Those who haven’t visited Chattanooga in a while are often amazed at its stylish new look. Upscale restaurants and urban lofts have replaced rundown industrial sites. Manicured parks, accessible bridges and flower-flanked walkways encourage leisurely strolls on both sides of the Tennessee River. Trendy shops and sidewalk cafes are joining historic landmarks. And the city’s fresh energy is drawing plenty of artists and other creative types.
On a Monday morning, I set out to explore the city’s visual arts scene through the eyes of a curious traveler. First stop: The North Shore, one of the funkiest and most popular hangouts in Chattanooga. As I check out the eclectic storefronts along Frazier Avenue, I spy a set of numbered dance “steps” embedded in the sidewalk. Planting my feet in the metallic gold imprints, I follow the mambo directions and hope no one is watching.

Taking flight. “Icarus,” a steel work by Louisiana artist Russell Whiting, is in the River Gallery Sculpture Garden

Some North Shore shops, I quickly discover, are closed on Mondays. Others open late. Winder Binder is shut tight this morning, but the window display is filled with eccentric wares: butterfly mobiles, a floor lamp held up by a stockinged “leg,” vivid folk art. A few paces away, a clerk is unlocking the door to In-Town Gallery. She ushers me inside, where I find everything from fabric collages to dragonfly jewelry.

Public art. Left to right: “Witness,” by Rick Booth, outside Chattanooga Theatre Center; Louise Peterson’s “High Four” in the First Street Sculpture Garden; Tom Otterness’ bronze “Free Money,” outside the Hunter Museum.

At lunchtime I head to the Bluff View Art District. Meandering toward Rembrandt’s Coffee House, I stop in front of a window and watch a chocolatier stir a pot of the rich creamy stuff before carrying it across the shady interior courtyard to Rembrandt’s. I resist the temptation to order a truffle and opt for a glass of mango iced tea and a caprese panini with mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh pesto. Outside, on the European-style patio, a breeze triggers a verdigris chime. A baby boomer couple stops to chat for a moment before strapping on bike helmets and pedaling off.

After lunch, I enter the River Galley Sculpture Garden, weave past aluminum silhouettes by artist Jim Collins, and sit down in the meditation area next to a sculptured man with what appears to be a snowy egret perched on his head. I linger for a while and listen to the sound of a waterfall coursing down the side of the bluff before making my way past a stained-glass-topped fence to the Hunter Museum of American Art, which reopened in 2005 after a $19.5 million expansion.

Sunset over the city. The moon glows above the Walnut Street foot bridge and the recently restored Chief John Ross bridge. They link the North Shore community with the Bluff View Art District and downtown.

IF You Go Bluff View Art District 423-265-5033 or 1-800-725-8338 bluffviewartdistrict.com Chattanooga Area Convention & Visitors Bureau 423-424-4430 • chattanoogafun.com Hunter Museum of American Art 423-267-0968 • huntermuseum.org In-Town Gallery 423-267-9214 • intowngallery.com Brent Sanders Studio 423-320-5374 • brentsanders.com

Inside the museum, I am relieved to find that my favorite features – the unobstructed view of Maclellan Island wildlife refuge, the gallery of American Impressionism, the turquoise seashell-like creation of famed glassmaker Dale Chihuly – are still here. And the original 1905 mansion, with its ornate fireplaces, antique settees and formal, permanent collections, reigns as queen.

But in many ways the now-chic museum barely resembles its old incarnation. The new, airy west wing is particularly impressive. In the reading room, red retro chairs are parked near curved windows overlooking the river. Books are scattered throughout the museum, on benches, at computer stations, atop drawers filled with reams of information. Visitors can express their opinions in journals or draw in sketchpads.

I drive to the Southside, a refurbished antique and art district surrounding the iconic Chattanoga Choo-Choo. Century-old foundries and warehouses with vaulted ceilings and natural lighting have been turned into studios where artists, designers and architects work and live. Galleries showcase the work of painters and photographers.

A couple blocks away, abstract sculptures crafted by local artists – including renowned sculptor John Henry, whose contemporary metal monstrosities are springing up all over town – offer a glimpse of what Main Street might look like in the near future. Formerly one of the most dilapidated parts of the city, this thoroughfare is now lined with lofts, condos and office space for lease.

When I speak with Mark Song, identity and design manager for Maycreate design agency, he points to the refurbished Jefferson Heights neighborhood across the street, one of five areas where artists are given forgivable mortgages and other relocation incentives. It’s all part of Arts Move, a program funded by the Chattanooga-based Lyndhurst Foundation and overseen by the city’s leading cultural organization, Allied Arts.

“The majority of people who live back there are in the ‘creative class’ – architects, designers, a purse maker,” says Song. “It’s really neat. It happened in Atlanta. It happened in Austin. I think this is going to be the SoHo of Chattanooga.”

I’ve been hearing about Brent Sanders, whose intensely-colored acrylic paintings depict local scenes, so I venture to his second-floor studio near the foot of Lookout Mountain (he welcomes guests by appointment only). He hears me in the plank hallway and steps from behind Door No. 6 wearing a paint-splattered apron. The 36-year-old Chattanooga native started out as a graphic artist, developed sports video games for a local software company and dabbled in watercolors before finding his niche, which he describes as “Southern expressionism.”

Sunset over the city. The moon glows above the Walnut Street foot bridge and the recently restored Chief John Ross bridge. They link the North Shore community with the Bluff View Art District and downtown.

He also creates whimsical portraits. He points to a painting of a Mexican peasant woman selling her handmade dolls and one of an old man with a train passing by in the background.

“I’m more of a documentarian than a conceptual artist,” Sanders says. “I’m not so much pushing ideas as telling a story.”
Chattanooga’s arts climate, he says,

is “above average. A city transitioning from an industrial town to a more tourist-based economy tends to attract artists because it attracts people who live here and buy their work.” He hopes to one day produce a large-scale public mural illustrating the area’s rich history and future. As for the latter, he says, “I’m glad to be part of it.”

- NH

See the story by Lisa Lowe Stauffer below...

Remembering  the Cherokee
The Chattanooga area holds traces of their past.

Since the days when spear-throwing was a life skill, people have farmed, fished, traded and fought in this valley we call Chattanooga. In a few years, when Moccasin Bend National Park opens, it will recall some of this early life with an interpretive center. But even now the Chattanooga area offers sites which give visitors a glimpse of life when this was part of the Cherokee Nation.

When Europeans arrived on the continent, Cherokee territory stretched from South Carolina to Kentucky. But by the late 1700s, white settlers crossed the Appalachians into what’s now Northeast Tennessee. Bloody night attacks on isolated settlers and revengeful slaughter of entire Indian villages resulted. A renegade band, the Chickamaugans, continued fighting long after most Cherokees wanted peace.

In 1794 the Chickamaugans were defeated. Treaties left the Cherokees only mountainous parts of North Carolina and Georgia, a bit of northern Alabama and the southeastern corner of Tennessee. Cherokee leaders adopted a government modeled on that of the United States.

 In these Cherokee Nation years, 1794-1838, people such as Tooan-Tuh built farms. His home, Spring Frog Cabin at Audubon Acres, was typical for the era. Although later renovations included windows (traditional Cherokee cabins had no windows), the original cabin survives with its sturdy log walls and loft room. Audubon Acres, open year-round, has botanical trails and excellent historic exhibits.

Leaders – like the part-Cherokee Chief John Ross – prospered through trade and by running stores and ferries. A dogtrot cabin, the John Ross House, sits by a clear spring-fed pool today, just across the Georgia border from Chattanooga. The house is open during the summer.

As part of their “civilizing” effort, the Cherokees allowed missionaries to establish schools. Brainerd Mission, founded in 1817, boarded more than 100 children at its peak, teaching them English, math and modern farming.  Today only the cemetery remains, tucked between shopping centers along Brainerd Road just east of Chattanooga.

Despite all the Cherokee efforts to keep their homeland, the 1835 treaty of New Echota traded eastern lands for western ones. Because none of the Cherokee Nation’s elected leaders signed the treaty, most Cherokees considered it fraudulent. The U.S. Congress ratified it anyway, by one vote. 

Chief Ross and others petitioned Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, but in May 1838, federal soldiers began herding Cherokees from their homes at gunpoint. 
From Ross’s Landing, behind today’s Tennessee Aquarium, nearly 2,000 people were crowded onto boats and shipped down the drought-lowered river. These shipments were disastrous, with rumors coming back that nearly all had died. Further departures were postponed. Some 10,000 Cherokees were held in camps until fall.  One of these camps was near Ross’s Landing (renamed Chattanooga by white newcomers that hot summer of 1838).

From the aquarium, follow the Riverwalk, a paved pedestrian/cycling path, upstream. A plaque near Scrappy Moore Field tells of Camp Cherokee where hundreds waited. Dysentery, measles and fevers raged. When departures resumed, the Cherokees walked nearly a thousand miles through a winter so cold the Mississippi River froze. The Trail of Tears claimed the lives of one in four.
With art and water, The Passage, next to the Aquarium, commemorates the Cherokees. At its 2005 inauguration, Cherokee leaders carried a flame from Oklahoma to Chattanooga, in some measure bringing the Trail of Tears full circle.
For more information:

Moccasin Bend National Park www.moccasinbendpark.org
Audubon Acres www.chattanoogaaudubon.org
John Ross House www.walkercochamber.com/attractions.htm
Brainerd Mission www.cherokeeheritagetrails.org/redclay_places.html
Riverwalk www.visitchattanooga.com/tn_river_park.htm
The Cherokees www.cherokee.org, www.cherokee-nc.org

— Lisa Lowe Stauffer