This Saturday Local Coffee of East Ridge and East Ridge Creative Arts will host an art exhibition and jazz concert by two successful, creative East Ridge natives, Marguerite Anderson and Kevin Roberts.
Saturday’s show will start at 5 p.m. with the concert beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Local Coffee is located at 5332 Ringgold Road.
Marguerite will exhibit a sizable collection of her paintings and other art works and Kevin will perform a short concert with his band, the Kevin Roberts Jazz Quintet.
Kevin and Marguerite have been friends since their days at Anna B. Lacey Elementary School. Marguerite was already known as the best artist in the school and Kevin was studying piano under a pianist featured with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. They have since enjoyed successful careers as professional artists.
Born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee, Anderson began her “art career” as soon as she was able to pick up a drawing utensil. Some of her earliest pieces were drawn on the back of church bulletins during the days when it was hard to see over the back of the pew in front of her.
By the time she was 12, art had become a passion causing her to begin drawing early in the morning on Saturdays and driving her to not stop until after midnight; many times forgetting to eat or drink in the process. By 15, she was an artist partner in a commercial art agency that designed billboards and ads for banks and other businesses in the Chattanooga area.
In her 20’s she began working as an illustration artist; designing book and magazine covers as well as illustrating many other publications.
Anderson began her art studies at Hunter Art Museum as a child of eight but is primarily self-taught. She studied art at UTC as well as ORU in Oklahoma.
In 1991, Marguerite began a line of whimsical miniature sculptures which were made into limited edition resin figurines and are now enjoyed in Canada and Europe as well.
Roberts has performed literally all over the world working in orchestras on cruise ships.
His band was a mainstay at the Southside Jazz Junction for over five years and was later the house band at the Foundry in the Chattanoogan Hotel. He has also long played with the Chattanooga Monday Nite Big Band at the Palms at Hamilton Place as well as performing at the Riverbend Festival, the Tivoli, and many other venues, backing up visiting artists such as Bernadette Peters, John Raitt, Shari Lewis, and others.
Local Coffee of East Ridge is a local craft/coffee shop in East Ridge, the first of its kind, operated by Danny and Debbie Lance. They also recently launched East Ridge Creative Arts (ERCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to arts education and awareness in the community.
Their goal is to provide a cultural hub in support of creative arts in East Ridge, including visual, musical and the performance arts of dance and drama. Partnering with local East Ridge government and schools, ERCA also plans to provide a community theater, which will showcase not only the works of ERCA students, but also provide a much-needed concert venue for local school performances. Classes and performance opportunities will be open available to all ages.
