Massey Weekend Debrief

The Massey weekend was a great success! Thanks to all of you who came out to show your support and enthusiasm for public art in Chattanooga. Your creativity and collaboration were inspiring!

Below is a recap of the weekend's events.



ARTIST WORKSHOP: Camp House, Sat., Feb. 26

Ed and Bernie Massey arrived late Friday night and spent some time touring Chattanooga on Saturday. Their first big event was Saturday evening at the Camp House (2/26 from 4-7 pm). Just over 30 people attended; many came with a background in art, and others were simply creative thinkers with open minds and great ideas! The Masseys started with a presentation, which focused heavily on Ed Massey's independent artwork prior to Portraits of Hope's founding.

After the presentation, participants worked together with their table groups to create models of public art projects. Each table drew a site and artist population out of a can (examples: 40 people in wheelchairs at the Choo Choo, 50 Erlanger employees from the Maintenance Department at the Riverside Drive entrance off Veteran's Bridge).

The photo to the right shows a group designing a mural to brighten South Broad Street. Their population was 50 students from UTC and Chattanooga State's Art Departments.

Each table had an hour to collaborate on their public art ideas. Gerle Haggard played some great music while everyone was working. After an hour, the table groups presented their work
to the rest of the workshop participants.

I was so pleased with the outcomes! It was great to see artists
and creative Chattanoogans collaborating with people they had just met to brainstorm public art proposals!

(Above: maquette of Riverside Drive entrance off Veteran's Bridge)

CHARRETTE: CreateHere, Sun., Feb. 27

On Sunday evening, the Masseys gave another presentation at Create Here (2/27 from 6-9 pm), followed by a charrette/brainstorming session led by Pam Glaser, a Senior Planner at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.

About 35 people attended the Create Here presentation.

During the charrette, each table group considered three main focus areas: the importance of public art to the community, partners that should be involved in the creation and promotion of community-based public art, and how we as a community can move projects forward.

Groups wrote down their ideas and posted them on the wall for other participants to see. At the end of the exercises, each individual "voted" for their favorite ideas by marking them with stickers.

The notes that came out of the brainstorming activities were later typed into a Word document and will be used to create a community statement on public art.

The outcomes of the charrette exercise will guide me as Executive Director of Mark Making by providing a bank of community input on why and how public art can transform our community. I hope the participants were also enthused and inspired to create and contribute to public art projects in Chattanooga's future.

STUDENT WORKSHOP: Center for the Creative Arts, Mon., Feb. 28

On Monday, the Masseys demonstrated Portraits of Hope's civic education programming by teaching a select group of students at Chattanooga's Center for Creative Arts (CCA). The Masseys' approach was well structured and creative. Their main emphasis was on collective decision making and each participant's personal contribution to society as a whole. The class activities focused on three part expression: group, individual, and vision.

The students broke into groups to collaboratively allocate funding to education, foreign relations, environment, and/or health care. The Masseys insisted that each student take his/her own self-interest into account when deciding which social issues deserved funding and which didn't. Then the students completed individual vision statements that articulated where they see themselves in the next 10 years. Their statements specifically identified how their future positions could be used to contribute to the social issue about which they care the most. Each student then painted a cardboard mini-lifeguard stand to visually express their concern for the social issue.

At the end of the class, the Masseys had a dramatic introduction to Tennessee's weather when the school went into a tornado drill. All was well in the end, though, and the Masseys' flight left as scheduled.


Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Masseys' approach and can't wait to incorporate what I learned from them in my own work!