The 2019 Glass House Collective Giving Tuesday Partner Restaurants are:

~ Niedlovs, Southern Star, Heaven & Ale Brewing Company, Main Street Meats, and Bitter Alibi ~

All of our Giving Tuesday partner restaurants are donating a percentage of their proceeds from the entire day of sales on December 3rd to Glass House Collective! If you want to hang out with our crew, here’s our schedule for the day:

Breakfast: Niedlov’s Breadworks : 215 E Main St, Chattanooga, TN 37408
Lunch: Southern Star : 1300 Broad St. Chattanooga, TN 37402
Happy Hour: Heaven & Ale Brewing Co. : 300 Cherokee Blvd Ste 101, Chattanooga, TN 37405
Dinner: Main Street Meats : 217 E Main St, Chattanooga, TN 37408
After Dinner: Bitter Alibi : 825 Houston St, Chattanooga, TN 37403

If you can’t come out when our crew is there, you can still contribute by simply making one of these spots your meal or meeting place on Tuesday for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or later.  And if our calendars just don’t line up on GT please consider a gift of support with an online donation today!

You can also help by sharing our official Raise Your Glass Facebook event page on your social media and inviting your friends and followers to join you in supporting Glass House Collective. Be sure you follow us on twitter and instagram (@glasshouselive ) and remember to tag us in your posts and stories on Giving Tuesday using the campaign hashtags #GivingTuesday #raiseyourGlass #CHAGives .

We are so grateful for you and so glad you are a part of the collective!

Glass House Collective’s community relations liaison, Lynesha Lake, will be representing GHC during the monthly meetings at the 2nd Missionary Baptist Church on East 3rd Street in the Glenwood neighborhood.

Like our collective, CALEB believes that by being united we are able to affect change and win wins for all people within our city.

In early June, Lynesha attended CALEB’s Issues Conference when members determined where the organization should place its focus, a process Glass House Collective seeks to embrace and implement in their work in Glass Farm.

“They are really doing the work at CALEB and we appreciate it so much,” Thibaud said.

CALEB’s commitment to support working class families also aligns with Glass House. As an active member of CALEB Thibaud hopes Glass House Collective can continue adding a voice along with others to collectively identify issues of concern, work towards an effective resolution, and amplify the power of residents.

On Saturday, March 3rd, friends and family members were invited to hike together on the Tennessee River Gorge Trust trails in honor of Ryan’s birthday (actually on March 4th), and to raise awareness about the Bridge program that Clark continues to build. It was absolutely gorgeous spring-like weather, with bright sunshine, and wildflowers peeping through.

Friends of Glass Street in attendance included Nicole Lewis, Olga De Klein, Cameron Williams, former neighbor TJ Mitchell, Annette Allen, and Whitni McDonald. Overall attendance was around 40 friends and family. It was wonderful to see so many wanting to help underwrite Clark’s continued efforts with Bridge. As Nicole says, “Ryan worked hard to connect kids to nature, so we were so that Clark could make use of camping equipment that has been donated to support some of our past collective endeavors with partners like Outdoor Chattanooga and the National Parks Service. The wilderness is healing. It opens up new worlds, Ryan helped stir that up, and now his spirit lives on.”

We’re setting up a live music stage set up in front of the former Sunnytown grocery store, where entertainment will be emceed by C-Grimey, featuring performances by Kay B Brown, Differentdiva, Nerd Squad, 2 Deep Within, YKC Nation, Bindy B, Image and Skream, and DJ D-Whit, and featuring guest emcee, District 8 City Councilman, Anthony Byrd. Visitors will also enjoy a classic car, truck, and bike show presented by DJ LV, and can purchase delicious local food vendors, non-profit activity booths, and merchant vendors.

We’re incredibly excited to celebrate the debut of two new community resource features: a local fresh food farm stand by Grow Hope Urban Farm, presented by Hope for the Inner City, and the dedication of Boyce Station Neighborhood Association’s new sign.

We will unveil temporary crosswalk installations that are colorful, safe, and can be as effective in attracting permanent design improvements as these same tactics were implemented 4 years ago at the Chamberlain Ave. and Glass Street intersection. Design selection and painting will be coordinated through a neighboring arts organization, Mark Making, employing local youth to install the beautiful and functional work of public art.

