Kings and Queens of East Chattanooga

Site: Mark Making Campus (Intersection of North Chamberlain Avenue and Glass St.)

Artists: 14 East Chattanooga teens in collaboration with professional artist Frances McDonald

Partners: Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Glass House Collective, Nova Copy, Co. Lab, Chattanooga Public Library

Description: Kings and Queens of East Chattanooga is a collection of fourteen high relief sculpture building adornments in the tradition of gargoyles added to buildings to protect those who entered. Teens from East Chattanooga gathered for a 3D printing workshop. Their scanned portraits were printed as masks and housed in a box that could be mounted on the building. Those included a headress and other ornamentation inspired by Egyptian and Benin art. Once created, each teen completed the painting of their piece.

As many schools are underfunded, particularly those in inner-city areas, opportunities to have experiences with advanced technology are rare, yet necessary for students’ future success in post-secondary education and the workforce. Kings and Queens of East Chattanooga was an effort to mitigate this gap, holding 3D printing workshops during a fall break camp for teens in East Chattanooga.

Another outcome of this project were implications- that the teens were protecting the buildings of the non profit whose mission was to serve them. Unexpected was the feeling of being watched by the eyes of sculpture… someone is always watching. What if that someone were you or your friend?

Kings and Queens of East Chattanooga was funded in part by Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga.