Relay Ridge is a collaborative artist space serving the Knoxville creative community offering affordable private studios, gallery, printshop, and collective workspace. Our goal is to enable artistic collaboration among the Relay Ridge resident artists and the Knoxville arts community and beyond through workshops and event opportunities.
Who Runs This Place?!
Founded by duo Ashton Ludden & Andrew Messersmith in late 2020, Relay Ridge was created to manifest a community of active and excited artists in a collective space.
Ashton Ludden
Ashton Ludden is an artist and educator with specialization in hand-engraving, printmaking, and sign painting. She received her BFA in Engraving Arts and Printmaking from Emporia State University in 2009, and her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee in 2013.
She is a teacher of printmaking at Knoxville’s Community School of the Arts and recently left her position in May 2022 as the lead sign artist for Knoxville’s Trader Joe’s since 2014. Ludden was also the 2D Coordinator for the Spring & Winter Pentaculum Artist Residency at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts from 2016-2024 and teaches various printmaking workshops throughout the region.
Andrew Messersmith
Andrew Messersmith is a systems engineer and a hobbyist blacksmith. He has served on the Board of Directors of Knox Makers in South Knoxville as their Development Director from 2019-2021. Responsibilities and roles included leading two different construction projects: (1) improvements on the existing Knox Makers building and (2) the construction for a new blacksmithing building and facility. Messersmith is currently the Blacksmithing Zone Czar at Knox Makers.
With complementary skillsets and a community driven approach, Ashton & Andrew hope to provide a safe, diverse, and sustainable artist space for Knoxville creatives.
CONTACT
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