It can when it communicates the vision, values and history of its location. On August 16, Glass House Collective hosted a special ceremony to unveil its collaborative community mural, the largest of its kind in Chattanooga.

Professional artists Shaun LaRose and Rondell Crier led interns, students and residents over a three month time frame to create the larger than life composition, which spans the side of an old bank building at the intersection of Glass Street and North Chamberlain.

Besides adding visual interest, the mural has energized and inspired locals, who regularly stopped by during its creation to give positive feedback. Ultimately, project collaborators hope it will encourage even greater interest and investment in the Glass Street area.

The artists solicited community input to develop the theme of faith, hope, love and empowerment. The mural’s movement and fluidity represents passing those values from one generation to the next. Taking just two months to complete, the mural is a lasting symbol of how collaboration can help paint a new picture for Glass Street.

Outcome:

2 local artists completed the project, Shaun LaRose and Rondell Crier
2 artist interns, Emma Flynn and Miles Freeman
3 artist assistants to the lead artist and interns
12 students from CCS worked over the summer on prepping the wall
4 Glass Street teens worked alongside Rondell in creating the mural
55 paint brushes
250 gallons of paint

Media:

Times Free Press
Chattanoogan.com
News Channel 12
The Pulse

As part of the Better Block event, community members were invited to add their personal touch to a fourth ‘made-by-the-neighborhood’ mural. It’s amazing what happens when we make room for personal expression and the creative process – even if it’s in a parking lot.

Commissioned works included:

The Urban Renaissance Project by Seven utilizes street art as a means to uplift community pride and enhance the appreciation of graffiti as a legitimate art form. Participation in the project helped generate new interest in attending future street art related workshops and events produced by Deep Space Art Studio and Kingdom Graphica.

Hold Your Head Up by Kevin Bate features four portraits based on historic images of people who look proud and exude strength. The 16′ long canvas is divided between the four images that all support one another but can also be divided and stand on their own. Strength personified.

Music Concrete: Glass Street by Devon Kronenberg is a collage in four parts. Each of the four collages were assembled from the repetition of a single corresponding woodblock print which depicted something from the location or surrounding area: gravel, trees, brick, and chain link fence.

Outcomes:
75 ‘made-by-the-neighborhood’ mural participants
3 new public art installations on Glass Street (‘Hold Your Head Up’ and ‘Music Concrete,’ March – August of 2013)

These individuals posed with and used the American flag as a platform to present themselves and voice their opinions about their country. The series began in the fall of 2006 and illuminates the attitudes and beliefs of young adults, encouraging viewers to look closely at the individuals who will shape the future of our world. Whether born in America or migrating from other countries, these ethnically diverse, politically engaged young people express a great sense of pride in their country. Yet they are still questioning: “What does it mean to be an American in the 21st century?”

In the summer of 2012, Bright was among 26 national and international female artist that were chosen to create murals across the Atlanta landscape as part of the Living Wall Conference. Bright took the Young Americans series beyond the museum and showcased her work within the communities by wheat pasting them on buildings. The project received local and national attention. After Atlanta, was Miami, and next came…Glass Street.

Outcomes:
5 murals installed on Glass Street

Media:
Youtube Video 

View the artist statement and learn more here.

Photo Credit, Young Americans series courtesy of the artist. 

It can when it communicates the vision, values and history of its location. On August 16, Glass House Collective hosted a special ceremony to unveil its collaborative community mural, the largest of its kind in Chattanooga.

Professional artists Shaun LaRose and Rondell Crier led interns, students and residents over a three month time frame to create the larger than life composition, which spans the side of an old bank building at the intersection of Glass Street and North Chamberlain.

Besides adding visual interest, the mural has energized and inspired locals, who regularly stopped by during its creation to give positive feedback. Ultimately, project collaborators hope it will encourage even greater interest and investment in the Glass Street area.

The artists solicited community input to develop the theme of faith, hope, love and empowerment. The mural’s movement and fluidity represents passing those values from one generation to the next. Taking just two months to complete, the mural is a lasting symbol of how collaboration can help paint a new picture for Glass Street. 

Outcome:

2 local artists completed the project, Shaun LaRose and Rondell Crier
2 artist interns, Emma Flynn and Miles Freeman
3 artist assistants to the lead artist and interns
12 students from CCS worked over the summer on prepping the wall
4 Glass Street teens worked alongside Rondell in creating the mural
55 paint brushes
250 gallons of paint

Media:

Times Free Press
Chattanoogan.com
News Channel 12
The Pulse

RSVP on Facebook here.

Glass House Collective has identified the side of the old bank building at the intersection of Glass Street and N. Chamberlain at 2500 Glass St. owned by Community of Christ Church as the ideal location for a this collective mural. Shaun LaRose will be coordinating the overall project, incorporating other artists, interns, and students to create a quality piece, which accurately reflects the Glass St. community.

 LaRose began by asking input from the community to identify appropriate themes and/or community persons to be part of the mural compositions.

