Downtown Knoxville Culture, Community and Mission
Photography, Marketing Consult, Web Development
The downtown area contains the oldest parts of Knoxville, and has a rich and unique history filled with culture and industry. Surrounding neighborhoods have some of the highest poverty and crime rates in the area, but residents have made great strides in creating powerful organizations determined to overcome adversity.
Silver Highway worked with multiple organizations in or near Downtown Knoxville to promote ministry, support for social causes, unified community, the arts, and to celebrate the dignity of all. This resulted in images used all over Knoxville, a photo installation in 4 Market Square, and multiple websites and communication pieces.
RESULTS
We worked and lived in downtown Knoxville for over 10 years and worked with multiple non-profits, churches, and cultural organizations to create images and communication outlets that captured life, ministry and community in downtown Knoxville.
Extended web, social media and communication projects were contracted with three downtown churches to facilitate engagement with their communities. Images were used to capture music, portraits, and gatherings for numerous city leaders, artists, and cultural non-profits.
We worked with Volunteer Ministry Center for an extended photography project for the city’s 10 year plan to end homelessness. We partnered with multiple organizations to create images used to raise awareness and support to combat domestic violence, poverty and gang activity. These images were used on billboards, promotional materials, annual reports, and went viral on a national online magazine, Christianity Today.
ABOUT DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE
Busy Downtown Knoxville, the city’s central business district, is home to long-standing department stores, historic venues like the Bijou and Tennessee theaters, 200 year old churches, and dining options from barbecue to sushi. In the World’s Fair Park, the Sunsphere tower is topped by a gold orb and offers city views, while Knoxville Museum of Art shows East Tennessee artists in a pink marble-clad building.
However, The overall crime rate in Knoxville is 112% higher than the national average. 26.5% of residents live below the poverty line. As Knoxville leaders and their community focus on solutions to end homelessness and to help at-risk kids and take a stand against violence, there are many organizations in place to help.
This area, known fondly as the scruffy little city from a Wall Street Journal reporter’s skepticism of it’s ability to host the 1982 World’s Fair near downtown Knoxville, has the attitude of a little river city that invited the world for a visit and pulled the gig off. As local news editor Jack McElroy said, “Scruffiness just might be the polish that makes this city sparkle.”
Emerald Youth Foundation graphic design for promotional materials was done by the talented Deb Hardison Art + Design
Southern Rock band the Dirty Guv’nahs at the Bijou Theater, Dancers at the annual Hola Festival, University of Tennessee Lady’s soccer team, Becky Hancock, executive director of the Tennessee Theater.
Katie Norrell captures the raw, honest, passion of the human experience through a photography style that is powerful and significant. Her photos are rich and full of life. We have heavily used her photography as the heart and soul of our official website and social media presence for over 5 years.
-James Trimble, The Dirty Guv'nahs
Project capturing the faces of homelessness for Volunteer Ministry Center and the city of Knoxville’s 10 year plan to end homelessness.
Katie’s extraordinary ability to capture the very essence of a person in a single photograph is remarkable. In our prayer chapel, she created a montage of people in the city where you can see and feel the pain, the hope, the courage and the dignity of people you could easily pass on the street without giving a second look. Her God-given creativity helps me to connect with the brokenness of our world.
-Mark Pate
Emerald Youth Foundation children’s choir, Yasameen Hoffman-Shahin, lead singer of the Electric Darlings at the Bijou Theater, Emerald Youth Foundation swim team, audience at Slam Poetry group Po’ Boys and Poets
Landing my dream job was such a gift -- and a challenge. A circuitous path led me there, and when I finally arrived, I was grateful, humbled, and empowered to do good work. Katie's images help me portray the person I want to be in this role: confident, open, passionate, and hopeful. Thank you Katie for embodying these qualities in your portraits!
- Becky Hancock, Executive Director of the Tennessee Theater
Homeowner for Habitat for Humanity, Potluck wedding in Downtown Knoxville neighborhood, Baptism service at Cansler YMCA hosted by All Souls Church and Overcoming Believers Church, Habitat for Humanity volunteers
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.
- JANE JACOBS
Dancer Leslie Ellingburg in the alley behind Market Square in downtown Knoxville, singer at benefit for Emerald Youth Foundtion gala, prayer after baptism service