In the life of a community, change is the only constant. And as this year changes over into the next, we have an opportunity to look back on just how much has changed in the past decade — and how different things will be in the next.
And that’s precisely why we at Glass House Collective are changing too — we believe for the better. After a decade of working to bring life back to Glass Street and Glass Street back to life through artist-led and community-involved projects, we believe the time has come to transfer our organization to the community it was designed to serve, reflect and engage. To neighbors like you.
You made it possible for the neighborhood to take on a project like Glass Street LIVE and make it unlike anything else happening in Chattanooga. You helped put over half a million dollars of City Hall’s capital dollars into critical infrastructure improvements. You brought a fresh grocery store to the block. You brought together over 75 local artists and 50 partners and engaged thousands of neighbors from within and outside the Glass Farm neighborhood.
And in the coming decade, you’ll do even more.
As for us, our team is changing but our focus will remain on supporting neighbors. Our director, Teal Thibaud, will transition out of her role at the close of this year. And Daniel Gamble, who has experience working in the community with Habitat for Humanity as well as other programs, will step into the role of community liaison. Daniel will come on board in the new year and work with our community Advisory Council and other community members like you to chart the organization’s future. While Glass House Collective is changing, the next chapter in East Chattanooga’s Glass Farm neighborhood has yet to be written, by the community, with the community, for the community.
“I know there is still a lot of potential to be realized and work to be done here, and in so many ways, the vision for what the neighborhood can be is only now taking shape,” says Teal. “I’ve been grateful to be part of some big changes in the life of Glass Street over the past decade, including the many relationships built, changed and strengthened with time.”
Thank you to our community members, leaders, partners, neighbors, friends and family for all the support you’ve given GHC in the past decade — and for all the incredible work still to come. We’re grateful.
‘Tis the season, and building on the success of years past, our Glass Farms neighbors are once again hosting a live Nativity.
Join us in celebrating the business, supporters and friends who are working so hard to make this event a success. Stroll through the Nativity, visit with neighbors, and enjoy food and festivities from the community.
This event is sponsored in part through an Art Means Business grant, awarded to Tina Stewart of First Step Christian Daycare.
“Last year, members of the Glass Street community created Bethlehem on Glass to share the joy and magic of the Christmas season in the midst of the pandemic,” says Tina. “We’re excited to bring it back this year and invite the whole city to see how it showcases our neighborhood in such a fun and unique way.”
This year’s nativity is a partnership between Grace Baptist Tabernacle, Business Owners, Community Partners, Glass Street neighbors, and supporters around Chattanooga.
Learn more about the event and participating neighbors at the Bethlehem on Glass Facebook page.
Bethlehem on Glass
December 18 & December 19
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Glass Street Corridor
We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate Glass Street at the community’s annual block party this Saturday. The line-up runs from 12-4 pm, with family-friendly (and free!) events all day.
Check out the full-ish run of show below, plus a spotlight on some of our vendors and partners. Things change quickly, so stay up to date on the day-of schedule or late-breaking events at our Facebook event page. Big thanks to our partners and sponsors this year, especially Chattanooga Neighborhoods Arts Partnership! Here is a digital map of the day to zoom in on the fun areas and where to park. Please put in 2513 North Chamberlain into your GPS if you are coming from outside of East Chatt as there will be multiple parking opportunities along North Chamberlain– Glass Street will be closed beginning at 10am.
GLASS STREET LIVE 2021 LINE-UP 12-4 PM
12 pm: We’ll kick off with remarks from our Glass Street LIVE event committee, music from the choir at World’s Church of the Living God, and opening thoughts from local politicians Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod, Commissioner Warren Mackey and Commissioner Katherlyn Geter. Plus GHC Creative Strategist Erika Roberts will be bringing the hype all day!
12:35 pm: Dancing from Image and live set from DJ Dollaone, who will be rocking the block all day with our performers.
12:45 pm: Music from Marcus Dotson & Jackie Ramsey, an acclaimed vocalist and performer
1:25 pm: Performance from the Pop Up Project
1:45 pm: Band performance by 2 Deepwithin and spoken word performance called Liberation with Erika Roberts and Monalisa da Poet
2:25 pm: Live performances from 2$on and DJ Dollaone
2:45 pm: Extra, Extra Read All About! Glass House Collective Update with comments from GHC Advisory Council, GHC team and Jermaine Freeman from the Mayor’s Office. Jermaine will also introduce the dedication of the Little Free Library.
3:15 pm: DJ Dollaone keeps the vibes going
3:35 pm: Join a fun celebration in honor of our SWAY graduates
3:50 pm: Closing remarks and big gratitude from our team!
But there’s more…
Food Vendors
What’s Glass Street LIVE without amazing food trucks and vendors? Check out a growing list of participating food vendors.
Merchant Spotlight
We’ll have amazing merch available from Glass Street area businesses.
Nonprofit Spotlight
Our neighborhood nonprofit partners will be out in force for the day, sharing information and raising awareness for important programs.
Big thanks to our sponsors that include: Hamilton County through Commissioner Geter; City of Chattanooga; Chambliss; Coca Cola United; Pinnacle Financial Partners; Q Strategies; AIA Chattanooga; ArtsBuild
It’s nearly that time of year again! Glass Street Live is back Saturday, November 6 and we’re asking everyone to save the date for more music, more food, more placemaking, and more togetherness.
Interested in serving on our event committee? Message us on Facebook or email info@glasshousecollective.org!
We’ll be keeping our eye on the local COVID-19 and Delta Variant situation as we build out programming, making sure all events are accessible and safe for our community.
Introducing a new lunchtime routine that’s anything but routine. We’ll be working with the community to host daytime programming at the Crutchfield Avenue LOVE installation (directly in front of Save-A-Lot), every Friday in September and October.
