ARTS FEATURE ARTS & CRAFTS

Divine Barrel is one of many breweries uplifting the local arts scene

BY RYAN PITKIN

Sunlight gleamed in through the open garage door as people packed into Divine Barrel Brewing Co. just as the sun prepared to set on March 23. Still, the lights were dimmed enough to make things dramatic in the corner of the taproom where owner Gavin Toth prepared to make his major unveiling.

Following a speech from local artist Shefalee Patel, leader of the creative collective Namaste Artists Charlotte, Toth pulled back on a rope, dropping a curtain and exposing a brightly colored 12-by-8-foot mural depicting two blank, dancing human figures backed up by a beautiful but chaotic mosaic of neon colors.

The crowd of nearly 100 art patrons applauded wildly before DJ Pawan dropped a track that sounded like a mix of traditional Indian music, hip-hop and electronic dance music, with Patel leading her collective — 15 of whom participated in creating the newly unveiled mural — in a traditional dance.

For Charlotte Is Creative cofounder Matt Olin, the scene was exactly what he originally envisioned for Drop Series, an event series that commissions artists for large-scale murals before then turning those same murals into beer can designs to be distributed throughout the Carolinas by Divine Barrel.

“This is a really cool way to say, ‘Alright we’re going to create this really dramatic, theatrical vibe event where we’re literally going to drop a curtain to reveal a brand new mural,’” Olin told Queen City Nerve. “As a guy from the theatre world, I just love the drama around that.”

The March party was the second Drop Series, which launched in November as a quarterly event, beginning with a mural from three artists associated with the #BeattiesFordStrong movement: Ricky Singh, Ty McBride and Danyelle Ray.

At Drop Series Vol. 2: Bollywood, Beer & Art, cans of Divine Barrel’s new brew, Drop Series Vol. 1: Going Together, were stacked on the bar while glasses of the Berliner weisse-style ale with blood orange, guava and pineapple flowed from the taps all night.

The cans depict a triptych featuring each artist’s panel from the mural, including the artists’ respective Instagram handles, the #BeattiesFordStrong mural and a QR code that allows drinkers to learn more about the movement as well as the Drop Series.

For Olin, the partnership with Divine Barrel, which will distribute the cans in locations all around North and South Carolina, is the perfect intersection of his organization’s two top missions: compensation for local artists mixed with innovative exposure.

“One of the cornerstone ideologies of Charlotte Is Creative is championing collaboration between the creative community and the business community.

And that doesn’t just mean the big guys, the corporate community, but also small and mediumsized businesses as well, like Divine Barrel,” Olin said.

“Their willingness to take that piece of art and put it on a beer can that gets distributed around the Carolinas … it was just this sweet spot where it was like, ugh, this is that collaboration that we’ve been looking for with the Divine Barrel folks. It just came after years of exploring and keeping our eyes and ears open for the right concept.”

Divine intervention

Speaking with Queen City Nerve on the patio of Divine Barrel shortly before the most recent unveiling, artist Ricky Singh said the partnership with Divine Barrel was a natural progression. Toth and the Charlotte Is Creative team had already been supportive of the #BeattiesFordStrong movement, but this gave a chance to expand it out from activations on the west side to put it in front of a new NoDa audience.

“It’s exciting to see a dream that I’ve had for quite some time actually come to life,” Singh said of the partnership. “I feel like it was one of my first thoughts or conversations I might have had with Gavin years ago. ‘What if?’”

Toth himself may not remember that exact conversation, but he does have evidence that it took place. While going through his phone one day in early April, after the brewery had already hosted two Drop Series events, he came across a message in his Notes app: “Beer is art, mural project with can releases.”

According to Toth, it has been part of Divine Barrel’s mission since opening in 2018 to invite collaboration with Charlotte creatives. The brewery hosts a rotating display of local artists, curated by Matt Alvis with Art Cart NoDa and Tough Ass Crew, as well as regular events that spotlight local talent, from a “yarn bombing” by local fiber artist Pam Imhof to the series of OneBand concerts that invite musicians of all experience levels to get onstage and perform together, often for the first time.

“I think [art and craft brewing] go hand-inhand, when you look at how a lot of galleries that keep closing, now some are starting to emerge again, but people need to continue to take these opportunities in these larger spaces,” Toth said. “Breweries can be galleries for everybody.”

The brewery also hosts the NoDaHood Market, which features local artisanal entrepreneurs to sell their wares. The last event featured more than 100 vendors, a NoDaHood record.