Blog

Thank You from CreateHere Saturday, December 31, 2011

Since 2007, CreateHere has been a hub for deepened relationships between existing and emerging leadership, the development of entrepreneurs intent upon driving innovation in social, cultural and economic arenas and the funding of artistic excellence. It has been intense and exhilarating.

Today marks the Supernova of CreateHere.

Conceptualized as a time-sensitive, social-innovation laboratory to develop new work in the areas of arts, culture and economy, December 31st, 2011 is the end of the first chapter for CreateHere.
We’ve planned for this day since the beginning. A definitive end point has kept us on our toes and afforded us a sense of urgency that has increased exponentially over the last five years.

Focused on individuals and the development of 21st century tools to fuel creativity and innovation, CreateHere has heard the hopes and concerns of 26,000+ citizens through the community visioning process STAND, trained 400+ aspiring business owners through Springboard, funded 85 artists through the MakeWork Arts Grants, trained 90+ emerging leaders through the LeadHere Fellowship program and much more.

New methods of connecting, teaching and sharing have been explored time and again.

Hand-in-hand, with the citizens of Chattanooga, CreateHere projects have charted a new intersection of arts, culture and economic growth. While some initiatives were designed as finite demonstration projects to promote a culture of engagement in social and civic issues, other initiatives have become fully fledged programs, mature to the point of being self sustaining.

‘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. As the emerging leaders who powered STAND take their work deeper into the neighborhoods of Chattanooga, our Main Street studio will continue to be fully animated by the MakeWork Program and The Company Lab. The Company Lab is the new identity for all of the CreateHere entrepreneurial programs, with the addition of many powerful new programs and people. 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.

We want to share the work.

The Archive
Over the past five years, we have compiled a significant archive of our programs and creative solutions to systemic community challenges. The CreateHere website holds all of our work in a user-friendly interface and we plan to add more to this archive during 2012. You are invited to explore our open-source archive of files and experiences, to share, copy, develop, and build upon our work. Please see the Creative Commons license on our site for more information.

As we reach this milestone, we are reminded of the words of Daniel Burnham:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”

Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. (1846-1912)

At CreateHere, we have always believed that cities should be places where everyone has the opportunity to pursue happiness. This city is ours and it is yours. We must strive to have vision and embrace boldness during the coming year. With Daniel Burnham as our guide, let us all think big in our relationships, our homes, our neighborhood and in our city and may we remember that though big and small goals are accomplished along the way, our work is never finished.

Posted by Helen Johnson in Culture
Sustain Chattanooga Stand Through Causeway Monday, December 12, 2011

As the emerging leaders who drove Chattanooga Stand, the world’s largest community visioning process, Katherine Currin, Teal Thibaud, and Garth Brown are passionate about exploring and refining new ways to increase connectivity between people, resources and networks. Over the past two years, Chattanooga Stand successfully engaged hundreds of individuals in meaningful action ranging from green space improvement projects to launching innovative ideas and organizations to meet social needs.

celebrating community and the places they live

building relationships with neighbors: cowart place

Chattanooga Stand is passionate and equipped to implement creative work in unlikely places. Now, they are taking successful engagement tools and strategies from Stand’s portfolio and planting them in some of the more forgotten, urban neighborhoods in Chattanooga.

planting big ideas for a better future

The task goes beyond just being a catalyst for change, and takes on a new form of engagement that involves close collaboration with existing and emerging leaders within the community. Currently, Stand sees a groundswell of enthusiasm among residents eager to give their time, talents, and resources to make our region better, and greatness mandates that no talent be wasted. As CreateHere moves toward Supernova, Stand seeks your assistance in becoming sustainable. In just two days, Stand received over $7,000 and 16 hours of design and marketing assistance in contributions through Causeway.org.

engaging in unlikely places: glass street

finding innovation in blight

Please visit Chattanooga Stand’s Causeway profile to support and learn more about its projects as it develops. All funds raised by January 1st, will be matched.

Causeway is a new way to give in Chattanooga. It’s pretty new, but it’s getting a lot of attention from community members who seek to launch their social innovation ideas and gain support for their ideas. Learn more about Causeway here.

Posted by Dave Walker in Culture
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 Dave Walker in Arts in Culture
City Share: Public Workshop featuring Public Workshop founder: Alex Gilliam Friday, December 02, 2011

On December 7th, City Share will host Alex Gilliam, founder of Public Workshop, an organization that redefines the way youth and communities participate as citizens and leaders in the design of their neighborhoods and cities. Alex fundamentally believes that great design, empowerment, innovation, and having fun are not mutually exclusive. He creates inspiring curricula, trans-formative youth design leadership programs, innovative participatory community design tools, engaging events and thoughtful strategies that help people rethink possibility. He considers himself a cheerleader for possibility.

Alex’s recent work includes creating a green design leadership program in Chicago that trains young people to gather the environmental data and collect the stories that substantiate design changes in their neighborhoods; developing unique design-build place-making events to better engage youth and community in a master planning process in Austin, TX; designing a NEA funded youth community design leadership program for middle schools in the Bronx; leading a #teen- designheroes camp in rural Wisconsin for Chicago Public School students; and creating a full scale building system that allows young people to prototype their own playgrounds in under-used public spaces.

Chattanooga Stand is excited to host Alex virtually as he shares with us how his unique design methods can change communities and built environments.
We hope to see you on Wednesday, Dec. 7th at Greenspaces, 65 E. Main St.

Please RSVP to this event on Facebook or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

City Share is free and open to the public.
Lunch will be provided.

Posted by Dave Walker in Culture in Environment
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 Dave Walker in Arts in Culture