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Chattanooga: Digital hub for artists set to open

By: Barry Courter
(Contact)

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Christa Mannarico

Chattanooga artists soon will have a new tool for creating and marketing their art, thanks to the Association for Visual Arts’ digital media center.

Set to open Sept. 26, the AVA Media Lab on River Street will “empower students, adults and emerging and professional artists interested in using advanced technologies to market their work and create contemporary visual art,” according to Christa Mannarino, the association’s executive director.

The digital lab is equipped with 10 iMac computers loaded with specialized software including Photoshop, InDesign and Final Cut Studio. Established and new artists will be able to photograph, scan and save images of their artwork for a portfolio that can be used for marketing, among other things.

They also will have the opportunity to learn how to build and maintain a Web site, Ms. Mannarino said.

“We are expanding our services to enable visual artists to develop their portfolio, expand their marketing toolbox and grow their business,” she said.

More than 100 visual artists are expected to use the new Media Lab in its first year, according to Ms. Mannarino. The $250,000 lab was funded in part by the George Johnson Foundation, the Benwood Foundation and AVA donors, she said.

The association serves the Chattanooga arts community through seminars and classes and by hosting lectures, exhibitions and events such as the 4 Bridges Arts Festival and the Gallery Hop.

The Media Lab was designed to serve as the hub for professionally instructed classes, workshops, after-school programs and summer institutes for the city’s artists and teens, Ms. Mannarino said.

“We’ve created a schedule of when it will be opened that offers some variety for people,” she said.

The classes will focus on Web site design, graphic design, digital photography, video production and editing.

Elena Gulas, 22, said she is hopeful that the classes, especially with Photoshop, will help in her graphic design work.

“I think the classes will be very helpful, and I hope they will offer more classes,” she said. “I’d like to learn how to do that on my own.”

With the latest digital photography and video cameras, professional lighting equipment, computer systems and software technologies available, the lab will provide an off-site learning center for high school and college students, she said.

Local potter Denise Shropshire, 48, is just beginning to sell her work and said she will benefit from all that the Media Lab will offer.

“I see myself using it quite a bit,” she said. “I had a major department store ask for photos recently and I didn’t have them, so this will help me have professional-quality photos and to catalog my work.”

Ms. Mannarino said the Media Lab and classes including Photoshop I, digital photography and Web site design will be available to nonartists and the general public. The lab also will be available for independent creative content development by the general public for a fee and at a discounted rate to current AVA members, she said. Need-based scholarships will be available.

“We haven’t set the fee yet, but it will be reasonable,” Ms. Mannarino said. “We’ll also have a monitor there all the time to help with any problems.”

The AVA Media Lab will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and from noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. It will be closed on Mondays and Fridays.

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