We’re partnering with DJ MCPRO for live performances and spoken word; plus Chef Q and his truck, Hot Off The Grill, have got lunch sorted. Each week, we’ll also include live painting or other placemaking engagements, making it a great way to finish off the week.
It’s been hard to safely gather in spaces and places during the past year and a half, but we’re so proud to see this project — one created by the community through our Planning By Doing workshop — activated in cool, entirely Glass Street kinds of ways.
“Artists and Community came together & made a gathering space in 2020 when gathering wasn’t really a thing. It was completed earlier this year and we are so very proud of the space,” says Erika Roberts, GHC’s Creative Strategist. “If you build it, they will come.”
Check out the Facebook page for updates on the line-up. See you there, Fridays from 11am to 2pm!
On July 31, Justine “Tina” Jones, owner of Ashanti Hair Design — and one of our four amazing Art Means Business grant winners — kicked off her project with an incredible public event combining history, style, food and the art of African American hair.
The “African American Hair is Art” Expo took place at her business on Glass Street and featured opening remarks from Dr. Elenora Woods, founder of WPTP 100.1 FM Radio. Inside Ashanti’s, the salon was transformed into a celebration of African culture, with demonstrations as well as a gallery of local art.
The main event was a runway show with models sporting gorgeous pieces of hair art. Artists and models including Tina, Tiffanie Trimble, Stephanie Baker and DeSha McColley used these hair styles to tell stories of African American culture and to celebrate its beauty today and through the years.
The event also included images curated by historian Donald Sanderfur, son of Lizzie Ann Sanderfur who was herself a Chattanooga history maker and a leading stylist in Tennessee. The pictures gave viewers a look at the rich history of African American style in Chattanooga over the decades, and they will be on display all summer at Bessie Smith Hall.
Outside, artists Demetria Lindsey, aka Meak Artworks, painted a live mural that honored the Ashanti community, complete with depictions of the shop, the tribe around it, and a Kente cloth. Music from Vista kept energy flowing on a hot day, and the event concluded with a Taste of African Culture, featuring fresh foods that honored all the African influences in cuisine today.
Tina did awesome work bringing this event together and is planning for a part 2 before the end of the year. In the meantime, Ashanti’s is open for business, with styling clients or for anyone interested in renting out the space.
Reach out to Ashantis by visiting 2441 Glass Street or by calling 423.697.7067.
The corner of Crutchfield and Glass is looking sunnier lately. During the month of April, we worked with philanthropic powerhouses, beloved businesses and resident experts (not to mention Hardy Elementary all-stars) to create, vet and install a block-long asphalt mural. The sun ray design was crafted by artist Kevin Bate and selected by residents. But bringing it to life? That was truly a community-wide labor of love.
Supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, we partnered with the Chattanooga Department of Transportation and Chattanooga Design Studio to plan the mural. Our goal was to place it at an intersection with lots of foot traffic, to encourage vehicle traffic to slow down, and beautify the area. Given the opening of a new Save-A-Lot at the corner, this stretch of Crutchfield skipped recent infrastructure improvements so it felt like a perfect candidate for some bright art, a new community space, and a slow-down.
Once our plans were in place, a squad of volunteers, residents and students brought it to life, helping with painting, plantings and the creation of beautiful gathering spaces nearby.
The mural was unveiled at the grand opening block party for Save A Lot — our new neighbor! — along with a temporary community space and boardwalk. From start to finish, the asphalt art project has been a community-owned public safety project, leaning on local businesses, schools and residents to help make Glass Street cleaner, safer and more inviting.
While our mural is truly one of a kind, we’re also proud to be part of a series of asphalt art projects supported by Bloomberg. You can read more about their program and impact in a recent New York Times piece here (and watch out for a special Glass House shout-out).
Learn more about the full Asphalt Art mural at our project page.
You can also learn more about the Planning by Doing workshop that inspired this project here.
Getting to and from school should be easy and safe. But with so much traffic on Glass Street and nearby Dodson Avenue, kids at Hardy Elementary have a lot to negotiate on their commute. Our Hardy Safe Walk team worked with teachers and students to come up with creative ways to mark safe paths for walking, and then brought them to life over two days of field trips and creative student engagement.
Teams of art students hit the street with stencils and wheat paste to mark a safe walking path to and from Hardy. The stencils included Hardy’s Eagle mascot created by a neighborhood artist Jonathan Dean, and were painted on the sidewalk in bright colors. The stencils were applied at the same time as the Crutchfield Asphalt Mural, bringing color to every corner of Glass Street’s sidewalks and gathering spaces.
A big thanks to Hardy’s art teacher Sarah Cross, who shared lessons with her students about murals and stencils in the weeks leading up to the field trips.
We’re thrilled to welcome Save-A-Lot to the Glass Street community. On April 25, the community came together to celebrate, skate and enjoy live music around the freshly painted Crutchfield Asphalt Mural.
The event kicked off with words from Chattanooga’s newly elected mayor, Tim Kelly, as well as thoughts from other community leaders. The day-long party included music from Soundcorps, featuring artists Marcus Ellsworth, 2 Deepwithin, Tyler Andrew, Arche Twitty, Erika Roberts, and Karla Felecia Scaife throughout the event.
The team at Save-A-Lot organized a great spread of food trucks, vendors and family-friendly activities to keep folks happy, fed and out all day. Our friends at Moonlight Roller offered free rollerskate rentals so that neighbors could cruise around on the freshly painted mural, alongside skateboarders, cyclists, neighbors (and the occasional dog).
A huge thanks to our neighbors and volunteers who made the block party, and the days leading up to it, so full of fun, beauty, creativity and engagement.