Thanks to a grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation, we were included in a placemaking cohort of 4 local organizations to participate as a group in Anti-Racism + Cultural Competency (ARCC) Training. The ARCC Training model is a part of Bridge City Community and designed to identify internalized racial dominance and/or oppression within individuals by examining the effects of socialization through guided introspection. ”Identifying and examining racism within the systems and power structures at work in our community and our nation results in a critical, racial framework that leads to action that disrupts racism in its various forms. ARCC helps organizations to decolonize the way they function in order to create a shared-power structure,” according to the ARCC website.

The training was essential for our organization to get deeper into the self-examination and brave conversations necessary to understand the depth of the wound of racism and the radical humility needed to reach empathy and healing. 

After working in the large cohort group that included members of the staffs and boards of Chattanooga Design Studio, Thrive Regional Partnership, and Carl Vinson Institute of Government at The University of Georgia, we continued GHC’s deep dive with more focused sessions and a customized curriculum that included bringing in Donovan Brown as the curriculum facilitator for the remainder of the training. Glass House Collective’s staff continues weekly discussions examining the organization’s practices and policies against a continuum of measurements that keep us accountable. 

Today as we head into Spring with a shot of hope in our arms, we are learning that action and doing are not always the best next steps. In fact, we can see where pushing too soon even with great intentions can do more harm than good if it’s just not the right time or even what’s needed.  “We’re a planning by doing creative placemaking organization so it isn’t hard to see how moving into a pausing posture is not our first impulse. Learning is also the work. Listening is also action,” Teal Thibaud stated. 

The next steps for Glass House Collective include creating equity principles that will guide organizational decision-making in the future. We will also meet with the other organizations in our cohort to discuss future collaborations and ways to ensure that equity remains at the forefront of placemaking in the Chattanooga region.

Over the past 7 years, Glass House Collective has hosted several workshops in urbanism and creative placemaking to tap into the professional and creative braintrust of planners, architects, and designers in our collective and from around the region and the world to work alongside Glass Farm residents and envision a cleaner, safer and more inviting neighborhood.

Stir It Up stands apart from our previous workshops in several ways including and especially because it was co-created by the residents of Glass Farm. With an external focus this time, the aim of Stir It Up was to help the community translate the high-level RPA Area 3 Plan into an actionable map for resident-led change around three themes: Housing Choices, Business Viability, and Quality Public Spaces. The committee of local workshop designers also identified several guiding principles that would inform all participation including equitable development, honoring/hiring local, healthy places, celebration, inclusivity, catalytic, historic preservation, cultural reflection, and accountability.

We are still processing all of the amazing ideas and input gathered in October and will be sharing an outcomes report in the coming weeks. For a quick recap of the conference and our day, please check out the Places For Good blog, and Reginald Clack’s photos.

The experience and proven multidisciplinary process have already infused our team with fresh energy and motivation.  Lynesha Lake, GHC Community Liaison, was a part of the team who created the workshop design and participated in one of the Stir It Up teams during Placemaking Week. “The energy was amazing and refreshing. It was encouraging to know others have proof that things can change,” she said.

As more Glass Farm residents continue to take on leadership roles in our community on a variety of projects, the implementation of any ideas identified in the Stir It Up workshop will also be theirs to prioritize and pursue. We look forward to sharing the report soon and collaborating with our neighbors on what they want for their community!

ArtPlace America believes that traditional community planning and development has not always led to communities being equitable, healthy and sustainable as they should be.

The work we do at Glass House aligns with ArtPlace’s belief that the arts and culture sector has the necessary tools, knowledge and skills that can be deployed in partnership with the traditional community planning and development efforts to improve communities. That is the heart of creative placemaking. And that is why in 2012 ArtPlace America chose Glass House Collective as a recipient of one of their major placemaking grants that allowed us to begin our work in East Chattanooga.

As our work here continues to evolve with the community, it is also important to step back and touch base with our peers at the Summit. The annual gathering brings peers together for several days of learning and connecting on some of the most pressing issues facing communities today. The format of seminars, workshops, peer exchanges and plenaries has become a valuable laboratory and classroom for new idea and inspiration.

This year was no different.

Teal said she especially appreciated and was inspired by the sessions on Arts and Anti-Displacement, Artists and Equitable Evaluation, and Creative Placemaking from the Ground Up.

“It is so beautiful and important to be able to take time to dream and stop for a moment to imagine what’s possible,” she said.

So much good work is being done by organizations like Glass House Collective in communities across the country and Teal knows the value of stepping away from the intensity of the work and re-connecting with colleagues to take a bigger picture.

“I saw and heard about so many good ideas and examples from other communities. The Summit was incredibly inspiring!”

Topics that matter to Glass Farm were discussed at many of the sessions offered this year along with tools and techniques to bring home to tackle the issues. Community leaders from diverse backgrounds shared strategies and techniques for reducing gentrification and displacement using artists and organizations in community planning and design processes. Hearing how equity is becoming a priority for creative placemaking practitioners resonated with the work GHC is focused on in East Chattanooga. But also listening to other professionals unpack best practices on evaluating equity work was extremely helpful and thought provoking when thinking of our own processes and outcomes here at home.

Ensuring that the community we serve is always at the heart of our strategies is our priority. It was inspiring and invaluable to hear other community leaders discuss and share ways to ensure projects are chosen and shaped by the people most affected by the outcomes.

ArtPlace America is a ten-year collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies and financial institutions. The work began in 2011 and will be wrapping up next year in 2020. Their mission is to position arts and culture as a core sector of community planning and development.

photo credit:  Lydia Brewer , ArtPlace America

So when Gail moved into her new home on Wilder Street in 2017, right around the corner from her mother’s home, it wasn’t too long before she started to notice what was just outside her front door and began to see its future differently.

