Outside of Loaf, a bakery in downtown Durham, passersby stop to observe a brass and steel sculptural rendition of the business’s wheat stalk logo surrounded by metal silhouettes of people in its storefront window. Farther along West Parrish Street, cutouts and frames layered over the plywood covering a former NC Mutual Life insurance building evoke the evolution of Durham’s buildings.
These are two of 14 installations that the Durham Storefront Project has put on display in empty buildings and storefront windows throughout downtown Durham. The project is a collaborative effort between Durham Arts Council, downtown businesses and building owners and over 20 local artists.
“Although many businesses downtown are doing very well, their storefronts do not reflect that energy because their focus is internalized,” said event organizer Chris Chinchar. “We decided to take a creative intervention.”
Modeled after popup storefronts happening across the U.S., the project is based on the premise that revitalizing under-utilized buildings with temporary installations can fuel economic growth by increasing foot traffic to those businesses. Everyone benefits—the artists get free exhibition space, businesses get more pedestrian traffic passing by their storefronts, and the public gets free art.
In Durham, Chinchar and fellow organizer Jessica Moore also envisioned the project, which was unveiled as a feature of the Durham Arts Council’s Art Walk on Nov. 19, as a way to facilitate interaction between diverse groups of people.
“The project was an attempt to get businesses and artists to…find common ground to create a richer visual environment,” Chinchar said.
At Loaf, where the completion of Renee Leverty and Jackie MacLeod’s sculptural installation coincided with the bakery’s grand opening, the process of agreeing on a final plan was one of mutual respect and cooperation, Leverty said.
“Ron Graff, the owner, gave us a lot of freedom and wanted to honor the artistic process, but we also wanted to respect that his business was opening and got his sign-off on the drawings,” she said.
Although the artists were asked that their work reflect something about the building or business, the final installations range from Catherine J. Howard’s delicate snowflakes at Scratch bakery to a live discussion about race that took place at The Make Tank on North Gregson St. on Nov. 19, where Dave Alsobrooks’ and Luis Franco’s ethnographic artwork served as a stimulus for people to come in and participate.
Unlike artists in larger cities like New York where exhibition space is more expensive and difficult to find, some of the artists expressed that they participated to be a part of a community project. When asked why she decided to participate in the Durham Storefront Project when she could have devoted the time to the artwork she sells in a gallery, Leverty said that even though the installation was “an extra thing to do with a potential for no reward,” her desire to support the Durham community made it worthwhile for her to participate in the project.
“I’m proud to live in Durham,” she said. “I like to support the arts and support Durham and saw this as an opportunity to be a part of something bigger.”
Although popup storefronts are a positive externality brought on by tough economic times and may only be a temporary phenomenon in downtown Durham, Chinchar hopes that the collaborative energy generated by the project will be sustained through future projects.
“I think that right now it’s a quieter, slower time, so people may have more time and willingness to explore ideas,” Chinchar said. “The best thing you can hope for is that if it really brings people together to have a shared experience, the energy from that experience will go forward to create a more inclusive, collective community.”
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