ART + Architecture
advancement, what the Center terms a “Sphere of Impact”, and then use their art to work towards that specific goal. The Center sees the artist both as an Everyman and as a Hero, being both subject to the vagaries of modern society and uniquely equipped to be the creative problem solver of the very issues which distress our culture. Artists in residence at the Center must submit to an open studio for a certain number of days during their residency, and the president of the Center, Suzanne Fetscher, admits that many artists enter into this arrangement somewhat begrudgingly. However, over the course of their six month stay, most artists become engaged and emboldened by the regular interaction with the interested and enthusiastic public. The artists provide “a portal from which the non-artist can gain insight into the creative process,” and the feedback from visitors often expands that very process. Apparently there is some sort of symbiotic relationship between the artists and their curious visitors, as Fetscher states that many artists, upon returning to their solitary studios, report longing for the interaction with the public which became vital to their creative process during their stay at the Center.
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McColl Center for Visual Art Exterior. Photo by Mitchell Kearney. suburban exodus. The building was abandoned and eventually succumbed to a fire in 1984. In the mid nineties the Center was formed and the structure became a phoenix of sorts, as it rose quite literally out of moribund ashes, again resembling the trajectory of Charlotte’s downtown corpus, which was just embarking on a period of unprecedented rejuvenation and growth. The Center quickly became a cutting edge think tank for emerging artists. The Center provides artistic residencies with two stipulations—that the artists maintain an open-door policy to allow visitors to the Center access to observe them making their art, and that the artists articulate a commitment to a specific goal related to community