ARTS FEATURE
THE VOICE OF A VILLAGE
New Mint Museum exhibit continues institution’s efforts to highlight local artists
Pg. 6 JUN 16 - JUN 29, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
BY ANNIE MCGOWAN
roots all over, representing the transplant nature of the city and its reliance on immigrants. The artists also work in a multitude of mediums, from ceramics to metal to fibers, representing a diverse array of backgrounds and cultures through art. Jen Edwards, curator at Mint Museum and cofounder of Goodyear Arts, worked as a go-between for centering local artists in Charlotte’s oldest arts museum. “One of the reasons why I find Charlotte so extraordinary is that the artist collective community here is so strong and dynamic, and supporting such a diverse range of work that’s being made,” Edwards told Queen City Nerve. “I genuinely lived and traveled through a lot of places, and that network of artist collectives in Charlotte is quite extraordinary. And so, it is a great opportunity to highlight the work being done here.” The exhibit will bring together three of Charlotte’s most innovative artist collectives, combining into a celebration of the Charlotte art scene.
In a sign of how Charlotte’s oldest arts institution is shifting focus to support more local and diverse artists, The Mint Museum-Randolph in June opened an expansive exhibit featuring work from local indie artist collectives Goodyear Arts, BLKMRKTCLT, and Brand the Moth, featuring more than 40 artists from the Charlotte area. Each collective claims a room at the museum to display their respective works. The exhibit, titled It Takes a Village, follows the lead of a recent three-day pop-up exhibit at the museum’s original location on Randolph Road that ‘For us, by us’ also showed the works of around 40 local artists, BLKMRKTCLT is based in Camp North End and with a focus on artists of color and underground made for people of color by people of color, said street artists. While LOCAL/STREET lasted just co-founder and studio manager Will Jenkins. With three days, It Takes events focused to a Village will last introduce Charlotte three months, and to the next big while the art isn’t artist, BLKMRKTCLT quite as packed in as also serves as a safe it was during LOCAL/ space for artists of STREET, the more color to create. spread out nature of “BLKMRKT as the exhibit allows a collective came the viewer to zero into fruition mainly in on what has been because there was included. no safe creative Running from space for African June 12 to Sept. 12, Americans to just It Takes a Village authentically features artists make the art that overlap with that represents the LOCAL/STREET them,” Jenkins told exhibit, as well as Queen CIty Nerve. some who worked “The mission of on the Black Lives BLKMRKT is not Matter mural A PHOTO COLLAGE BY BLKMRKTCLT’S WILL JENKINS. only creating that painted between space, but pushing East 3rd and East 4th the idea of what is authentic Black artistry.” streets in June 2020 during nationwide protests BLKMRKTCLT co-founder Carla Aaron-Lopez that followed the police killings of George Floyd served as lead organizer and curator of the LOCAL/ and Brianna Taylor. STREET pop-up in late March. She cites the lack of The local artists featured in the new exhibit have
minority voices within the Charlotte art scene as The Goodyear platform inspiration for her work. Goodyear Arts, another collective in the exhibit, “If you really want to know, BLKMRKT is the is a nonprofit artist residency and events program ‘now’ version of a Black arts collective in Charlotte, focused on visual, performing, and literary arts. the only other one that we can trace back to is God The Goodyear Arts collective is made up of more City in the early 2000s,” Aaron-Lopez told Queen City than 40 artist-in-residence alumni and current Nerve. “And there may have been more prior to that, leadership, and with each year it expands as they but that is because coverage of the arts in Charlotte support more artists. has lacked so much. It Takes a Village I believe is Amy Herman, co-founder and co-director of going to be a powerful exhibition.” Goodyear Arts, emphasizes the importance of The BLKMRKTCLT room includes an empowering retaining artistic talent in Charlotte. collaborative wall mural-turned-collage, photos by “To really give artists an opportunity by working Carey King Jr., multimedia pieces by Dammit Wesley together to sort of find them and create them is a and video content in which local Black creatives define how they view the term “Black Southern royalty,” among other works. During LOCAL/ STREET, the works of Black and brown creatives were featured over a weekend, during which Aaron-Lopez wanted those viewing the art in that specific building — the foundation for which was built by enslaved people in Charlotte to serve as the country’s first branch mint — to fully view the history of minority creatives in Charlotte. “There are so many GOODYEAR ARTS’ HOLLY KEOGH’S FEATURED WORK WITH FINE POINT MARKER. people in Charlotte who have not visited the Mint Museum on Randolph big part of what we do,” she said. “Part of being a or Uptown,” she continued. “And a lot of those collective is that we do have the use of the facilities people are Black and brown people, because when that get your art. You know, for me, having the use spaces are created to exclude groups of people, they of those facilities has been important in my practice. do not feel comfortable returning to those spaces, And I know that the other active members cite and that can stay that way for generations.” Goodyear as being a reason that they have stuck Aaron-Lopez saw great success over just three around Charlotte instead of seeking out a bigger days of LOCAL/STREET at the same location, and city. Just retaining that talent that we have in the hopes to see that popularity extend through the city; it’s very important.” months that the new exhibit is on display. Goodyear’s room at It Takes a Village features “The highlight of being in It Takes a Village perhaps the widest range of mediums, from fabric proves and seals that we are a part of Charlotte’s art to installations to wall paintings to an incredibly art history, because we’re doing the hard work of detailed drawing done on a skateboard with pen. supporting Black and brown artists of color here in Herman said Goodyear fits well into the new the city, whether they are from here or not,” she said. collaborative exhibit, as the collective prioritizes diversity in a similar way to BLKMRKTCLT and Brand the Moth, if operating in a different way.