 “This is one of the most exciting parts as you hear local stories and the community begins to take on its own distinct personality. This helps to develop a visual narrative that embodies these qualities,” explained LaRose.

Crier and LaRose shared their respective designs with one another and worked to create one compelling design that is a symbolic depiction of virtues passed from one generation to the next telling the story of how each generation builds on what and who has come before them while also casting a vision for the future.

“This area of emphasis will create a new visual landscape and impact both through image, and message. By telling the visual narrative of Glass Street, commemorating its past, its values and its future vision, the community will grow to know these stories, adopt these stories, and be part of the continued story of Glass Street. Furthermore, the visual interest and aesthetic excellence will bring an even greater interest in Glass Street and potentially a greater investment in the area by business and local community investors,” explained LaRose.

The collaborative mural begins with a young girl on the left blowing a dandelion, representing hope. White dandelions are often used as a symbol of new beginnings, so this figure literally depicts the hope for new beginnings as a seed that spreads and ultimately the beginning of new vision for the future. Directly behind the figure are fields of poppies, which are symbolic of dreams.  

The little boy adds an emphasis on education as he is reading and from his book will be emerging flying birds carrying that knowledge forward. The education piece stresses the need to be equipped in order to actualize a future vision.

The matriarchal figure that sits knitting a tapestry of love and charity for the future generations. This is an important figure as it communicates the necessity of intergenerational collaboration and a kind of maternal care for a community that is the heart behind the relationships of people and place from one generation to the next.

The fourth and final figure is a young girl who playfully re-imagines the tapestry of hope and love into a creative realization. In faith, she holds the hopes and dreams of those who have come before her and creates something new. This particular figure is, in fact, a young girl from the glass street community, as we thought it was important to depict someone who truthfully represents this rising generation and future of the Glass Street community.

To begin the wall prep in June, LaRose led a summer camp with high school students from the community and greater Chattanooga area. After LaRose secured funding from the Royal Society of the Arts in the United States, he hired two interns to work alongside of him developing a large-scale mural from conception to finished application. They will commit 75 hours over 3-4 weeks to the Glass Street Mural project and then expected to collaborate on producing a smaller scale mural. These interns are paid and will receive a stipend for materials. Emma Flynn and Miles Freeman were chosen as the 2013 interns.

 The mural is expected to be the largest in Chattanooga and projected to be finished the third week of August with a unveiling party on Friday, August 16th at 6pm. 

All photos placed in this post were taken by Laura Bohon

Follow more pictures on the Facebook album here. 

]]> http://www.glasshousecollective.org/glass-street-collaborative-community-mural/feed/ 0 http://www.glasshousecollective.org/young-americans-series/ http://www.glasshousecollective.org/young-americans-series/#respond Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:44:14 +0000 http://www.glasshousecollective.org/?p=1730 Sheila Pree Bright is a Fine Art Photographer who is known for her photographic series Young Americans, Plastic Bodies and Suburbia.  Her large-scale works combines a wide ranging knowledge of contemporary culture, addressing commentary on American beauty standards, Patriotism and portrayals of urban and suburban themes. Recently, Bright took the Young Americans portraits to the streets of Art Basel Miami this passed December, wheat pasting eleven images in the Coconut Grove neighborhood on building and abandon homes that are often unnoticed in the urban landscape.  Bright revisits the series which exhibited as a solo show at the High Museum  of Atlanta in 2008, curated by Julian Cox, Founding Curator of Photography and Chief Curator  of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The work examines attitudes and values of Generation Y as American citizens. The series shows diverse young Americans, who are new to the voting system, and exploring ideas of what it means to be American. The sitters expressed their perspectives in a statement and posed in their chosen stance with the American flag.

With much success of launching her wall portraits in Miami, she is traveling the series to other cities in 2013. Her most recent stop was in Chattanooga, TN on Glass Street in collaboration with Glass House Collective and Keif Schleifer as curator. Bright states, “I want to engage with communities nationally after observing the major divide during the most recent Presidential election. I am passionate about re-framing these images by giving  communities an open forum and empowerment.” Bright’s goal is to  encourage public engagement and to create dialogue about being an American in the 21st century. 

Credit, Young Americans series courtesy of the artist.

These individuals posed with and used the American flag as a platform to present themselves and voice their opinions about their country. The series began in the fall of 2006 and illuminates the attitudes and beliefs of young adults, encouraging viewers to look closely at the individuals who will shape the future of our world. Whether born in America or migrating from other countries, these ethnically diverse, politically engaged young people express a great sense of pride in their country. Yet they are still questioning: “What does it mean to be an American in the 21st century?”

In the summer of 2012, Bright was among 26 national and international female artist that were chosen to create murals across the Atlanta landscape as part of the Living Wall Conference. Bright took the Young Americans series beyond the museum and showcased her work within the communities by wheat pasting them on buildings. The project received local and national attention. After Atlanta, was Miami, and next came…Glass Street.

Outcomes:
5 murals installed on Glass Street

Media:
Youtube Video 

View the artist statement and learn more here.

Photo Credit, Young Americans series courtesy of the artist.