East Hamilton County resident, artist and local volunteer Daisy Pratt hates being told she needs to move downtown to be an active part of the Chattanooga arts community.
Her concerns about isolation in the eastern part of the county and other residents’ requests for increased connectivity across the arts community were recurring themes at last week’s Imagine Chattanooga 2020 meetings in East Brainerd and Collegedale. The sessions are being used to compile a plan that will provide specific strategies for the community to use arts and creativity to address issues raised by the recent Chattanooga STAND survey, like education, job creation, neighborhood revitalization, crime and environmental sustainability.
“Why does it have to be a clique downtown?” asked East Hamilton County native and muralist Andre Willis of Chattanooga’s current art culture. “Certain types of art are only accepted at certain facilities.”
According to Dan Bowers, Allied Arts of Chattanooga president, these questions and concerns are slated to be addressed by the Imagine Chattanooga 2020 steering committee and WolfBrown Associates as they devise the action plan for the city by January 2012. The initiative is being led by publisher emeritus of the Chattanooga Times Ruth Holmberg and Unum Vice President Tom White.
“It’s kind of like JFK,” said Bowers. “We aren’t really asking what you can do for the arts, we’re asking what the arts can do for the community.”