Our annual State of the Arts issue focuses on our changing venues.
If this issue of The Pulse seems a tad bit larger than you are accustomed to, there’s a simple reason: it’s our annual State of the Arts issue. Every year, we take a longer look at some aspect of the arts community in Chattanooga, and this year we are looking at the changing face of the venues housing the arts.
Specifically, we are doing our best to keep up with the rapidly changing arts venue landscape. The past few weeks have seen a flurry of new—and very exciting—announcements that we have done our best to cover for you within these pages.
But to do this subject justice, we had to go well beyond our normal coverage. Hence, with the support of our many advertisers, we are able to present a very in-depth look at not only what is happening in the city, but find out the “why” from the forces behind the venues.
But that is just part of what makes State of the Arts such a special issue for us. This year, we had three of Chattanooga’s best artists develop unique pieces of art specifically for this issue.
On the cover, longtime Pulse editorial cartoonist Rick Baldwin presents his own whimsical take on the wide variety of Chattanoogans who go out to see performances.
On the cover of the State of the Arts pullout section, artist Mark A. Ritch, whom we profiled in our July 10 issue, creates a more provocative look at our theme of “Visions & Venues”. And on the pullout contents page, photographic artist and muralist David Ruiz, whom we profiled in our June 26 issue, inserts himself into an exuberant celebration of being a part of the crowd.
I would also be remiss if I did not extend my appreciation to the amazing pool of talented writers who came together to complete our coverage this week. No alternative weekly newspaper can exist in a vacuum; if it weren’t for the devoted writers who share their skill and expertise with us every week, we simply would not exist.
Led by Contributing Editor Janis Hashe (a talented writer on her own), our State of the Arts cover stories are by Rich Bailey, Jennifer Crutchfield, Hayley Graham, Tony Mraz and Stephanie Smith.
And let’s not forget our regular feature writers and columnists who keep things interesting every week: Marc T. Michael, Michael Crumb, Ernie Paik, John DeVore, Sandra Kurtz, Mike McJunkin, Mike Dobbs, Louis Lee, Rob Brezsny, Matt Jones, Steven Disbrow, David Travers Adolphus, Dr. Rick Pimental-Habib, and the inimitable Alex Teach.
I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the contributions of our summer interns—Christopher Armstrong, Jake Bacon and Madeline Chambliss—and wish them well as they complete their internships with this issue.
But most of all, I want to thank you for being a loyal reader of The Pulse. Here’s a virtual toast to the continuing growth of the arts in Chattanooga.
Cheers!