How We Got Started
Arts in the Burg is the brainchild of our Director, Dale Woodfin. When he returned to his hometown of South Pittsburg, TN in 2014, Dale noticed several of the buildings were vacant and business was less than booming in the downtown area. However, the National Cornbread Festival, a local annual event attracting over 25,000 visitors to our community, was a bright spot and provided some insight to a solution. Through the festival he and other knew that, visitors from outside our area, will come to our charming town if we give them a reason. As an artist, Dale became more involved with art organizations and like-minded community leaders, and together they developed artist alliances both locally and regionally. In 2018, he visited Lowe Mill in Huntsville, AL, an artist community with over 150 artists. After the visit a little light went off – solution found: start an art incubator that supports artists and builds creates traffic.
In 2019 the South Pittsburg Area Revitalization Quest (SPARQ) nonprofit organization was formed by Carey Garland and other local leadership. The mission of Sparq is to create long-lasting, impactful improvements to community of South Pittsburg by cultivating economic, social, and cultural growth. In short: foster new opportunities.
The pieces continued to come together with a generous gift from a most gracious patron of the arts, and a Thrive / TN Arts Commission grant for creative placemaking, as well as commitments from future partners, and support from the city and other advocates.
In 2021, we will launch our first 6-months of programming and will realize our first permanent space in downtown South Pittsburg.
The 1, 2, 3, plan…
1. Provide studio space for working artists that is open to the public and engages the community in public arts.
2. Create a travel destination by providing interesting and *accessible programming that includes entertainment.
3. This attracts tourism, new business fitting the art district template that provide sustainable economic growth and community engagement.
*Arts in the Burg will participate in training and guidance provided by The Tennessee Arts Commission. TN Arts works to ensure that the arts are available to every Tennessean regardless of geography, income, age, race, physical ability and/or any other barrier.
Below you can view and listen to a Google Slide presentation of the Arts in the Burg plan.
1. Click button to open side deck. 2. Click sound icon in upper left corner to start the audio presentation narrative.
Our Mission
Arts in the Burg provides working studio space, open to the public, that nurtures artists, promotes creative placemaking, as well as programming and entertainment to develop a unique travel destination in South Pittsburg, TN.
Arts in the Burg is a nonprofit program of South Pittsburg Area Revitalization Quest (SPARQ).
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Arts in the Burg is a program of SPARQ
Tennessee Placemaking Partnership
The Tennessee Placemaking Project is a collaborative pilot project between Thrive Regional Partnership, Tennessee Arts Commission, Southeast Tennessee Development, and the Lyndhurst Foundation. The project is designed to support local communities as they scale up strategies that leverage local arts and cultural assets for economic vibrancy and growth throughout the greater Chattanooga region. To learn more, visit www.thriveregionalpartnership.org/projects/tn-placemaking-partnership.
Thriving Communities
Thriving Communities is a creative placemaking program of Thrive Regional Partnership designed to leverage local arts and culture assets for economic vibrancy and growth throughout the greater Chattanooga region. To learn more, visit www.ThriveRegionalPartnership.org/Thriving-Communities.
Thrive Regional Partnership
Thrive Regional Partnership inspires responsible growth through conversation, connection, and collaboration across the tri-state greater Chattanooga region. To learn more visit www.thriveregionalpartnership.org.