At the end of her driveway, Gail sees a lot of traffic, car after car passing through coming down off Campbell Street heading north straight toward the Tennessee River; or racing up Wilder climbing up to Campbell Street and heading east. All getting somewhere in a hurry.

Wilder is a long stretch that begins at Campbell Street in Glass Farm, near the bottom edges of Sherman’s Reservation, and continues north intersecting with Wheeler, Taylor, Dodson, Curtis, Roanoke, North Hawthorne and all the way to Riverside Drive.

It’s not uncommon for a heavy stream of traffic to come through with drivers driving easily 15 miles above the speed limit in either direction, she said. It’s also not uncommon for these drivers to just see Wilder Street as their own twice-daily cut-through commuter route instead of seeing a place, a neighborhood of homes and of families.

Adding to the anonymity, there are no sidewalks nor crosswalks to signal that human beings live here, walk here, visit here, play here, and are also trying to use the road just to leave their driveways, walk their children to their grandmother’s, or simply cross the street.

City officials had already told residents that installing speed humps was not an option primarily due to Wilder Street being a major route for emergency vehicles. Traffic calming humps are a burden to firetrucks and ambulances needing to get quickly across town. But, in her short time living on Wilder, Gail says she has already seen her share of near emergencies. Without designated crosswalks at any of the intersecting roads across Wilder, pedestrians, including many children, have no sure place to cross the street and are forced to negotiate with fast moving traffic.

This summer, Gail decided to take the issue to the next meeting of the Chattanooga Urbanists (CURB), a community organization that “seeks to connect emerging professionals who are interested in how design and planning affect how the city looks and feels.”  During a CURB meeting that was taking place in the Glass House Collective office, CURB’s founding member and co-director Sally Morrow, an Urban Designer with the Chattanooga Design Studio, teamed up with Aaron Cole and Lauren Dunn, both with the Chattanooga AIA Extended Studio, and together took on Gail’s vision of slower traffic on her street.

For the next few months, Gail and the Extended Studio team stress tested some of the city’s new processes for handling requests involving citizen-lead temporary solutions for their streets. Other partners like Range Projects came on board to help create a reusable and large template that the team could use for their first installation.  Even the brewers at Velo Coffee Roasters provided hot coffee for volunteers.

The end result is a series of multi-colored painted dots down the middle of Wilder Street located at every intersection as a visual device to try to slow down drivers. On installation day 20 volunteers came out on a weekend before Christmas to help paint the large circles up and down the street. The coming weeks and months will tell how effective the tactical art project has been and what else can be done.

But so much more happened as a result of this experiment. For one thing, after going door to door to let everyone know that the road would be closed for the installation day, Gail was able to introduce herself to more of her neighbors than she ever knew before. And, when the street closed for a few hours, even the Wilder Street kids came out of their homes and met one another in the street as a safe and temporary playground, if just for a few hours, to play with their remote control cars.

Wilder Street residents now know that in teaming up with the AIA Extended Studio they have an actively engaged and informed crew of advocates who can help them navigate and develop new ideas to improve their streets.

“Getting the right people to talk to each other can sometimes have barriers. But this kind of process can help reduce those barriers, especially a project that is easily executed, temporary in nature, but impactful,” said Laura Dunn, with AIA Chattanooga.

Dunn also said she understands there can be frustration inside the neighborhood with how to work and communicate effectively with the city, often leaving many feeling left out or unheard. “Hopefully, this process will create more positive thinking, encourage more ideas, and knowledge that some one is listening,” she said.

The chance to work with the Wilder Street residents was also an opportunity to have that larger conversation about how our streets are used and who has a say.

“We want to highlight that city streets are the most abundant public space we have and they should be made more friendly for pedestrians,” Cole said.  Highlighting Wilder, a street widely used by commuters, brings up the other side of the conversation. “These are places where people live, so how do we respect, prioritize and give those people a little more say in how their streets are being used,” he said.

Whats more, now City officials know that there are many people who care, are watching, are willing to do the work, and want a say in the changes needed to make their streets safer.

“When it actually works it gives you a boost!,” Gail said

Thank you, Gail, for showing us how it’s done!

Check out photos from the day here .
Media coverage in the Times Free Press.

photo credit: AIA Chattanooga, AIA Extended Studio

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To transition, Nicole Lewis, GHC Community Relations Manager, led the group around the corner to our newly completed office space at 2513 N. Chamberlain Ave. to hear about the new renovation work there, at the formerly vacant commercial space. Addressing our collective residential improvement lens, Daniel Gamble introduced their Neighborhood Revitalization partnership with us through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga, and shared a video clip of a recent dramatic home rehab project over on Stuart Street.

Finally, the group wandered down the street to meet Rondell Crier at Studio Everything. The group enjoyed a quick stop by Gloria Coleman’s shop, Designs by Gloria, along the way– having just listened to Nicole Lewis share Gloria’s story about finding a connection through Good Neighbor Network and Habitat volunteering to lease a space of her own from Tina Jones, owner of Ashanti’s Hair Designs.

At Studio Everything, Rondell shared photos and real life examples of the artistic pieces he creates in the studio, along with his model for how to accomplish place-based work that stays relevant and flexible within an under-resourced community. Participants were invited to wander around the studio to see the work samples close up and engage with conversation and questions with Rondell about his open process, and his overarching belief that neighborhood work is always personal.

We deeply enjoyed our time together, and only wish there could have been a few more faces out in our neighborhood from the conference. For those who did attend, thank you for your thoughtful questions and engagement. Remember to keep in touch via our newsletter! It’s a great way to track the activity we sponsor and advocate. We were delighted to be able to participate in the rest of the Summit thanks to our conference registration costs being provided by our grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.