The East End Holiday Craft Shop Pop-Up

There is a good bit of interest in the Triangle in creating an energetic pop-up art scene. Pop-ups typically find temporary uses for underutilized space where artists, collectives, art groups, etc. take advantage of the surplus of available space in many of our towns and cities. I'm on the board of Triangle ArtWorks and we're researching options to identify sites, examine the legal and financial issues and gauge the interest of the various parties -- downtown development, artists, real estate owners and agents -- in using free space (free as in available and perhaps free as in rent-free or low rent). It can be a win-win for all parties but we are particularly interested in wins for artists and art groups.

Many of you are familiar with the small space in front of the main area of the ArtsCenter in downtwon Carrboro. The ArtsCenter has used the space for temporary exhibits that mostly revolve around the 2ndFriday Artwalk. The East End Holiday Craft Shop is a little different. There's some good info on the project at their Facebook page.

Yesterday I popped in to the pop-up to see what was happening there. There's a wide range of arts and crafts materials -- interesting multimedia art pieces, cool silk screened t shirts and other clothing, jewelry, home goods, etc -- all made by local, independent artists and craftspeople.

River, one of the artists pictured below gave me some background. Check it out. You know you need presents for somebody, right?