If you go
› What: Wayne-O-Rama Grand Opening› When: 2-7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19› Where: Chattanooga Fun House, 1800 Rossville Ave.› Admission: Free› Online: www.wayneorama.com
For Elliot Cowan, getting the chance to work under the tutelage of artist/designer Wayne White was too good to pass up, even if it meant driving 12 hours and putting in nine-hour days of volunteer work for four days.
“I couldn’t pass it up,” says Cowan, and Australian-born artist/animator. “I would have done it 24 hours a day.”
White is a Hixson-born artist best known for his Emmy-award winning design work on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” He also is known for creating oversized puppets out of cardboard and wood, a talent on display in the work he’s creating as part of Wayne-O-Rama, a year-long project and ambitious undertaking that uses giant puppets and large public installations to highlight the people, places and events that influenced White while he was growing up.
Wayne-O-Rama is housed in a studio on Rossville Avenue, a space White has dubbed the “Chattanooga Fun House.” A grand opening will take place on Saturday, complete with live music, a proclamation from Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger to declare “Wayne White Celebration of Art and Education Day in Chattanooga, Tennessee.”