(July 31) I had an interesting conversation with Jennie Suddick during our exit interview this past week. She was a visiting artist from Toronto and worked in collaboration with Kat McQuillen. As someone involved in the non-profit, or artist-run centre world in Canada, she compared Elsewhere to the kinds of standards and mandates used abroad. It was quite interesting - the idea of Government or any kind of subsidized funding or assistance as having to adhere to a stricter set of guidelines - the requirement of a board of directors, the board can’t involve the founding members, the director has to rotate duties every so often and so forth.

She also got to the core of an increasingly sticky theoretical issue of objects vs. people - do we prize the entirety of the collection more so than the residents who propose the use of the objects in the collection. Its a difficult and perhaps case by case situation - but nonetheless affected her experience entirely. When she was told for instance that she couldn’t use books in the library - she found that quite offensive and not in line with the mission of the space.

So - does Elsewhere continue to prize its collection as something sacred and unusable or does it allow for a more fluid use and prepare for an eventual breakdown over time? Only time will tell - but as the organization burgeons toward an essential institution in Greensboro - choices like this will have to be made more readily and with a firmer and more open grasp of both sides of the equation.

(July 30) Sometimes its interesting to see what a group of people will do when given the opportunity to plan and organize something organically without constraints - especially in a living museum. This week, 5 visiting artists grouped up to organize Scavaganza a scavenger hunt on Elsewhere’s 1st floor that led participants through a series of questions and interactive actions that were required to earn points.

The evening turned out to be quite fun - and letting artists curate our weekly event was a collaborative gesture that the museum often fails to facilitate regularly.

There was also a sense of nostalgia - the idea of the scavenger hunt as something akin to being a kid again and exploring something for the first time. In all it was a clever use of the space - invoking new works and histories alike.

(July 21) The temperatures were quite extreme this week and adaptations were unique and noticeable - the pace of work has slowed, the intensity of museum involvement and project tasks decreased substantially.

Nonetheless, projects are emerging - our new Scholars in Residence are crafting incredible projects. Samantha Coles is creating a gorgeous antebellum gown from fabric found in what was once “The Red Room”. Whitney is creating a tree stump from what she terms “dead media” from paperback books in the collection. Overall its quite amazing that the creativity continues to flow in such extreme environments.

(July 15) This weeks main event was CITY at Elsewhere. The thematic was loosely based on the idea of Public Works - water, electric, public services. In a general sense CITY is an improv performance game and film shoot about urban life. The entire first floor of Elsewhere’s museum is imagined as a bustling urban metropolis where everyone takes on a character and plays with each other through interactions, scenarios and services provided by these characters. The currency isn’t money, but rather buttons (an homage to Sylvia Gray, the museum’s original collector).

Sometimes playing CITY can be an arduous task without sufficient direction or enough people to activate a meaningful storyline - but July’s performance was quite dreamy, all the right elements aligned and the CITY was amazingly busy and fluid. One thing that helped was a performance by local greensborians who used Elsewhere’s storefront theater to make a theatric commentary on the accumulation of things, border crossings and the process of consumption. The dance, the music and the use of the objects was quite lovely indeed.

Playing CITY (when activated in the right way) allows for an interesting departure into subconscious play - the removal of barriers toward full immersion into a character or role are decreased substantially and the drive toward continueing the story becomes evident as more people join in and feel autonomy to participate.

I wonder in what ways does CITY provide a unique platform to chart the formation of spontaneous communities of practice - people coming together under one goal and for a specific reason that unites them together if even temporary. I for one am fairly convinced of its legitimacy - a unique model of activating ’pretend’ that blurs boundaries of age, politics and agency in many ways.

(July 12) The Storefront Theater launched this month - and the initiation of a unique permeable membrane is now underway! 

This week in particular a local group of Greensboro artists/dancers/musicians are experimenting with the new stage and in the process activating the sidewalk and public interfaces toward the museum.

What was once a boundary that seemed ominous and somewhat exclusive is not an open air conduit for immediate and sincere contact with people along Elm Street.