Transcriber: Anna Sumina Reviewer: Denise RQ
How many of you have seen something beautiful on your drive into work lately?
No?
Thanks... (Laughter)
Inspiring? Eye-catching?
If you're one of the 13, 000 people who travel up and down McCallie every day,
it's been a while.
Unfortunately, you've seen chalky paint,
boarded up windows, and my favorite: bad graffiti.
(Laughter)
How do I know this? Well, I don't just drive up and down McCallie Ave. every day;
I live there.
I've lived in Highland Park for almost 10 years.
And one morning, I was stopped at a stop light,
and I took a look at my neighborhood.
And I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be better if this wasn't ugly?"
This was an area that didn't just need a neighborhood cleanup;
it needed beautification.
But how do you bring beauty in an area like this? Where do you start?
Let me tell you a little bit about myself,
and what I've been doing for the past few years.
Afterwards, maybe you can tell me why I didn't think of this sooner.
You probably wouldn't know this without me telling you,
but I'm an artist and a painter.
A couple of years ago I found out about a mural project on the Southside:
the Discoteca Demolition Project.
I'd never really done a mural before, but I wanted on this project.
I did what any self-respecting person would do
when they asked me if I had experience: I lied.
(Laughter)
Don't worry, the project was a huge success.
My piece was actually very well-received,
and it led to a lot of commissions for me around the city.
I have pieces on the North Shore,
I've got a few pieces on MLK,
and I also have some work in businesses around town.
Now, fast-forward a little bit.
I've been doing murals for a while, and it's been a really good living for me,
and a great creative outlet.
But there is something bigger on the horizon,
and it's coming right at me; I can't see it yet,
but when it reaches me, it will hit me like a 2 ton-heavy thing.
(Laughter)
I'm working on the North Shore.
I'm painting pretty high up on a ladder,
and I hear a noise behind me, and I mean directly behind me.
I pull out my ear buds, and I turn around,
and there in the intersection is a double-Decker bus.
The bottom level is full of people waving like crazy
and taking pictures like they're free.
Upstairs, everybody is on their feet pumping their fists and chanting,
'Paint! Paint! Paint! Paint! Paint! Paint! Paint!' (Laughter)
But that's when it hit me.
This kind of artwork doesn't just change the way that buildings look;
it changes the way that people feel.
You see where I'm heading with this, right?
OK, meanwhile back at my stop light.
Now I'm thinking to myself,
'Would this work in my neighborhood?'
It's easy to get people psyched up
when you're in the hottest, hippest area of Chattanooga.
But can I get people this psyched up about an area they've avoided for so long?
Can do it with art?
Well, I had to try.
I wanted to take this traffic corridor and turn it into an event
for everybody who experienced it.
Whether you were waiting for a bus,
driving through, or living in the neighborhood.
A little bit of research turned up dozens of projects
where street art, urban art,
public art of almost any kind
had made a big difference in areas all over the country.
Wynwood Walls in Miami, Living Walls in Atlanta,
hell, the entire city of Philadelphia.
So now I had all of these ugly buildings
and a browser history full of success stories.
I knew that McCallie could be changed,
and I felt like I could do it with art.
So, now what?
Later on, a reporter would phrase it so much more eloquently than I could
when she called it "a unique transformative agent".
I would call it simply The McCallie Walls Mural Project.
First, I would recruit stellar artists from around the city and pay them to work.
Let me repeat that:
I would pay the artists to work on the project.
I know, right? What a concept.
Offering artists exposure as compensation? Unacceptable.
Exposure doesn't put mac and cheese on the table, am I right?
Secondly, we'd build a sense of respect for the art and the area
by inviting people from the neighborhoods to come and work with us.
My thought was that if somebody worked on the piece with us,
they'd have a sense of ownership in it, a sense of pride.
They'd want to show that off.
They'd be less likely to tolerate somebody trashing it later on.
Third, we'd document our work and our progress
on social media and the traditional news media.
We wanted everybody in Chattanooga to know what we were doing on McCallie.
We also thought we'd entice more painters,
more volunteers, maybe some viewers.
maybe even some more neighbors and some businesses to the area too.
