I would like to start this post first by retracting a statement from an earlier post: Da Reggae Cafe is still in business on W. Lee St. Since moving out of that neighborhood, I was not driving around there much anymore and was just grossly mistaken. My sentiments from my previous entry remain, but now I can rejoice and eat Jamaican food!
Now on to it.
Some friends came into town last weekend and wanted to explore downtown Greensboro a little bit. After perusing the antique shops and the vintage shops and the antique vintage shops, we made our way down to Elsewhere Artist Collaborative.
Myself, I am an art historian and a painter, while the two friends I was with are both photographers. We imagined that we three would be a very apt, receptive audience for Elsewhere.
Well.
Walking in, we were greeted by a cheery face who was more than happy to give us a general description of where we were and what we could do. Taken from Elsewhere's website: "Elsewhere is an ongoing creative happening that interweaves intention and chance, artists and artwork, museum and studio, everyday things and extraordinary life." Cool idea, very fluffy words. Basically its this enormous space full of things and installations and materials for you to interact with. Nothing is for sale, nothing leaves the space; its a hoarder's paradise and an OCD person's nightmare.
Gathering some history about the space, it was originally a surplus furniture store in the 1930's, then to army surplus, then to a thrift store by the 1970's. Between the 70's and the late 1990's (when the original owner died), the space became the owner's haven for hoarded objects of all varieties.
In 2003, George Scheer, the owner's grandson, and a crew of his writer friends stepped in to appreciate the scale of what was left in this large space. Instead of peering upon mountains of musty junk, they saw a sea of artifacts and ideas. Soon thereafter, the collaborative became a non-profit organization and by 2005 they had established an artist residency program and had a clear cut mission for the space: put plainly; no rules, just imagination.
After giving my $1 donation and walking into the space a little ways, I was a little disappointed. I felt like this really was just an old thrift store, like some people just sorted out all these old musty toys for you to touch and play with. We found old Rubix cubes, we played with tons of dated McDonald's happy meal toys, we made a tiny car show out of die-cast cars. Honestly, I was bored. I wasn't interested in the retro-buzz from seeing Krang dolls and 6 Million Dollar Man action figures.
Then I stepped further in and started discovering how people had used these slightly sorted objects to create installations and curiosities; I was inspired. I certainly appreciated the front area a lot more. It was an homage to what the space once was, and a fairly tame lead into how the space is evolving.
I came upon the Cabinet of Curiosities; a fanciful hat-tip to the freak shows of old. I stood and watched a young girl behind a sign that said "Excuse the mess, curating in progress". I watched her for quite some time. She was in this area that was predominantly pink, fleshy doll parts and Precious Moments figurines. I was entranced watching her thought processes; she picked up piece by piece, object by object and pensively imagined all the possibilities that she could create on one dusty shelf.
There was an antique kitchen that I would pay Elsewhere by the hour to use. Outside there was an alleyway garden that was somehow both kempt and unkempt.
Upon moving into the other section of the building, I just wanted to touch everything. There was a tornado of plush toys. There was a station with sewing tools, screen printing equipment, there was a mini dark room and a library. On top of that was a cushioned loft that overlooked the whole place and Elm Street. Past visitors and artists and pinned their wishes and aspirations to the ceiling.
I found filing cabinets full of any sort of crafting supply you could imagine; all media available to do with whatever you wanted. So I glued eyes on everything that appeared to vaguely have a face.
By far my favorite portion of the collection was a hallway fashioned from bookcases. It resembled a bowling lane. At the far end were disassembled musical instruments affixed all over the wall and bookcases. At the entrance to the lane was a basket full of small bouncy balls and a sign encouraging me to "make music". I spent a forgotten amount of time perfecting how to bounce the balls to fly off the high hat to skate across the piano wires and onto the snare drum.
Elsewhere Artist Collaborative has big potential to bring out parts of people that they didn't really know were in them. My friends and I were visiting on a warm, sunny, Saturday afternoon and, being a store front on the busiest street in downtown Greensboro, there was a lot of off-the-street visitors milling about and watching those people interact with the space was interesting to watch and gave me some ideas.
While you are encouraged to interact with the collection ("living museum"), I feel like people's fear of judgment of others keep them from letting loose and getting their hands dirty. I heard lots of, "Well, that is just weird," or "What the hell?" from visitors. To have people just come in and out of a place like Elsewhere and not be shown that it is okay to actually create is a serious waste of patronage.
Yes, the girl at the door tells you to interact and create. For people that aren't inherently artistic or creative, that doesn't really mean a whole lot. Late into my visit, there was a tour being given to about 10 people and they were having a complete blast. While giving a tour to every visitor is unreasonable, having staff or volunteers that are willing to talk to patrons in the space would be so helpful to the everyday lookie-loo. The shy walk-in patron needs to be engaged and accepted into the space to which they more than likely feel very foreign.
tl;dr - have social volunteers show patrons instead of tell.
As a person who has little to no idea to how the place is run and whose only experience is as a one-time visitor, this idea seems totally plausible and I would actually love to do this. I know that the collaborative offers classes, holds seminars, etc; my idea is for the times when those are not happening. There were at least 15 staff people present on the main floor while I was there. I saw a total of 3 speak to patrons: one girl at the front desk area (there were about 8 of them in total) and the two people giving the tour.
Not all artists are brooding and misunderstood. Talk to us. It is a community and, from what I understand, many of them live there. Repeat patronage and word of mouth are a great way to get people in the door and my suggestion would offer both, I believe.
Had I been someone else, say someone who hasn't been artistically trained or someone who hadn't heard anything about Elsewhere prior to walking in, I probably would not have enjoyed my experience as much as I did.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Elsewhere Artist Collaborative. I intend on trying to frequent the establishment at the very least. It is truly a place where you can lose yourself for hours and make wonderful things.
Check out their website here: http://www.goelsewhere.org/
