Glass House Collective, along with 11 other applicants that include nonprofit organizations, cities and local governments, has been awarded a FY 2016 Creative Placemaking grant distributed by the Tennessee Arts Commission. In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit and community sectors shape the physical and social character of their neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities or assets.
Glass House Collective is in urban East Chattanooga along the historic Glass Street. The non-profit was founded in 2012 to “bring life back to Glass Street and Glass Street back to life.” GHC has been working with residents and artists in making the commercial corridor and surrounding neighborhood cleaner, safer and more inviting.
Glass House Collective was one of two applicants out of 12 that received full funding and plan to use the $8,000 to implement near-term projects proposed in the 'Next Big Thing Urbanism Workshop'. In the spring, Glass House Collective kicked off phase two of their work. Included in the work plan is a “How-To Guide” that includes directions, materials, and tools for projects that can be implemented within one month. The "How-To Guide" includes eight ‘lighter, quicker, cheaper ‘projects that are replicable, scalable and affordable. Example projects include a bike repair station, a pop-up movie night, commissioning an artist to paint colorful crosswalks, commissioning an artist to implement pubic art along the corridor gateways, and developing pop-up 'living room' installations and activating six vacant properties—all designed to ignite the spark that will bring about positive community change and make Glass Street safer, cleaner and more inviting, said officials.
“This grant will bring greater value and added exposure to the positive momentum happening along Glass Street,” said Teal Thibaud, executive director for Glass House Collective. “Glass Street and the surrounding community designed a great vision and we look forward to continue to make that vision a reality. We believe that small moves can collectively make a big difference.”
The Creative Placemaking grants competition was designed to help build stronger communities through the arts to enhance the distinctive character of local Tennessee places for positive economic and community outcomes. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business visibility and public safety, and brings diverse people together to build shared understanding of culture and community.
The Commission’s allocation process involved a review by an independent panel that included national experts on creative placemaking and local leaders. The panel met on Aug. 26, to evaluate all eligible applications based on published criteria. All grant applications were evaluated on a competitive basis, taking into account the project type, geographic location and whether the project was in a rural or urban community.
With the mission to cultivate the arts for the benefit of all Tennesseans and their communities, the Commission funds a variety of arts projects through several grant categories. Each year, these grants help fund arts and cultural activities for more than 600 schools, local governments and nonprofit organizations in communities across all 95 counties. Visit tnartscommission.org for more information.