Hugh McColl, former chairman and first CEO of Bank of America, used to drive past an abandoned Presbyterian church at the corner of 11th Street and Tryon near his uptown office. It had been burned down in a fire set by a vagrant trying to get warm one winter night in 1984. As CEO of what was then NationsBank, McColl purchased the land and decided to redevelop it as an urban artist colony, which opened in 1999 as the McColl Center.
“I dedicated this building to my mother, who was an artist, who started up in New York until my father came and got her—and then my sister, who was an artist, a musician and a writer," McColl told The Charlotte Observer in 2020, at a gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of the center. "I started out trying to help artists, not realizing what a tremendous help and asset it would be for Charlotte.”
This month, as the McColl Center celebrates its 25th anniversary, what was built as a church in 1927 is a place where artists can thrive. Inside the brick and stone exterior that survived the fire, is state of the art studio space to which the McColl Center welcomes artists from around the country and the world to work at their craft for three months at a time.
"We have a wood shop, a welding lab, a ceramic studio," says Armando Bellmas, vice president of operations for the McColl Center. "We have a print-making studio. We have a digital media lab, a 3D printer, laser cutters. We make all of these tools available to artists while they're here, so they can move their practice forward. But while they're here, they are working on a specific project."
Out of hundreds of applications, just four artists are selected for each of three cohorts during the year: spring, summer and fall. Some artists have come from as far away as Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria or as close as the Carolinas. Artists who teach and/or have families come in the summertime, when more flexible schedules allow.
In 25 years, nearly 500 artists have come through the McColl Center. This month, McColl Center marks the anniversary with a week-long event, starting with a silent auction Feb. 13 and culminating in a live auction Feb. 22 featuring 70 pieces from artists who have come through the program. Proceeds benefit both the artists and the McColl Center.
One of the artists featured is Missouri-born Nick Cave, who made a name for himself nationally by creating wearable sculptures he calls Soundsuits. He makes these multimedia pieces, that transcend both art and fashion, out of objects like twigs, buttons, beads, fabric, and fur.
Cave, who came through the McColl Center, in 2000, has since had his work featured in museums from the Guggenheim in New York to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington.
His three-color lithograph, called Amalgam (Blue), which resembles bronze castings of Soundsuits, is featured in this month's auction.
Another featured artist is Cuban-born Carlos Estevez, who was at the McColl Center in 2016. His 2010 oil and watercolor pencil on canvas called "Encuentros," meaning "Encounters," is up for auction. When Estevez first came to Charlotte, he painted predominantly, but he changed course after experimenting with ceramics at the McColl Center.
"He walked by one day and noticed there was a kiln in the corner down in the big sculpture studio where the ceramics lab is," Bellmas says. "He'd done some ceramics in the past, but he was curious about it. He started asking for help to get going on it and fired a few pieces. By the end of his residency, he was constantly at that kiln, pulling stuff out that he was making. His studio upstairs had turned into a big ceramics lab. Within a year after his residency, he debuted his first all-ceramics show."
Now close to 60 percent of his artwork is ceramics, Bellmas says.
"It's little things like that that the public doesn't see, but in the life of an artist, they're so critical," says Bellmas. "Just to be able to have that time to experiment and try something different."
While they're here, artists live in condominiums across the street from the McColl Center. They usually arrive without cars, and either walk, bike, use public transit or get around with rides from staff members. It's a far cry from more typical artist retreats that take place out in nature.
"[Usually] artists go away from the city to go to the woods, to reside in a cabin for a month, not to be distracted by families or work or traffic or Starbucks," Bellmas said. "They sit somewhere and just paint or write or compose. The urban residency sticks folks right in the middle of a major urban center, and forces them to interact with each other, with the cityscape."
The setting has fostered not only a culture of collaboration and connection that continues long after the residency ends, but several artists have made lasting contributions to the cityscape itself. One artist, Shaun Cassity, of Rock Hill, created steel sculptures of leaves welded into the fencing on light rail tracks at 10 Lynx stations. They represent native trees like dogwood, magnolia, pin oak and sweetgum. The veins on each leaf represent neighborhood street maps.
Another former resident, Sharon Dowell, a graduate of UNC Charlotte, turned the 12th Street Brookshire Freeway overpass into a vibrant mural of orange, blue and green.
In 2020, the McColl Center opened its top floor as studio space local artists can use, creating another tie to the city.
"We have a staple of artists who are here for [several] years," said Makeia Carrier, marketing director at the McColl Center. "They are part of the crew that welcomes these new artists in and can give them connection to the existing Charlotte community and art scene."
"It's little things that the public doesn't see, but in the life of an artist, they're so critical," says Armando Bellmas, VP of Operations at the McColl Center. "Just to be able to have that time to experiment and try something different."