GOOD LIFE
INSIDE: ARTS / STYLE / ROOM WE LOVE / HISTORY / REAL ESTATE / ENTERTAINMENT
THE
MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIVING HERE
ART S
Work in Progress
With a revamped brand and mission, McColl Center tries— again—to establish an identity in a fast-evolving community
Artists-in-residence, like multimedia storyteller William Caballero, hone their craft at McColl Center, where visitors can witness the complex process of making art.
COURTESY, CHRIS EDWARDS
BY ALLISON BRADEN
AMONG CHARLOTTE’S ARTS ORGANIZATIONS, McColl Center stands apart. In 1995, Bank of America bought an uptown Presbyterian church, which had languished after a fire destroyed the interior in 1984. The bank teamed up with the Arts & Science Council to refurbish the interior and opened the space as an artist residency, then called the Tryon Center for Visual Art, in 1999. The residency program has since become a prestigious destination for artists from all over the world to refine their craft and burnish their résumés. But the organization has struggled to find its niche among Charlotte’s marquee arts attractions. For a while, towering banners on the façade proclaimed, “ART INSIDE.” Arrows pointed toward the entrance. You could live here for decades without discovering what lies behind those doors. “We have always served artists, both local and national, but we’ve done it in a very particular way,” says Jonell Logan, McColl Center’s vice president and creative director. “And the building hasn’t been accessed by as many people as possible.” Logan joined the nonprofit in November 2020 after stints at the Gantt Center and New York City’s Whitney Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Her hiring is part of a slate of changes intended to root the center more deeply in the community, a challenge it’s wrestled with for more than two decades. In September, McColl Center announced that it would rebrand and complement the flagship residency with locally focused pro-
FEBRUARY 2022 // CHARLOTTE
17
