Glass House Participates in Next City’s Vanguard

Furthering its spirit of advocacy for stronger urban neighborhoods in Chattanooga and across the country, Glass House Collective recently found itself well represented at a national leadership conference.

The 2014 Next City Vanguard Conference, which brings together young leaders from across the nation for a weekend of collaboration and discovery, took place in Chattanooga from April 26^th to 24th. Each Vanguard has already shown a passion for strengthening resources in urban areas in a wide range of disciplines and shows promise for future innovation.

Glass House Collective had a strong presence at the event from start to finish. Artist in residence Rondell Crier was one of only five Chattanoogans chosen to represent the 45 Vanguards chosen from a pool of over 300 applicants. Director of Communications and Outreach Teal Thibaud also played a role, serving on the conference’s Host Committee, which served as the local liaison for the weekend’s events.

The team’s hope is that an infusion of bright minds to Chattanooga might spark some new ways of thinking about the challenges we face here and ultimately encourage lasting betterment for our city. Founder, Katherine Currin was quoted in Next City’s Forefront Article about Chattanooga.

“We spend a lot of time talking about our reinvention from the dirtiest city to this eco-outdoor destination wonderland,” Currin says. “And I think one of the things that’s hard for us is to embrace the idea of what the city has become. We know how to reinvent but not mature our identity. I think we’re at an interesting crossroads right now, where we need to realize we’ve patted ourselves on the backs enough and it’s time to go to work. We’ve told our story of reinvention time and time again. Now we need to start telling the next chapter.”

The Forefront article featured the work and employees of Glass House Collective, read the entire story via PDF here.