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On Location: Glass’a’nooga (by Normal Park Museum Magnet School, Chatanooga, TN)

467 views · Published 10 July 2018 · 3:00 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning · 2018 · Education

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Glass'a'nooga is the story of how stained glass artist Dee Mays Lewis works with Normal Park Museum Magnet students through the complicated, and sometimes dangerous, process of creating stained glass mosaics. The artist and students share what makes the experience worthwhile, and how the process engages the community as they sit around a table trying to find “the perfect piece” to create their collective vision in a mural depicting their studies at a museum school.

Accomplished artist Dee Mays Lewis has been working with stained glass for 26 years. Her artwork can be seen in churches, art galleries, and installations around Chattanooga. Dee also shares her love for glass art as well as her spirit of exploration and determination by teaching workshops and classes across the country.

Stained glass artists arrange pieces of colored glass to form patterns or pictures. Throughout its thousand-year history, stained glass art most often appeared as windows in churches and other significant buildings. Today modern glass artists are creating three-dimensional structures, and are experimenting with new techniques and styles.

Since the revitalization of the downtown area as a museum district, Chattanooga has returned to its moniker "the Scenic City". The community recognizes the restorative power of embracing the arts and humanities in all their forms. At Normal Park Museum Magnet school, students feel a strong sense of their purpose and place in the history of Chattanooga: "Chattanooga is a different kind of town. Normal Park is a different kind of school. I guess that's why we do all our exhibits and travel journals, to kind of encourage others in the community to be creative."

From 2008-2010, nineteen schools from across the United States created videos as part of the On Location program. A "media studio on wheels" visited each school for two weeks and provided students the gear and training to tell the story of the arts in their community.

From go-go music in Washington DC, to gullah woodburning in Beaufort, South Carolina, to modern dance in Berkley, Michigan, the arts of a community can be as different as it's geography.

The Kennedy Center traveled the country to help students tell the story of the arts in their community, and the result is a video collection reflecting a rich diversity of local artists and art forms across the United States.

The videos in this series were scripted, produced and edited by students using professional equipment, under the supervision of Kennedy Center teaching artists.

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