As the colorful hues of spring paint the Scenic City, the Arts-Based Collaborative (ABC) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is adding its own artistic strokes to classrooms and communities.
Housed within the UTC College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, ABC has been a dynamic force this semester, fostering creativity and learning through innovative arts-based programs.
Angela Dittmar, ABC’s director of teaching artist residencies, aptly summarized the flurry of activity: “It’s been quite a semester.”
One of the spring’s most ambitious undertakings unfolded at Hixson Elementary School from April 28 to May 2. In a unique partnership between ABC, Hixson’s related arts teachers (covering art, music, library, and physical education), and local musicians Jennifer Daniels and Rick Rushing III, the entire student body immersed themselves in a week dedicated to the blues.
The program kicked off with an electrifying school wide concert featuring Daniels and Rushing. Over the following three days, the musicians moved through classrooms, guiding students in the creation of their own original blues lyrics. The week culminated in a second full-school concert where students proudly performed the songs they helped to write.
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this,” Dittmar explained, highlighting the collaborative spirit of the project. “It’s been exciting to see how the artists and the teachers worked together to build something really special. And I love that it’s customized. The related arts team really took the lead in shaping this.”
The seeds for Blues Week were sown through a connection between Hixson Elementary and the Northside Neighborhood House. Community educator Rose Denor, inspired by an ABC-facilitated summer teacher training session, secured a Tennessee Arts Commission Student Ticket Subsidy Grant to bring the program to fruition. While Denor is no longer directly involved, Dittmar acknowledged her pivotal role in initiating the project.
Beyond the blues, ABC’s spring outreach spans numerous other schools and centers, including East Brainerd Elementary, Hope City, Montessori Elementary at Highland Park, Battle Academy, Wallace A. Smith Elementary, Hardy Elementary, and various Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms.
These residencies focus on the crucial areas of early learning and arts integration within subjects like literacy, math, and social-emotional development.
Dittmar emphasized that many of these vital residencies are made possible through the generous support of grants and community partners, including Chattanooga 2.0, the City of Chattanooga, and the United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
ABC’s impact extends beyond individual schools through partnerships with organizations like WTCI-PBS for arts integration activities at East Chattanooga and Carver Community Centers. They also contribute to teacher development through the Partners in Education coalition, which includes ArtsBuild, WTCI, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and Hamilton County Schools.
“Students benefit so much from having teaching artists come into their classrooms,” Dittmar concluded. “It breaks up the routine, it brings joy and excitement, and it helps them learn in deeper, more meaningful ways.”
Founded in 1987 through a unique partnership involving the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, Chattanooga-based foundations, UTC, the state of Tennessee, and local school districts, ABC was initially one of six Getty-funded regional institutes dedicated to researching and promoting discipline-based visual art education.
Recognizing the broader potential, UTC and the Chattanooga community expanded the concept to encompass music, theatre, and dance education.