Oh, and in the process, we might put some art on the walls.
Now, the framework for, as far as I know,
the world's first drive-through gallery is in place.
I pitched the idea of funding this project to the MakeWork Foundation,
and they honored us with a grant.
And we went to work!
Six artists, very few creative restrictions,
and the full support of out neighbors.
And we did this.
(Applause) Yeah, absolutely.
A little sidebar here: the artists who worked on this blew me away.
A lot of these people had never done large-scale murals before.
They lied to get on the project.
(Laughter)
Here's some more. I wanted to show you some slides, if you don't mind.
This is David and Kendrick's piece. David should be in the building somewhere.
If you want to show him a little bit of love, I don't mind.
(Applause)
Once we started putting paint on the walls,
the response from the city and from individuals was phenomenal.
ArtsBuild, The UNFoundation,
Causeway, The Tennessee Arts Commission,
The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga
all graced us with grants.
That's mine, by the way. (Applause)
Don't clap, I'm not doing it for clapping. I just want you to know.
In addition to all of those foundations,
EPB, The Highland Park Neighborhood Association,
and dozens of people
volunteered with and contributed to the project.
People were really beginning to get behind this thing.
This, by the way, is my favorite volunteer, my son.
You can clap for him. (Applause)
Just last month, Causeway brought 50 volunteers out to McCallie
for one of their Cause Mobs.
In just under three hours they did this.
Do you know what that sign says?
That sign says, "Hey! Welcome to Highland Park!"
The McCallie Walls Mural Projects have become very popular with people.
They've become the backdrops for many things from senior portraits
to rap videos.
Usher did give us a shout-out on Instagram.
I don't know if you've noticed,
but there's a number at the top of that page.
It's really close to 2 million.
That's 2 million pairs of eyes that saw our work and our city.
It just astounds me.
So, our first year has almost come to a close.
What have we done? What has the project accomplished?
Well, if you've been up and down McCallie, you've seen it.
That stretch is cleaner than it's been in years.
I know that, I've lived there.
Of course, we've put some great artwork on the walls,
but what about the less tangible changes?
Well, Ace Hardware started advertising their paint across the street...
(Laughter)
Coincidence? Maybe.
The building owners now come to us and ask to be included in the project.
Which is great, because now I don't have to go door-to-door,
and I went door-to-door.
Business owners from around the city have called me
to ask me about replicating the project on their street.
Organizations outside of Chattanooga's arts community
are taking notice of this art project and what it's doing.
We held a fundraiser a few months back of the flying squirrel,
you may have heard of these: you invite your friends on a weeknight
and they'll give you a percentage of their sales towards your project.
We were told to expect between 300 and 400 dollars.
Not a bad take for a couple of hours for us.
We invited all of our friends and all of our Facebook followers,
and at the end of the night, when all was said and done,
we had raised 3,200 dollars.
3,200 dollars! That's all money that went in artists' pockets.
That's money that paid rent, money that bought supplies,
money that bought new computers, other equipment.
Now, people, not just foundations, are getting behind this project.
While we work, neighbors would come to us and talk with us.
Talk about the murals: what they liked, what they didn't like.
A lot of these neighbors had become friends,
and some of them even collaborators on later murals.
People tell me all the time now,
"I went out of my way to drive down McCallie to see what was new,"
or "I brought my friends from out of town down McCallie to see what was new."
I live in the neighborhood.
It's not uncommon for me to see carloads of people pull up at the base of a mural,
get out, take pictures, take pictures in front of it,
and walk up and down the avenue.
The old fears of this area are subsiding.
So, now what for the world's first drive-through gallery?
Well, we still have some ugly walls.
But fortunately, we have inspired artists,
who have lots and lots of eye-catching
and beautiful artwork to go on those walls.
Do you remember my earlier question?
"Wouldn't it be better if this wasn't ugly?"
Of course the answer is yes.
I just didn't know how much better until I saw these results.
Who is it that said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever?"
Wrong.
Everybody who's driven up and down McCallie in the past year, that's who.
Thank you.
(Applause)