As avid art lovers, Chris and I both love exploring Chattanooga's Frazier Avenue (known as the Northshore or North Chattanooga because it's on the North side of the Tennessee river) and shopping the art galleries and cool shops from near the Veterans bridge to the Market street bridge.
However, this time we'd also found a new gem! (the mural shown above can be found at the parking lot of the Chattanooga Workspace building on 6th Street). It was an accident how I found out about the first Friday Open Studio night at Chattanooga Workspace, but a fabulous accident at that. Fortunately I'd written down the address of the place and off we went to find it. Open house was the evening of the Friday we arrived in Chattanooga from 5:30p-9p. That same night was also the opening of the Emerging artists show at the AVA gallery on Frazier and also just so happened that In Town gallery had an opening too! So off we went to explore the local art flavors of the city!
The photo above is the building that houses Chattanooga Workspace. A renovated space used by individual artists for studio space. Super COOL concept! And once a month (the first Friday) they have an open studio night. Four floors with multiple studios on each floor.
Upon entry we were greeted and given a brief synopsis as to what this space was about and then instructed to ride the elevator to the 4th floor and work our way down. VERY cool how artsy this experience was. Even the elevator was decorated in an artsy way! The chair below greeted us as the elevator doors flew open on one of the floors.
We met some really cool artists at the workspace that night. Donyale Grove being one of them (which now one of her acrylic paintings hangs in our kitchen at home...LOVE it!) We also learned that many of the artists who have studios at the Chattanooga Workspace also show during the Chattanooga Market on Sundays (naturally this makes sense because the Chattanooga Market is who is behind the operation of both spaces). Stay tuned for my next posting where I will talk about our experiences at the market!
With plenty of time to spare yet, we zipped over to Frazier avenue and walked down to the AVA gallery. This was more of an art museum experience with installation art pieces not really our cup of tea...but we enjoyed the cultural experience of it anyway. After all in the land of art...it's good to see many different types of art.
A few doors down is In Town Gallery (a cooperative gallery so many artists were present this night for their opening reception). Chris and I always enjoy walking through In Town gallery to see what's new there.
By now it was nearly 9pm so we opted to end our evening on the Northshore with a stroll across the Walnut Street walking bridge. This bridge has a distinct and memorable smell to it as it's made from wood similar to a beachside boardwalk and there's always a lot of walkers, bikers, runners and so forth trafficking this bridge.
This evenings exploration of the local art scene in Chattanooga went down as one of our favorites of the week...but yet...there's MUCH more to come.
Stay tuned....
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