By Erin Wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

CHAPEL HILL — Franklin Street makeover might be too strong a word, but local businesses, the artist community and the Town of Chapel Hill have collaborated on a new artist co-op and gallery that they hope will spruce up the downtown scene at least a bit.

The co-op, currently called the Franklin Street Arts Collective, will reside in Michael Brader-Araje’s 3,000-square-foot renovated former Rite Aid building on East Franklin Street. Gordon Jameson, a member of the collective’s leadership team, said he thinks it will open this fall.

“It’s all part of the cultural picture of the area,” said Jameson, also the artist liaison for the Orange County Artists Guild and a painter himself. “We have the desire to help to build the area as an arts destination for a national and regional audience. The local community needs to support the wealth of cultural aspects that we have.”

A meeting held Aug. 24 served as one of the final stepping stones in getting all three groups involved. With the town and local business already on board, the meeting’s main purpose was to gauge the interest of the local arts community.

“It was wonderful,” said Martha Shannon, head of the Orange County Arts Commission. “I’m pretty sure we had at least 120 artists sign up.”

Jameson said that the cooperation of the artists, the town and local business is essential for the success of the collective, and the fact that the three have come together is part of the reason the idea could become a reality.

“The time is right for it,” he said. “The town and the local business people, it’s essential that they stay involved. As much as the artists can and will do, it’s going to take a cooperative effort among all these people involved. All three of these entities do have a shared interest about this being a beautiful and pivotal spot on Franklin Street.”

With three different entities so invested in the project, Jameson said each has a distinct goal for the collective. But each group’s goal overlaps with the others.

“There is a shared vision here about having this gallery,” he said.

On a basic economic level, all parties involved hope the collective will boost downtown commerce and draw even more people to Franklin Street.

“In addition to the ability to buy artwork from local artists, we think it would bring visitors into the downtown that normally would not come,” said Jim Norton, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.

As a highly visible gallery in a prominent part of Franklin Street, Jameson said the art gallery would help to spruce up the downtown image.

“There’s a movement among town leaders and town businesses to raise the town on Franklin Street,” he said. “This is part of the vision to help achieve that.”

The collective also enhances Franklin Street as an arts destination. Shannon said that most people who visit downtown come for UNC-related activities, predominantly sports.

“This would be a wonderful opportunity for tourists to purchase things from local artists,” she said. “It could very well be a real economic boom for the town.”

Shannon and her fellow artists hope for a cultural boom as well, both in interest of the arts and potentially even future galleries.

“The more the merrier,” Shannon said. “It gives folks another reason to come downtown.”

To start, the collective intends to showcase local and regional art, as well as the work of nationally known artists, both to promote a range of art from the area and to bring in different styles from across the country.

Consistent with the theme of variety, the gallery will display glass and wood art, hold book readings, and host concerts in addition to traditional paintings and drawings.

“Our vision is to include work by local writers and musicians,” Jameson said. “We really want to be promoting all the arts in the area, not entirely just the visual arts, although that would be the focus.”

To accommodate the readings and concerts, Jameson said he intends the space to be flexible.

“We want it to be interactive as well as trying to promote and sell the work of local artists,” he said. “Hopefully it can become a real culture point for the art community in the area.”