Head“Holmie”

Peggy Petrey and her husband, John, were searching for an arts community — in hopes of relocating there from Orlando, Fla. — when their travel brought them into Chattanooga.

“We had looked at San Diego and Santa Fe and were on the way to Asheville, N.C., when we came through Chattanooga and thought maybe this could be the place,” Peggy Petrey said.

Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga helped convince the couple of that choice with an ArtsMove grant, which provides financial incentives to artists moving to a home within 3.5 miles of downtown Chattanooga. Later, Peggy Petrey came to know her new arts community through participation in a Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute. In return she has become one of Allied Arts’ leading advocates.

Petrey organized ArtsChatts, social gatherings open to anyone interested in discussing local arts. The group meets the third Tuesday night of each month at Big River Grille.

She helped organize an alumni association out of the 150 graduates in the five Holmberg classes to date and was voted its first president. With her guidance, The Holmies, as they have become known, are working more cohesively in support of Allied Arts.

“It’s not an official 501(c)3, but she was able to bring together a group of alumni and put them together as a working arm to support Allied Arts and the arts community. She’s taken it from zero to 10 in less than a year,” said Marilyn Harrison, Allied Arts vice president who oversees the Holmberg classes.

The Holmberg Institute takes its classes on insiders’ tours behind the scenes in local arts venues and introduces them to agency directors as well as movers and shakers in Chattanooga’s arts community.

Q: Why did you apply to a Holmberg class?

A: I had only been here two months, and it was a way to meet people and get to know the arts in Chattanooga.

Also, I spent my first 48 years working one-on-one with people, such as mentoring women to bring out their emotions through arts. I had developed relationships around art. I wanted to affect change in art. I saw a need for advocacy, and I thought the class could do that for me.

Q: As the first president, where do you see Holmberg alumni could be best put to use?

A: Definitely in volunteerism, whether it’s as simple as being part of a phone bank for the Allied Arts campaign or helping staff 4 Bridges Arts Festival.

We need people to go into schools and help teach. John and I open our studio to high school visits.

We need to advocate for the importance of arts education. When we pull the arts out of schools we lose the next generation of artists and patrons; we lose inventors and all those creative minds coming up.

Q: What is your vision for the alumni association?

A: We have three parts to what we’re about. First, an education component; we can help educate people about local arts. Second, networking, providing a place where like-minded people can hang out together, such as ArtsChatt. Third, supporting Allied Arts.