Photo by Caitlin Penna
The Cave
It’s easy and valid to look at 2018 as a year of ruptures and losses, from the global political climate down to the cultural landscape of the Triangle. But you know what? We’re still here, and if we flip over that narrative of trials and travails, we can glimpse a story of resilience and redemption on the other side. In a year when it seemed like even the most venerable local institutions might suddenly disappear—and many did—there were also a striking number that bounced back from the brink, thanks to their dedicated communities. On reflection, the upshot is that, while it’s natural to feel powerless to influence the course of big-money development in the Triangle, we can choose to keep the things we care about with the will and the effort. Cheers to those who stepped up and did.
First, give it up for SPARKcon, the open-source arts festival in which creators of all stripes overtake downtown Raleigh for one extended weekend per year. The twelve-year-old festival persevered through not only a budget crisis, but also a hurricane. In August, it faced a shortage north of $20,000, the INDY learned from Brandon Cordrey, the director of arts nonprofit VAE Raleigh, which runs SPARKcon. Cordrey launched a crowdfunding campaign that, along with an injection of public and private money, put the festival back in the black in time for its usual September appearance, though Florence blew it a little later than usual into the month. For many of the literal thousands of artists involved each year, SPARKcon is their biggest platform, and its survival was a real SPARKcoup.
Aficionados of a certain humble, film-focused cinema experience still shudder to think that we almost lost The Chelsea Theater, the last old-school arthouse in Chapel Hill now that The Varsity is showing Spider-Man cartoons. When owners Bruce and Mary Jo Stone announced at the end of 2017 that they weren’t going to renew the lease on their twenty-eight-year-old three-screener in the Timberlyne shopping center, a group called Save the Chelsea quickly coalesced and led a grassroots funding campaign to take over the lease in March, and the Chelsea is keeping the projectors running in a promising new incarnation as a nonprofit.
Remember when two employees of Nice Price Books and Records in Raleigh stepped up to buy and save the invaluable indie shop from going out of business? Local history repeated itself in Durham this year, when Wander Lorentz de Haas and Elliot Berger, two employees of the forty-year-old Regulator Bookshop, bought it from retiring owners Tom Campbell and John Valentine, preserving a landmark for author readings and local books. A Regulator Sustainability Fund has raised more than $50,000 and counting, which looks good to keep those green awnings on Ninth Street in the years to come.
The honor of the most unlikely comeback for 2018 might go to The Cave, which escaped near-certain death in the spring. Indeed, the fifty-year-old music club technically closed at the end of April after its previous owners couldn’t find a new buyer; its week of “funeral” shows was a party for the ages. But with help from a few friends, Melissa Swingle and Autumn Spencer resurrected the venue, did plenty of sprucing up (including painting the floor of the back room with Twin Peaks-inspired chevrons), and instituted a new policy of taking donations for bands rather than enforcing a set cover charge. The Cave officially celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at the beginning of December—here’s to no more close calls.
Also in the Chapel Hill music scene, Local 506 had a much less tumultuous change-of-ownership story. In May, former owners Kippy and Tom Perkins (who purchased the club from Glenn Boothe in 2013) announced that they had sold it to Stephen Mooneyhan and Rob Walsh, two longtime employees. (Noticing a trend?) The new owner-operators have kept up the two-hundred-fifty-capacity club as a Franklin Street staple for up-and-coming artists, as well as a pleasantly cozy spot for more off-the-wall acts like French pop trio YELLE and noise artist Author & Punisher.
Finally, after YesterYears Brewery & Taproom owner David Larsen’s son died in the fall of 2016, the Carrboro spot fell behind financially and threatened to close. But thanks to community support and a crowdfunding campaign, the brewery raised more than $14,000 and celebrated its grand reopening as Vecino Brewing in May, with local suds and pub grub from chef Leah Plumlee.
arts@indyweek.com
