Through The Years With Art 120
By Laila E. Smith
Laila Smith
Good afternoon STEP-UP Student,
We have matched you with Art 120…
As a Step-Up Intern, my journey started with an email that placed me with Art 120 way back in 2017. This was all the way back in 10th grade; I was just fifteen or sixteen then, and I had been looking for a job. Every teenager starts working for different reasons–some work to help with family matters, some work to start paying things like phone bills. Fortunately, I didn't have bills I had to help pay, and I also didn't have family matters I could help with by working. I was probably a little unconventional, because I only wanted to work to get out of the house.
Regardless of the reasoning, I would start my very first job soon after learning my placement.
Back then, Kate Warren (Director of Art 120) wasn’t the person who was leading us. She had Hannah Hahn to help us do that, and so my first taste of Art 120’s operations was to help set up an event at The Bethlehem Center, in Alton Park. This was a pretty convenient first job—I lived just across the street.
The event itself was going to be an art gallery event hosted by Painted Story, and my job was to help set it up. I worked alongside two other interns to do so, and everyday for a few weeks I would go and help to plan and set this event up. Together, we built shelves, displays, hung artwork, and did general cleaning. It was a very fun first event experience, because at the end of it I got to see people I knew from my neighborhood enjoying what I helped put together. Sadly, my first year at Art 120 was cut short because of an amazing summer camp opportunity. By the time I came back from the three week long trip, my summer was mostly over–and so was my first job. We would go do some interesting technology projects at local elementary schools, introducing them to teachers just before the start of my 11th grade year started.
Luckily, Art 120 needed help throughout the year. The Levitt Amp music series was an apparent big deal, and Kate was going to need help running the Art 120 booth for children. Another intern, Chris White, and I would show up every Friday at 5:00pm to the Bessie Smith center to help set up. Our set up included big blue blocks, which we called the sculpture blocks. We would set up a small fenced in area, and kids would come play with them during the concert. This is one of my favorite memories of working with Art 120–building relationships with the food trucks and kids we’d see every week was fun.
Laila Smith, Chris White, and friends.
It was my first time experiencing events like that, because I’d never had a reason to know about events in town before. This really helped open my eyes to Chattanooga’s booming music scene—and it also helped me with people skills (which I’d been sorely lacking).
Another important Art 120 project I was part of was NOMCON–The Nation of Maker Conference. Art 120 received the honor of hosting it June of 2019. This meant that I got a new title: Executive Administrative Assistant. It was my first taste of large scale event management. Throughout the day, I worked to help wherever I was needed. It was a really eye-opening experience, because I had to help plan, set-up and oversee parts of such a large and complex operation. Usually, when you go to an event like that, you simply go through the program--never realizing that some intern and her best friends had set up the majority of venue’s tables and chairs by themselves. It was a great lesson to learn. Sometimes the only recognition you need is from yourself, and the work you put in.
Haider Ali and the Jingle Truck
Over the years, and the summers I’ve spent with Art 120, I’ve done a lot of varied things alongside all of those really big things. I made a calendar for teachers a few years back, and learned how to use InDesign—and then we went to get paper from a paper store, printed our content, and then assembled fifty calendars to hand out. I’ve met some really cool people, like award-winning artist Haider Ali, who allowed me to help him paint some of the Jingle Truck he was designing for Art 120.
Painting the Jingle Truck!
I learned a lot about what goes into Jingle Trucks—you need a lot of symbolism, and you need to think of important imagery from your hometown. It was fun listening to Kate, Saddaf, and Haider talk about design choices. It was just as fun to watch Haider work his magic—he painted so easily he made it seem like nothing hard.
A few other things that happened in my later years at Art 120:
Teaching myself to solder!
Learning to weld!
Helping Children Make Their Own Jingle Trucks
What Art 120 Has Done For Me
Laila Smith and Kate Warren, Founder of Art 120 at Laila’s going away party
Laila Smith and Kate Warren
Working for Art 120 has done a lot for me, both as an intern and as a person. Right as I graduated, Kate Warren Helped kickstart a fundraiser that helped me go to college. They raised thousands of dollars to help me get to school—it was a really uplifting experience for me. Kate even took it a step further and put together a giant going-away party, with a venue and catering. I’ve never forgotten that, even almost four years out from the experience. Had I not had Kate in my corner, I’m not sure I would have made it to school. I really needed that help, and Art 120 stepped up to give it to me.
Going into my final year of college, I’m looking forward to taking everything that working for Art 120 taught me into my final year of school. I really glad that I was able to be part of this organization for so long, and I hope to further help it in the future.
Birthday Brunch!
