Widely known for staging the popular and nationally recognized 4 Bridges Arts Festival, this year marks AVA's second year of hosting the Between The Bridges Festival in Coolidge Park, being held on Saturday, October 15 from 10am to 5pm.
Chattanooga’s Association for Visual Arts, better known as AVA, has long been working to strengthen and promote the artistic ecosystem of Chattanooga’s visual artists, art enthusiasts and arts-based institutions.
“We started Between The Bridges last year, as we really wanted to give our local artists an opportunity to work in the festival setting,” explains AVA’s Sarah More. “Because 4 Bridges in so popular with national artists, we can’t get that many local artists in to it. We wanted to create an opportunity to get more local artists to participate in a festival, so we invented Between The Bridges. It’s a really great way to showcase local artists and shine a light on the depth of great art we have here.”
The festival with feature about 40 local artists participating to display and sell their artwork in a fun, festival atmosphere. About two-thirds of those artists have applied for the event through AVA, and the rest will be in a special Potters Alley section put together by their event partners at Scenic City Clay Arts.
“Half to two-thirds of the artists featured at Between The Bridges are relatively new to either Chattanooga or two making art professionally,” Moore says. “It’s a pretty exciting depth of art we’ve got here. We’ve got jewelry, we’ve got ceramics, we’ve got paintings of all types, drawing, all sorts of things. It’s going to be exciting.”
They will also be sharing the park that day with the Chattanooga Vegan Festival and packet pick-up for the 7 Bridges Marathon. And in addition to great art and interesting food, there will also be live music.
“We will have live music of all types,” notes Moore. “We’ve got acoustic, full bands, some electronic music with our friends at the vegan festival, who will be our park neighbors again this year, and we are really looking forward to sharing the park with them as well as partnering with our friends at Scenic City Clay Arts. The festival is free for everybody, and we hope everyone will come out for a lovely day in the park.”
You can get more information about Between The Bridges and all of the other events and programs AVA hosts by visiting www.avarts.org
Artwork by April Reed, courtesy AVA