The community can also share feedback and ideas with Glass House Collective, interacting with models they would like to see as practical improvements for the expanse of concrete currently covering the Dodson/Glass intersection. Later, they’re invited to relax and mingle on the Hip-Hop Lounge bus with Mary Helen Montgomery and Eddie Yancey inviting “Friend Up,” opportunities for the art of meaningful mingling.  And no one will want to miss the pop-up art gallery featuring Art Trap Collective and the pop-up skate park presented by Kim Krause, Westin Dawson, and the Black Rebel skaters at the former Alabama Furniture building, (2200 Glass St.).

Glass House Collective is collaborating with Boyce Station Neighborhood Association, recent winners of the Songbirds Museum Block and Roll grant, and Shannon Burke of Bike Walk Tennessee to host the final neighborhood block party of City Celebration, a city-wide festival focused on alternative transportation methods like biking, skating, and walking.

We’re winding up our registration process for official event volunteers and participants! If you’d like to sign up, fill out our online form here. Thanks!

Thank you to our amazing event sponsors: Pinnacle Bank, Memorial Hospital, EPB Fiber Optics, Coca Cola United, Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Tenesha Irvin Show!

In spite of the rain sprinkles, the kids had a blast showing off their bikes to the comments and cheers of curious park visitors. Lexi Buckner proudly displayed her Dia de los Muertos style “Skull Bike,” complete with a skull helmet to match.

Meanwhile Eve McClure created a sparkly-pink “Ladybug Bike” with 7″ records attached to the wings as the spots. Eve was headed to a 50-year family reunion directly following Saturday’s picnic, and her grandfather confirmed that “Ladybug” has been Eve’s family nickname for years.

Coreyun Richardson created a swivel “Race Car Bike” that’s particularly tricky to maneuver, although he makes it look easy. Because he wasn’t able to come out to the ride on Saturday, he received his certificate the next week in front of his fellow campers at the East Chattanooga YFD Center.

Thanks to committed donors and the time investment from Art 120’s caring and talented instructors, Urban Art Bike Camp accomplished its two biggest goals:

1. Exposing a new generation of local youth to the fun and challenge of safely using professional welding tools to construct original Art Bike designs.

2. Creating three new Art Bikes for Art 120’s fleet of whimsical bikes to be ridden during this year’s Glass Street LIVE parade on October 8 as the finale event for City Celebration. 

In addition to those outcomes, the site selection–partnering with East Chattanooga YFD Center– provided campers there with unique exposure and proximity to the welding and design work underway. Mr. Drake, director of East Chatt YFD, was very pleased with the respect shown to the space and the artistic element the team brought to the regular pace of summer camp. “It was very exciting to watch the bikes take shape and see the dedication the kids put into the process. I think it’s really neat what they set up, and I know they’re all enjoying it so much,” Mr. Drake said last week.

When Outdoor Chattanooga came to provide a bike safety rodeo for the students, Kate improvised with Mr. Drake so all the kids at East Chatt YFD Center’s camp learned bike safety that day. As for the next steps, the bikes have generated anticipation for the upcoming Glass Street LIVE block party this fall, and several local youth at the East Chatt YFD Center like Kadesha Cook remembered building puppets for last year’s parade, and are eager to try their skills out on the bikes this time around.

Kate Warren, director of Art 120 says, “While only our campers had access to power tools and welding, the youth at the Rec Center crowded around our teachers as they taught students how to change a tire and replace a bicycle chain. By the second week, Coreyun was able to ride his special hinge bike and everyone at the Rec Center cheered him on and took turns riding. Now we have a lot of kids that want to build an art bike too.”

Check out video footage including interviews with the participants on our YouTube channel HERE.

Click HERE to sponsor a kid to participate in the Urban Art Bike Camp. We appreciate the support and thank you for helping us reach our $2,000 fundraiser goal!

Glass House Collective has recruited Art 120’s 2017 Urban Art Bike Camp to the East Chatt YFD Center. The camp will empower local youth to design and create welded art bikes to ride in the Glass Street LIVE block party parade, the grand finale event of City Celebration, a city-wide progressive bike party directed by Shannon Burke on October 8.

