Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds light and variable..
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Stephanie Newman and John Searby are photographed inside the 117 Center Street building in Cramerton, N.C., Thursday morning, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
The exterior of 117 Center Street in Cramerton, N.C. is shown, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
The interior of 117 Center Street building in Cramerton, N.C., is shown Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
Stephanie Newman and John Searby are photographed inside the 117 Center Street building in Cramerton, N.C., Thursday morning, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
The exterior of 117 Center Street in Cramerton, N.C. is shown, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
The interior of 117 Center Street building in Cramerton, N.C., is shown Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
CRAMERTON, N.C. (AP) — Cramerton’s new downtown storefront won’t be just an art gallery, a bar, a music venue, or a recreation center. Rather, it’ll be all of those things and more.
The town of Cramerton has partnered with the nonprofit Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation to use a downtown storefront to promote Gaston County’s arts community, the health of the South Fork River, and Cramerton’s outdoor recreation opportunities.
John Searby, executive director of Catawba Riverkeeper, a nonprofit that supports the health of the South Fork River, said that the nonprofit wanted to have a presence in downtown Cramerton that would allow them to connect “the downtown business corridor to the river in a very intentional way.”
Cramerton town officials, on the other hand, want to offer art and music programming as part of their parks and recreation program.
Confluence, the storefront they will open, will accomplish those goals.
“And we think it’s a creative use of what was a vacant downtown space that had a hard time keeping tenants over the years,” Searby said.
To get started, Cramerton gave Catawba Riverkeeper two grants — one for $200,000 to renovate the building, and another $50,000 annually to operate Confluence, “but it’ll be reviewed and renewed each year,” Searby said.
“This was not something that would have been in the cards for us out of our regular operating budget. So we think it’s a pretty unique approach to meeting the needs of a community,” Searby said.
Stephanie Newman, the coordinator for Confluence, said that Catawba Riverkeeper wants to create a “retro community center feel,” making Confluence a gathering space where visitors can “come in off of the river, perhaps grab a beer, be able to buy a T-shirt, or grab a piece of art that’s created by a local artist.”
In addition to selling art by local artists, Confluence will also have an artist in residence program, where artists and musicians will host classes and workshops, Newman said.
“We’re also going to be pulling in local musicians and things like that, to have music nights and open mic nights,” Newman said. “As well as hopefully encouraging some of those musicians that come in to be able to utilize the space for things like music lessons.”
Confluence is at least partially inspired by the River Arts District in Asheville, a neighborhood that has art studios and galleries, as well as beer, food, and other local attractions.
In their planning for Confluence, Searby said, they used images from the River Arts District for inspiration and had conversations about essentially putting what that community offers in Asheville into a building in downtown Cramerton.
“And that’s kind of the vision here. You know, if you walk through the River Arts District in Asheville, you can stop into a brewery and grab a beer, you can stop into a working art studio and watch artists working, you can see a live music concert on about every night of the week,” Searby said. “You can, you know, rent a bike and go cruise a greenway, and you’re gonna be able to do all those things here in one building.”
They hope to have the building finished and ready to open by “mid-to-late fall,” Newman said, having a soft opening during the last months of the year by offering a few programs, but their full slate of programming is planned for the beginning of 2023.
“So we’ll probably have a concert, probably have an art class. We’ll probably have a music class. We’ll definitely be renting bikes in the fall, and you know, have the bar open. But I think as far as being able to, ‘this is what you can do every day at conference,’” that will be early 2023, Searby said.
As far as the artists in residence program goes, they hope to offer an artist free studio space, along with a small stipend, and in return that artist will lead programming and engage with the community. They want to be a resource to local artists and to provide Gaston County residents an opportunity to support their artists and musicians.
Searby said that they want artists to feel that “you can make a living here, and … there are places for your passion to become your profession.”
Confluence was the brainchild of former Cramerton Mayor Will Cauthen and former Cramerton Parks and Recreation Director Eric Smallwood, along with Newman, Searby said. Cramerton’s new mayor, Nelson Wills “picked up the mantle” and continued with the project.
“That’s probably one of the coolest parts of this story,” Searby said. “In the political climate that we live in today, it is pretty unique for somebody to be in a heated political race, and the person who defeats the incumbent, to be able to pick up a project that was kind of the pet project of his predecessor, … that is a testament to some of the leadership of the Town Council, who were excited about this project and kind of kept the momentum going.”
“And it’s a testament to Nelson understanding, and seeing the value in this project, and … putting any political agendas aside and saying, ‘this is a great idea, we need to keep it moving,’ because it could have been dead when the leadership change happened,” he added.
Profits from Confluence will go to the South Fork River Health Project, a joint project between all the municipalities along the South Fork River, along with Catawba Riverkeeper and several other organizations.
The goal of the South Fork River Health Project is to improve water quality, flood resiliency, and recreational access on the South Fork River, Searby said.
“So ultimately, this space becomes a funding source for that work around those three priority areas. And that’s probably the most unique thing about the space,” Searby said. “So you come in here and have a glass of wine and do a sip and paint activity with your friends on a Friday night. All the money from that is going to go back to making the river better quality, safer, a better community asset. So we think that’s a really unique proposition.”
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Gaston Gazette.
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