Jules Downum and Mattie Cofield, The Pop-up Project’s co-founders, create an immersive, individual, and original concept within the abandoned Standard Coosa Thatcher (now called Coosa) mill. Teaming together with Ethan Collier, president and CEO of Collier Construction, the Pop-Up Project seeks to breathe new life into Mill Town and show Chattanoogans what this space could become.
Pop-Up Project is a local, non-profit production company that primarily works with dancers, but has brought together a group of aerialists, musicians, and other creatives all local to Chattanooga for If These Walls Could Talk.
Upon arrival at the mill, you might have felt you made a wrong turn, or maybe your iPhone has the wrong address. The beat-up entrance is brought to life with lighting of all colors, beautiful live music, and an energy that shifts the mood of the space. Highlighted graffiti on the walls of the mill is brought to life to elaborate on the story of the mill itself, and industrial décor leads you from one performance arts set to the next, instinctively.
Although much time and effort are going into this particular project, the Pop-up Project seeks to do more - transform the performance arts community in Chattanooga, creating fair and living wages for local artists. Creating a collective cross-genre event will not only foster the community to grow interest in these artists, but also stimulate a local performance arts economy, organizers said.
Ms. Downum seeks to create an experience-driven encounter, not just for people who are artistic themselves, but for the whole community. “We're not necessarily for art lovers, we're for adventure seekers, for people who like to travel and see things they’ve never seen before,” she said.
With multiple events going on simultaneously, viewers will all have their own undertaking and experience within the mill, encouraging exploration of the audience.
The mill served as inspiration for the performances that have taken well over two years to perfect. Ms. Cofield says, “There are interactive theatrical events for adventure, for the art lover. We take the audience out of the theatre setting so the audience can choose their own adventure. It’s like stepping foot into your television; you’re still the observer, just much more up close and personal.”
Theatrical lighting, fog, and sound systems are placed throughout the space to add moodiness and character. The mill doesn’t feel like it is in Chattanooga - instead it felt like an urban underground space that was preparing for the performance of a lifetime.
Mill Town has over 42 acres located in Chattanooga’s Ridgedale community, between Main and 23rd Street. Coosa Mill’s 350,000 square foot building is a part of this development. Mr. Collier said, “We’ve asked the Pop-up Project to partner with us to start to activate this space.”
Prior to Mr. Collier’s acquisition of the mill, it had been abandoned for over 30 years, forgotten about. “We wanted a good excuse to bring people back to Mill Town and bring them into the mill and show them what we have here, so that as we begin to develop, people are familiar with it,” he said.
Mr. Collier’s priority to reclaim the old mill as a part of the community, making it a unifier instead of an unsafe place, is fitting considering his plans for the area. Mr. Collier plans for over 700 new homes to be built in what he hopes to communally preserve as “socially, economically, and racially diverse”.
Bringing the arts to the community and laying a foundation of creative influence and inspiration achieves the crossing of boundaries that Mr. Collier acknowledges as one of the best measures a developer could achieve. His understanding of what the community needs for a flourishing new Mill Town involves the collective of what the community has to offer, and influence of Chattanooga’s own.
The Pop-up Project’s If These Walls Could Talk… will entertain only six performances, from Nov. 11-13, and 18-20. Tickets are on sale now at CoosaMill.com and range from $37.50-$80.
With craft cocktails, immersive experiences for all ages, and creative control of the viewer, it creates an enthralling atmosphere for the whole community.