Art 120, under the direction of Kate Warren, has experienced challenges following the devastating fire at their former maker space, so when we approached her with the idea of returning to the Glass Farm neighborhood, she stepped up with enthusiasm! (See the Art 120 YouTube video link HERE) We’re so glad that Mr. Drake, director of the East Chatt YFD Center, was so supportive of the idea, as the center provides an ideal temporary home base this summer. We’re enthusiastic about local kids here on Glass Street gaining access to welding and artistic design experience, within walking distance of their own homes!

Warren kicked things off this week (June 26-30) with the Teacher Training followed by the 2 week camp program (July 3-14), in which campers will be expected to commit and follow-through with learning the techniques and carrying out their plan to create the bikes they draft and imagine, all within a slim operating budget. In order to recruit and fund 12 campers, Glass House Collective has assisted with outreach and facilitated planning meetings in order to generate our creative partnerships in this neighborhood (Art 120 + East Chatt YFD Center). As a final celebration, campers will head to Coolidge Park for a showcase of their bikes and presentation of certificates in front of family and friends on July 15.

By the end of Urban Art Bike Camp, a fleet of 3 new sculptural art bikes will be ready to pedal down Glass Street as a part of the Glass Street LIVE parade on October 8, showcasing the artistic talent of local East Chattanooga youth. Shannon Burke’s Ciclovia City Celebration biking event to highlight various Chattanooga neighborhoods is exciting, and we’re proud that Glass Street LIVE is the finale block party of the whole day! Working together, we also recognized an opportunity and need to bolster local kids’ cycling experience and ownership so that they feel truly included. By building their own creations with Art120, Glass Farm neighborhood youth can take pride in pairing their welding skills with bike safety experience.

As Warren recalls, “The kids who made bikes here on Glass Street in 2012 still carry those skills and memories. This is a neighborhood bursting with creativity. We’re excited to be pumping new life back into the Urban Art Bike initiative, partnering with Glass House Collective to discover what a whole new set of 11-14 year-olds here can dream up and create.”

Again, you can click HERE to sponsor a camper! Give a local Glass Farm neighborhood kid the full Urban Art Bike Camp experience! Help us meet our $2,000 contribution goal! Your contribution makes a huge difference– Thank you!

“Part of the skating experience is getting used to how it feels to fall down, and get back up,” Kim says. “With the support of the group, it’s less intimidating.”

Jaden Melvin, a student from Magic Markers, was unable to attend the pop-up Skateboarding 101 event, but she connects with Kim regularly, asking for a skate park in the area. Kim and Westin are encouraged by the presence of girls like Jaden with an interest in skating.

Local poet, Genesis the Greykid was on hand after working with the Magic Markers youth, and brought his own skating skills to the hangout, enjoying time with the Glass Street kids.

Join us for our third annual Gospel on Glass on Saturday, April 22nd, from 3pm-7pm. This event is made possible by a grant from Tennessee Arts Commission, with additional support from Hope for the Inner City, SunTrust, Coca Cola United, New Blue Construction, and Elliott Davis Decosimo.

The concert, along with the whole East Chatt Highlight Festival, is free and family friendly. Food vendors will be on site, but pleas bring your own lawn chairs. Hope for the Inner City will also coordinate their annual plant sale and open house across the street.

Glass House Collective has partnered with Marcellus Barnes (former Orchard Knob Elem. Music Teacher) and UPAFC to celebrate the local gospel music talent in and around East Chattanooga. This year’s performers include The Dance Ministry of Ms. Kessala Dorsey, Comedian Trish Rutledge, Pastor Corey Prather & Hi Praize, Larry Hurston & Genuine, Trent Williams, Drummers!!! Jarrod White, Eddie Heyward, DJ “Big Bam” Gates, Ashley Brison from the Group Eddie James, Pastor Jo Foster and Team Judah, Darius Ware and IPM, Tiffany Coleman, Jarvis Menifee and Chozen, Carlos and Janelle Drake, Miracle Baptist Church Mass Choir, Rock Island Church Mass Choir, The Spiritual Highlights, Justin Radford (Clarksville, TN), and Pastor Marcellus Barnes & VOT.