The Garage Opens Up

Dec: How did this become a reality?: Kate: Well I was just walking past one day, and I actually go to Christ Episcopal, which is who this space is associated with. I was walking past and just looked at this and realized it was an art gallery. There was a car parked inside. I ran upstairs and asked the pastor who was involved if we could turn it into an art space and he said, “Sure!” So he gave the music minister who was parking here her two weeks notice and kicked her out. We did a trial concert over the summer having no idea whether the bands would play at the back, and everyone would just sit, and it just so happened that people started sitting on the hill. We had no idea what would happen. About fifty people came to the first concert. So we realized we really engaged something with the idea of a garage. We decided to give it the summer and see what happened. We ended up buying the floor and power washing the walls. There were literally giant car bumps on the floor—the floor was gross. This is a pretty cheap floor, but it really appropriates the language of the gallery. It will be all dark and you’ll walk by and it will look like this little beacon of light, glowing out. It’s neat, and confusing, but that’s kind of interesting to us.
That’s how it started. Sam Bush, my boyfriend—he and I have sort of done this together. I’ve been a little bit more “the point” person since I have a little more time as I’m done with school.
When did you first start?: June of ’08. We officially launched in August and did a secret grand opening concert, and then did a real one. It was September when we started having monthly art exhibitions. It started with friends, and as it gained momentum, we’ve had a lot of well-known local artists do shows. It’s a neat space because it gives them an opportunity to do something all-inclusive since it’s small and intimate. Those started in August, and through November we had concerts every other weekend. On Friday, we’ll have the first real show since the last one got cancelled because of rain, so that will be the real kickoff.
I know there are a few U.Va. Professors involved with the space, Justin Holcomb for one. How did you get these guys involved?: Well, for Justin, he is also a pastor here. He’s a teacher, but he is also a priest, so it’s connected. It’s not officially a Christ Church space, but then again it is. We are all associated but we just show good work and have interesting concerts.
What’s cool is that the garage has attracted people. Every exhibition that it’s shown and every band has played has come to us. The fact that it’s public and intimate is neat because you can actually be close to the community, be with your friends, and you don’t have to push anything on people. If it’s interesting and accessible enough people just find it. Intellectually and artistically, for me, because I’m an artist as well, curating this is its own project. For me, it solves such a dilemma about how to do things in community without being exclusive with it, as well as not pushing things on people. Just doing it like this seems to be such a good compromise.
Were you trying to start a venue at the time, or did you just have a moment of inspiration when you saw it?: It was totally an accident. I realize this is so strange, but I sort of feel like the garage chose us, in a way. It has its own life and personality, because each month it looks completely different. It’s constantly changing, which is sometimes sad. I work at Piedmont Council for the Arts in McGuffey a couple times a week, and I’m here doing a fellowship. I was definitely interested in how to engage art and community in meaningful ways, figuring out how to talk about the things we make, and how to experience goo dart intimately. So running across this space was a neat occurrence.
Do you have a vision for what kind of art or music you wanted to bring here?: It has attracted mostly an aesthetic for twenty or thirty-something artists who are emerging. Right now is the first time we’ve had a really established artist show their work. As a curator for visual art, I really just try to display good work, although I hope that in the future some people use the site-specific inspiration. This show is very traditional, but normally it’s something that works with the public context. For bands, I really just want to book good bands. In terms of Charlottesville, it’s mostly just indie bands that we want to listen to, like D.B.B. Plays Cups, who we love.
Were there any zoning issues that you had to deal with when you started?: I’m sure there are, but I haven’t come across them yet. We try to keep it low key, so we don’t serve wine at our openings and we haven’t had any trouble yet. We got pretty lucky since all the buildings around here are churches, funeral homes, and things like that, so it isn’t really residential. We play our music pretty loud, but police officers don’t stop when they drive by, and no one has complained. We try to maintain a low profile, so we do most of our advertising by e-mail. People were skeptical when we started out, saying stuff like, “See how long this will last,” but we’ve been here for a year. Little things like this pop up all over Charlottesville, you just have to find them. It’s a weird scene.
So what about expenses or fees?: We actually have no fees—the Church pays electricity and takes care of everything. As far as food goes, we do pay twenty dollars a month, and the Church chips in for openings and stuff, but it’s really simple. I actually haven’t even put in a request to get reimbursed for the whole year. I probably will, but part of me loves it so much that I don’t really have the motivation for it. We did renovations too and they helped with that. I really am the link because I have a fellowship at the Church, so it is kind of like my job, but it’s also my love.
How long did the renovations take?: Probably about a week. All we did was rent a power washer and install the wood floor, which really didn’t take long. We really like the old brick walls, though we did lose some brick in wiping them down. It’s definitely all been more of a project and an experiment. It’s very much about promoting art in Charlottesville. We feel like it’s been a real success because our openings get a lot of attention and we’re actually on the map now. We had about between a hundred and a hundred fifty people at our last opening, and fifty to eighty people for concerts. We usually put out a recliner, a sofa, and an Oriental rug for the bands and people to sit. We try to mix it up with activities too. We’ve had film screenings, potluck dinners, a craft sale, and even a launch party for our friend’s blog. We love to do poetry night, and my friend wants to do a pancake sleepover in here. We’re all about creating new things, but we got a little introverted in the winter because it was so cold. It’s definitely a little seasonal. We still did a first Friday opening so they art would change every month, but it definitely gets crazier during the warmer months when we’re more eager to use it. We’re definitely not in it just to make people come to come, we like to be able to do things whenever it strikes us.

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