This showcase will be held at CreateHere from 2-4 pm.

MakeWork artist, Philip Andrew Lewis, will project a 3-D light installation on the historic and skeletal Levin Building (across the street from CreateHere) at nightfall.

Thought-provoking questions on large chalkboards placed throughout Main Street will engage MAINX24 attendees in a participatory public art project throughout the day.

The CreateHere Supernova Pavilion will be placed at the southeast corner of Main Street and Market Street. This pavilion portrays the future of design, technology, and sustainable architecture. Gernot Riether created this structure of 620 tee-pee shaped modules made of recycled plastic that were precisely programmed to create tension with each other, thereby holding the pavilion up. This installation will be open all day.

Over the last five years, MAINX24 has become a tradition. The 24-hour event was one of CreateHere’s first projects, and is now owned and organized completely by neighbors and friends. CreateHere was originally developed with a multi-faceted focus on arts, culture and economy as well as a specific 5-year timeline to incubate these initiatives. As we reach this milestone, many of the arts and culture projects have matured and are ‘graduating’ from their home on Main Street.

We’ve planned for this day since the beginning. Conceptualized as a social-innovation laboratory, this MAINX24 marks the end of the first chapter for CreateHere since its inception in 2006. ‘Supernova’ means that many inspiring projects from this five-year initiative are exploding into the community while some will ‘stay put’ at their current address. Our Main Street studio will continue to be fully animated by The Company Lab, which is the sparkling new brand for all of the CreateHere entrepreneurial programs as well as much, much more. As the newly designated start-up generator for the Southeast Tennessee region, The Company Lab will expand its offerings for Main Street and beyond as it becomes the new ‘front door’ for sparking creative enterprise in the greater Chattanooga area. MAINX24 is the perfect time to celebrate Supernova and all of the successful programs that have sprung to life.

Posted by in Arts in Culture