Ten years ago, a scrappy group of Charlotte artists took over an abandoned tire shop in uptown and transformed it into a public art gallery.
They called it Goodyear Arts, and even after the building was demolished months later, the artists kept the project alive — moving from space to space and eventually forming a nonprofit.
Now the group is marking its tenth anniversary at its newest home in Camp North End. WFAE’s Nick de la Canal stopped by the gallery to see how the organization is reflecting on its 10 good years.
A warehouse full of surprises
Sunlight streams into a chilly warehouse in Camp North End, where works from the Goodyear Arts fall residency showcase pop off the clean white walls.
“We have a series of shadow boxes, and some aluminum structures,” said artist Quynh Vu, her clothes splattered with paint. She walks past photos of dancers in motion and a long strip of film stretching across a wall before crinkling into a pile on the floor.
We round a corner, and she leads me into an old bathroom where more surprises lie in store.
“I made poops to put everywhere,” she says with a laugh.
Foam-sculpted “poops” line the sinks, the floor and even the stalls — a reminder that at the Goodyear Arts gallery, you never really know what you’re stepping into.
Behind the gallery and bathrooms, the space opens into a dance studio, music room, wood shop, print shop, gift shop and 20 artist studios.
From pop-up experiment to permanent home
Co-director Eric Mullis says it’s hard to believe how far the group has come.
“It went from a super magical anarchist experiment that was probably going to end next week,” he said, “and now it’s an organization that’s been around ten years.”
Mullis was one of the early collaborators in 2015, when Charlotte artists Amy Bagwell, Graham Carew and Amy Herman were hunting for new places to show their work. At the time, Bagwell says, options were limited.
“There were bars and coffee shops, and then really fancy galleries and museums,” she said.
So when local developer Crescent Communities offered them a chance to turn an empty uptown tire shop slated for demolition into a pop-up art gallery, they took it.
“At first it was a one-shot thing,” Bagwell said. “Like, ‘We’re going to tear this down in three or four months — do you want to do something?’”
They filled the space with murals, sculptures and performances. When demolition day neared, another developer handed them the keys to an old Sears warehouse at College and Ninth.
In 2017, the group signed a rent-free lease at Camp North End — the space they now call their “forever home.”
More than a gallery: building community and support
Today, Goodyear Arts is more than just a gallery. Co-director Seirin Nagano says the organization also offers paid residencies, collaborative workspaces and a network of support — which many artists lack.
“Art practice tends to be very lonely,” Nagano said. “The artist is kind of an individual, and they don't feel like we are supporting each other, or like you have to fight for the career.”
Artist-in-residence are connected with mentors and encouraged to work with each other. The artists are never charged to use the space, and shows are typically free for the public.
But that model comes with challenges. Mullis says even with a shoestring budget of under $200,000 a year, breaking even is a yearly challenge.
“The thing that really keeps us up at night is money,” he said. “Goodyear has always been magical because, drawing on the resourcefulness of local artists, it has been able to do so much with so little."
Still, he says, "there's just the realities of our budget, and always making sure at the end of the year we break even."
That's even more of a concern now as the Trump administration cuts funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, which Goodyear Arts previously relied on.
Local governments and philanthropic groups are also increasingly stretched thin, but Mullis remains optimistic about the group's future.
"It's been really wonderful to see it evolve and navigate problems and come up with powerful solutions and try new things," he said, "so I'm really excited to see how it continues to evolve over the next 10 years."
Goodyear Arts will cap off its 10th anniversary with a month-long holiday show featuring small works opening this weekend.
