The College of Visual and Performing Arts’ (CVPA) contemporary art gallery Greensboro Project Space (GPS) has partnered with Peacehaven Community Farm to create a mini-museum featuring a continuous, free, tiny art exchange between GPS, the UNCG community, Peacehaven, and the local Greensboro community.
The mini-museum opened with an installation and showing on November 2nd at GPS, located at 111 East February One Place in downtown Greensboro.
“This mini-museum project allows GPS to be a site for accessibility where community members and the larger UNCG community are welcomed to make art, take art, and leave art; an alternative, extended gallery experience to exhibit and exchange artistic ideas,” says Caitlyn Schrader, Director of GPS and of Community for the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA).
Peacehaven Community Farm core members and GPS student interns will be the first round of artists contributing to this initial installation/exchange. Peacehaven Community Farm in Whitsett, NC is a working, sustainable farm that supports on-site living for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Gina Turcketta is an Americorps member serving at Peacehaven. She reached out to Schrader about the project because she recognized the value of art in the daily lives of Peacehaven members:
“The core members at Peacehaven Community Farm have always participated in art projects, but we have only been making tiny art for the past year, and the process and outcome have been so joyous. The art projects we work on definitely puts everyone in a good mood, and the tiny aspect of it is fun. I love to see how creative the core members can get. They are excellent artists, and I think they will show the community that everyone can be an artist.”
Although the art and museum are small, there are big plans for the project to grow in the near future. Schrader and Turkett hope to extend the project into mobile mini-museums units in neighborhoods, and they want to include Peacehaven members in a podcast called “The Artist Series,” in which the members will conduct interviews with mini-museum artists.
“The hope is that by being able to take something physical away from their visit to GPS, our communities feel a longer lasting connection to the space and their experience, thereby deepening our community relationships through art,” says Schrader.
Turcketta agrees that the project is a tool for bringing people together through art:
“We are very excited for this collaboration with GPS. We hope that daily, simple things, like hearing a bird sing, or watching a sunrise, can help inspire people to engage with their inner Picasso, bring happiness to their day, and just help to make the world a nicer place.”
The mini-museum at GPS is free and open to the public weekly, Tuesday-Friday, 12-5pm and Saturdays 2-5pm.
Read more about how to participate here.
Story by Terri W. Relos
Photo credit: Caitlyn Schrader
