A city with a world-class dining scene has more than just large, prestigious restaurants—it has a network of family farms and food trucks that fill out its whole food ecosystem.

A city with a vibrant entrepreneurial scene does more than just support big businesses with huge profit margins—it helps people who are just starting out by providing a low-stakes environment where they can try new things and develop their ideas.

The same is true of our performing arts scene. Even with all the wonderful current venues, some clear gaps exist in our community regarding how artists and craftspeople are supported.

Through months of research, outreach, and listening to our community, we’ve determined that there are three specific and urgent needs that are holding back our local performing arts sector:

• There isn’t enough high quality classroom or rehearsal space that individual artists, new organizations, and community-based groups can access and afford.

• There aren’t enough small and flexible theater facilities for new and original work.

• There aren't enough shop facilities for designing and building costumes, props, sets, lighting, and other technical elements.    

A performing arts community that lacks accessible, affordable rehearsal, performing, and shop spaces simply will not serve all of its local artists and artisans as well as it could.

It is important to keep in mind that at the moment we are purely studying the feasibility of a new facility. That feasibility study may indicate that a new facility is not the right decision at this time for any number of reasons.

The point of the feasibility study process is to learn as much as we can so that our arts community can come to a decision about the best possible solution for what we need moving forward.

The community input for this process so far has been extensive, involving more than 100 people and organizations who participated in interviews and focus groups. This group included a diverse mix of artists, educators, nonprofit leaders, and community advocates so that we could capture the lived experiences and varied perspectives from across the local arts community. This qualitative input was then combined with hard data from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, market potential indexes, and local ticketing data.

On top of that, more than 100 existing and potential local performance and rehearsal spaces have been rigorously evaluated. Many of these spaces are educational or religious in nature, and/or owned by nonprofit organizations, which may make them ill-suited to some kinds of performances, to say nothing of the kind of technical and shop space that our arts community needs. Furthermore, none of these venues can accommodate all performing arts disciplines, which leads to persistent accessibility issues.

The Lyndhurst Foundation and ArtsBuild are supporting this process, which was initiated in response to consistent feedback from the local performing arts community about specific deficiencies in rehearsal, performance, and shop space availability.

The first phase of their research commenced in Fall 2024 and was unveiled to the public in Summer 2025. The second phase is now underway. 

Above all, this will be a space for emerging artists and mid-sized organizations. This part of our creative workforce generates significant economic impact for our region, but remains underserved in some crucial ways. This facility is an investment in them, but one that benefits our entire community.

Simply put, artists are working harder and spending more money on rehearsal and production space that does not always suit their needs. Even as our city grows, we are hemorrhaging artists, and sustainable growth will be impossible for small and medium-sized groups to achieve.

If we as a city are serious about wanting creatives to thrive here, we need to provide dedicated spaces where they can do so. If we do not, these creative professionals will move to more supportive communities or abandon the arts altogether, both of which are bad outcomes for Chattanooga. 

No. Our research involved taking a close look at more than 100 local existing/potential performance and rehearsal spaces that are currently being used in different ways by local artists and groups. That process revealed clear gaps with regard to their space, accessibility, or other limitations, which could be addressed by the right kind of new facility.

These institutions are incredibly important to Chattanooga and their renovations will add to our cultural life in immeasurable ways.

The new facility will not be a competitor to these or other organizations because it will serve a very different function: by meeting the unique needs of local emerging artists and craftspeople, including performers, designers, directors, and choreographers themselves.

Right now, we don’t know, and it's too early to speculate on a specific location.

During the first phase, most artists and community-based groups strongly indicated that they would prefer for a facility like this to be centrally located with strong access to public transportation. Generally speaking, this means that the ideal location will be somewhere in, near, or around downtown. Determining some possible sites for the new facility will be an outcome of the second phase of our research.

It is too early to speculate about specific costs. Designing and building the facility our community needs could be a significant undertaking that will require financial support from a wide array of private, philanthropic, and public sources—similar to other landmark projects in Chattanooga’s history.

If at all possible, we will preserve and adapt an existing building for this purpose, which is the most cost-effective and sustainable solution.

If the community determines this project is feasible, and once we have more certainty about the specific spaces it should include, a competitive process will be used to identify a qualified architecture firm that shares our vision, understands our community, and has experience with facilities like these. 

There are a variety of governance models we should consider for the new facility. Determining which model makes the most sense for us will be an outcome of the second phase of our research.

We know this is something that our community will understandably want to help us decide!

It is important to note that while we refer to this project as “a facility,” it is in many respects a process as much as it is a place. The collaboration and cohesion we can build among local artists and organizations is invaluable, regardless of where (or if) a new physical space is constructed.

To that point, we are confident that the best possible name for this will emerge as we continue to engage with our community.

Until we have a clearer sense of the cost implications for the new facility, it is too early to speculate on the potential sources of funds or what will be required from each. What we do know is that a stronger arts community benefits local governments in some powerful ways.

For instance, every $1 invested in the arts returns up to $2 in local spending and $5 in tax revenue. Hamilton County's nonprofit arts already generate $191 million annually, and a new facility could generate upwards of $137 million in additional annual economic impact.

The new facility can function as the catalyst for a flywheel that has clear implications for the region’s economic development, job creation, and fiscal stability: artists and artisans will hone their craft and grow more connected to each other and their community. This allows them to seek higher wages as their skills increase and they produce work of increasing quality and sophistication, which will draw bigger and more supportive audiences.

Over time, this will position Chattanooga as a vibrant cultural hub, which makes the entire region more appealing to workers, families, and potential employers of all kinds.

Absolutely! You may not be a writer, actor, dancer, set designer, lighting designer, or a costume designer—or even attend a performing arts event—but the arts are still working for you.

A stronger and more dynamic arts sector makes the entire metropolitan area more attractive not only to tourists, but to families, workers, and employers of all kinds, as well as shops and restaurants near the facility. This keeps our economy competitive and resilient, which produces the tax revenue that funds other local priorities.

In other words, when Chattanooga invests in the arts, more people and businesses will invest in Chattanooga.