MONICA ALICIA ELLISON
THRIVE REGION, 2022 - 2023
Monica Alicia (Coates) Ellison was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. She earned a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University. Her professional credits include ensemble work with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2 (Dayton, OH), principal work with Balance Dance Theatre (Brooklyn, NY), and guest work with Sudden Enlightenment Theatre (Queens, NY), including a performance in Seoul, Korea. Ellison’s teaching career began in Chattanooga, TN, and has included ballet, pointe, modern and jazz for beginner-through-advanced levels, at various dance studios. Ellison and her husband are the founding directors of MNGK (Move N Groove Kidz) Garvey Program- a nonprofit organization that aims to improve youth and community education by providing exposure to movement and music arts. Over the past 2 years Ellison has rededicated herself to her artistic practice by dancing everyday and has documented her journey through her daily dance diary of Instagram under the handle @createyourdancelife.
Over the last year with Artists At Work, Monica researched the larger topic of climate resiliency to distill problem areas serviced by the Thrive Regional Partnership within the southeast region. Monica attended meetings with Thrive Regional Partnership to lend her creative perspective to their structured methods of problem solving. Monica also participated in the planning of Thrive Regional Partnerships’s Resilient Communities program, which supports community engagement through the unifying power of movement and breath. Emma Wheeler Homes is one of Thrive’s Resilient Communities based in Chattanooga and is at high risk of flooding. Monica taught dance classes to kids at Emma Wheeler that, through movement, encouraged self expression and autonomy. The intention of her engagement was to allow for residential participation in finding new ways to discuss and address the climate issues they are experiencing.
CULTURE HUB
ArtsBuild’s mission is to build a stronger community through the arts. Since 1969, ArtsBuild has served as a catalyst for the arts in our community, investing more than $76 million in arts organizations, arts programs, and arts education. In 2020 alone, ArtsBuild infused $1.4 million into the local arts sector. Everything ArtsBuild does is focused on creating access to the arts. The organization does this through grant-making, arts education initiatives, and arts advocacy.
ArtsBuild serves as a champion for the arts. It aims to showcase the collective impact the arts have on its community, as well as the many ways that the arts improve our quality of life. As a hub for the arts in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, ArtsBuild leads and participates in community-wide discussions and strategies about how to cultivate support for the arts in education, local economy, and tourism. In 2021, ArtsBuild was a finalist for the United Way of Greater Chattanooga “Nonprofit of the Year” award.
For more information, visit artsbuild.com.
SOCIAL IMPACT INITIATIVE
The mission of Thrive Regional Partnership (Thrive) is to inspire responsible growth through conversation, connection, and collaboration across the 16-county, tri-state greater Chattanooga region. Since 2012, Thrive has built strong, authentic relationships with communities across the region to support them as they grow in a way that preserves community and natural character. Thrive also maintains the collaborative framework of the Natural Treasures Alliance, a network of conservation, outdoor recreation, and land management entities dedicated to long-term landscape preservation across the region..