Much has happened but I want to start by saying that Tion Bukue is the graffiti artist we are inviting to Chattanooga. We interviewed Caleb ("Aero"), Manuel Guerlis and Tion Bakue.

Manuel is from Wiesbaden and founded the MOS - Meeting of Styles - format: one giant graffiti festival in a host city that can offer preferably thousands of square feet of permitted space. Add to that many hopefully donated cases of aerosol. Invite international graffiti stars and they bring the music, groupies, galleries etc. There are maybe 10 per year worldwide, and Manuel is still the guy who helps the locals coordinate these things. I loved talking to him. He is very community minded and loves the democraticness of grafitti and the accessibility of it. He has a bundes job working for Lufthansa.

We also interviewed Caleb - "Aero" - who is Manuel's
counterpart MOS-wise in the States. Caleb is beautiful and paints beauty. He is of Hawaiian origin and is an ex- model. I also loved his philosophy, and he is particularly concerned over the eco status and safety of use of aerosol. He started a company called Blubber Colors Spray Paint.

Tion is a professional hip hop manager, writes,performs and records his own songs, skateboards, and does graffiti. He sees all these activities as one aesthetic taking direction through the hand, the voice, the body to express graffiti, hip hop, dance and skate boarding. This urban aesthetic is one that emerges from the street, not the classroom. It is improvised, autobiographical, requires no education, can be practiced by anyone, can be recorded, photographed, vimeoed etc and distributed world wide without that person's mother knowing anything about it. These raps and tags are personal expressions ready to go international with a simple keystroke.


Tion teaches the disciplines in a parallel way starting with a workshop called Wordplay 101. What is the spoken word, the pictorated word, the word as it moves through the body. His other workshop is Art2Empire now that one can selfexpress via this aesthetic, how does one make a living. I love his practical side. How do we make these things work !!

We are booking him for the weekend of Oct 23. We will have the two workshops mentioned above plus a more traditional art class that I will coteach. The workshops will culminate in a graffiti project at the Hart Gallery on Main St. The Heavillon's are allowing MM chalkboard curatorial privileges on their outside wall. Sat night Oct 23rth, we will graffiti their wall, some boards and my van. We will finish the evening with some kind of street party with music etc.

Sometime over the weekend, I want Tion to do a skateboard demo. The next thing is booking the flight, the class space, party time etc.

The important next thing is considering the audience for this workshop/weekend. We want to reach urban teens who are artitsts trying not to be vandals, vandals who could be more interesting as artists, teens who are drawn to the aesthetic who could enjoy a visual arts way of expression. We want to attract tatoo artists, pro and non pro, students who doodle in their books, students and pros from the domains of interior design, architecture and fine arts. We want to attract those interested in american spoken traditions, hip hop artists, south siders, politicians, region planners etc.

So far, we plan to meet with Greta Hayes over at Parks and Recs to find out how to get the word out to our urban unenfranchised youth.

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Hi, I'm Katherine. I'm helping Frances with her grant project, so I'll be making an appearance on here now and then. Last weekend, we had a graffiti booth at SwaggFest, a Parks & Rec event for urban youth. We brought aerosol for kids to try their hand at graffiti art and handed out fliers about Tion's visit. Hoping some of the kids will show up for the October workshops!

What this grant is for....

My grant is to bring to Chattanooga 3 well known American public artists for weekend workshops and public art planning sessions. These goals are

- To offer to myself and others opportunites to learnabout learning different techniques, methods, and the philosophical thoughts driving them to make collaborative public art

- To bring awareness to the general public that collaborative public art can create ownership and empowerment for those who create it while beautifying the city.

- To build on the present growing excitement surrounding public art started during the Corker administration and currently carried forward by Public Art Chattanooga.

The three artists will be in Chattanooga for three different weekends doing presentations and workshops. We would also work on how could their philosophy, methods and techniques be applied in a Chattanooga context.

I’d like to introduce these Artists:

Kauai Caleb Kaui or tag name "Aero" is becoming a household name as one of the most active and talented international aerosol artist of his time. Better known as the Walt Disney of graffiti Caleb Aero has broken the negative barriers surrounding graffiti with his universal artistic appeal. At the forefront of the aerosol age Aero is bringing this medium to new heights and audiences around the world. By introducing the vision of Aerosol Art Parks™ he has found a solution to help funnel our youth's curiosity with spray paint in a positive direction. Aero is also the first and only aerosol artist in America to have created his own personal line of ECO friendly spray paint called Blubber Colors Magic™. With over a thousand murals painted in the last decade Caleb Aero has established himself as a future legend in the aerosol art game. Whether its teaching an aerosol art workshops™ to high school students or organizing aerosol art events™ for other aspiring artist to gather. Aero is creating a difference that is opening doors for this street art form. Watch Aero Live every Saturday at Aerosolarts.com his new live stream show "AeroTV 2010™" which showcases Aero and friends teaching instructional aerosol art workshops for online viewers.

In 1995, Ed Massey and Bernie Massey founded Portraits of Hope, continuing their utilization of art and poignant visual imagery for large-scale projects of social consequence.

Portraits of Hope projects culminate in the visual transformation of public environments and have involved everything from blimps, buildings and tugboats to airplanes and NASCAR racecars. They are currently working on a series of lifeguard stands that will dot the California coast with their figurations and they have plans to partner with NASA to launch collaborative public art into outer space.To date, tens of thousands of children and adults across the United States and abroad have been involved in their educational activities and projects.

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Milenko Matanovic Pomegranate Center out of Washington state is an internationally recognized leader in developing neighborhood gathering places and is a leading nonprofit devoted to community-generated design and development.

Our mission is to facilitate the creation of meaningful, community-crafted gathering places. We do this by integrating social, artistic and environmental perspectives into:

· the creation of meaningful neighborhood gathering places

· constructive and inclusive community-based planning

· educational outreach, research and training.

There is a growing public consensus that neighborhoods are healthier, stronger and safer when they include public spaces where people can gather. Shared public spaces create opportunities for conversation, sharing information, performances, celebrations and play. In doing so, they create an increased sense of well-being, belonging and neighborhood pride.