Artist couple opens Good Art Co. as a creative space for artists, the community.
For J. Morgan and Shaun McCollum, great art comes from collaborative, creative spaces.
It’s why the artist couple founded Good Art Co.
Not a stuffy gallery nor solely a makers’ space, instead it is a vibrant place where artists can learn from each other. And where the community can come in to see not just finished pieces but also the process behind them.
“We wanted a space that is accessible and approachable to anyone, regardless of background,” says Shaun, a master printmaker and art professor. “Approachability was big. And breaking down the artificial wall between high-end fine art and craft.
“The company is really that whole experience of rubbing elbows and sharing ideas, sharing fellowship in the arts,” adds Morgan, an illustrator and writer.
Their path to opening Good Art Co. started with their hunt for the right rental studio for Shaun’s 1,500-pound printing press. When they struck out, they dreamed big and looked for “something we could buy and fix up,” he says.
What they found was a Frankenstein—as Morgan describes it—building downtown. It had been a creative space and an artist’s home, but there were random walls, bad carpet, and an unfinished basement. “It took a lot of imagination at first to know if we could turn this into what we wanted it to be,” she says.
Architect Matt Tindall of Tindall Architecture Workshop helped them see the potential, and they undertook a lengthy renovation with contractor Base 360 while balancing careers and starting a family.
In the Good Art Co. Studios
Good Art Co. opened last fall, with 15 already-occupied artist studios (visitors are welcome when the doors are open). “Being able to be here among other artists and also honor my practice as a professional pursuit outside of my house has been a game changer,” multidisciplinary artist Lindsay Gustave Smith says.
Exhibitions in the large, light-filled gallery feature local, regional, and emerging artists, or raise funds for local causes. The gift shop includes pieces by studio artists and other local makers, and there is a print shop and a makers’ space set aside for classes and art groups.
Good Art Co.’s plethora of programming—from First Friday art openings and free art therapy yoga classes to kids’ camps, shock theater screenings, and superhero figure drawing classes—is meant to invite in “people who wouldn’t engage with the arts normally,” Morgan says.
“All the people who have come in so far have loved the space and the experience of being here,” she adds. “And the community we’ve created is already so rewarding.”
Mural of the Story
Thanks to a Metropolitan Arts Council arts grant, multidisciplinary visual and performing artist Nick Burns, aka Ninja Picasso, (@njapgallery) used spray paint to transform Good Art Co.’s white exterior into a colorful mural called “Mixtape Mountain.”
Its freestyle forms and mix of imagery, set against an interpretive backdrop of the Blue Ridge Foothills, are “a reflection of the Good Art Co. space: a diverse, colorful, fascinating tapestry of culture and community,” Morgan says, adding that there is a hidden “Banksy-style” moment to discover.
Good Art Co. is located at 10 Central Ave., Greenville. For more information, visit www.getgoodart.co or follow @goodartcogvl.
