Greetings from Elsewhere!

Greetings from the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative in Greensboro, North Carolina! I am currently an Artist in Residence here, a living museum set within a former thrift store. The story of Elsewhere is winding and fascinating and you can check out the whole operation at http://elsewhereelsewhere.org/

from the "HER-STORY" pamphlet at the museum desk "Imagining collaborative futures from the surplus of the past" :

"From 1939-1997, Sylvia Gray filled an extraordinary thrift store in downtown Greensboro with a vast inventory of American surplus. Her wares included furniture drawn from Depression stock houses, WWII and Korean War army surplis, thousands of bolts of upholstery fabric from local mills, and toys, clothing, books, and knickknacks. Upon her passing, the building was boarded up, and the astounding accumulation of resources and histories remained piled throughout the three-story building.

In 2003, George Scheer (Sylvia's grandson) and Stephanie Sherman began excavating the store, declaring nothing for sale and organizing the collection as a resource for artistic creation and collaborative production. The inventory recounts an historical narrative of the Great Depression's effect on value and consumption, and a cultural story written in attics and basements across the country. Today, Elsewhere proposes an environmental solution to overproduction through re-use. The living museum responds with creative action to artistic and philosophical questions, while imagining models for community built from materials of our shared past."

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I am to spend the first few days exploring the building, current art and installations on site, as well as the massive thrift-store inventory turned materials-on-hand. From all of this I will be developing a specific project proposal and going from there! More to come ...

My artist profile and project page is viewable @ http://elsewhereelsewhere.org/collaborators/show/juliet-hinley