Offshoots of the Occupy movement have certainly made their presence known in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro areas over the last few months, beginning with Occupy Chapel Hill‘s encampment setup in Peace and Justice Plaza, and culminating into the occupations of the proposed site for a 24-hour CVS, which was peacefully dispersed, and office space at 201 N. Greensboro Street Yates Motor Company Building, which ended in a highly publicized police raid.
Where It Began
The Occupy movement first arrived in Chapel Hill by moving in to Peace & Justice Plaza on October 15, 2011 to stage a protest in line with the original movement that began in New York City. The occupation lasted several months, until the movement decided to move off of Franklin Street last month to better focus on their goals rather than maintaining a camp.
While the town did not take action against the movement during their occupation of the plaza, they did respond after the fact by taking another look at town ordinances about protestors utilizing the space and their enforcement.
From The Daily Tar Heel‘s coverage of the revisiting of permitting for the plaza:
With the new ordinance, residents must have permits to hold events in the plaza that last more than three hours. Those permits must be applied for 48 hours in advance of the event — a point of contempt among council members because it would disallow spontaneous protests.
In the past, occupiers and others spent entire nights in the space, but now protesters can stay in the plaza only from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Yates Motor Company Building
Local anarchists took over the abandoned car dealership at 419 W. Franklin Street on Saturday, November 11, 2011 and occupied the space for nearly 24-hours before police cleared the building by force in a highly publicized raid that prompted discussions within the town on the use of force. The raid was only half of the story though.
According the Damon Seils, a member of the Carrboro Planning Board, a major issue that was left out of the discussions following the raid was why the protestors selected that building.
“The focus has been on the response, not the reasoning behind [the occupation],” Seils said. The Yates Motor Company Building was vacant for nearly a decade, and the issue of how to handle prominent commercial spaces being left unused in central locations is not a new one. Seils mentioned that the issue arose during local elections about four years ago, and emphasized that there needs to be a discussion held on how to respond to these situations and what actions are actually within the Town of Chapel Hill’s power to carry out.
The CVS Building
The latest occupation of a prominent commercial space left vacant took place when another group of protestors took over a building on 201 N. Greensboro Street in Carrboro that is the proposed site of a 24-hour CVS and office space. This protest was much shorter-lived, but ended peacefully and included a visit by Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton.
From our coverage of the occupation:
Maria Rowan, a local activist who had set up a tent across the street with the “Nomadic Occupy” camp, was handing out pamphlets on the sidewalk outside the building. She wasn’t a part of the original group that moved into the building, but she said she supported what they were doing and wanted to see the forgotten office spaces converted into an area for locals, not a CVS Pharmacy.
“We’re suggesting a radical notion that the community, the people who actually live here, should determine what physically happens in the space where we live and not the capitalists and not the state and not a corporation somewhere else,” Rowan said.
The citizens of Carrboro will get to have a say in the matter with a public meeting regarding the request for rezoning of the property and a special use permit at 7 p.m. on March 1st at the Carrboro Town Hall.
What Is Being Done
While some protestors have taken to occupying these spaces as a way of bringing awareness to the issue, others are taking a more creative approach. Beginning in October 2011, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership received permission from the owner of the Yates Motor Company Building to utilize the front display windows for installation art pieces.
From a blog post about the installations by CHDP’s Meg McGurk:
As a community we have demonstrated over and over that we value public art. The irony of removing one persons artistic voice in order to install anothers is not lost on me. It begs some questions – does public art only hold value if it’s sanctioned? Is someones name scrawled jerkily on a window actually art? No doubt there is a beauty to street art. It can be brilliant and graceful, even in the simplest of flowing lines. I can certainly appreciate the emotion from which it comes.
The original installation, which was completed in December, filled the previously empty windows of the building throughout the Winter, was created by Adrian Schlesinger, a studio art major at UNC, and featured a loose interpretation on a holiday theme portrayed through silhouette depictions of the Chapel Hill community.
One of the window installations created by Schlesinger for the Winter. Photo courtesy of Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.
When asked about her experience with doing the installation, Schlesinger said it was a learning experience for both her as well a CHDP. The Partnership decided they wanted to do this project and sent out a call for artists, and she responded with a proposal “comprised of painted banners and domestic objects. The installation illustrated light in darkness, warmth in winter, and people (silhouettes) convening in an vacant building.”
Schlesinger believes that art belongs both inside and outside of traditional gallery spaces and hopes the art she created has a positive impact on the building, the Partnership and the Town.
Bobby Funk, program director of CHDP, said the goal behind the idea was to be doing something good for the street and something good for the space, very mich in line with Schlesinger’s hopes for her art. Although he could not provide specifics, Funk believes utilizing the empty window space has achieved good for the building, increasing awareness for the vacant space in a positive light and potentially increased the possibilities for future redevelopment.
The Partnership also put together a video about the original installation by Schlesigner:
[vimeo width="600" height="370"]http://vimeo.com/33605684[/vimeo]
CHDP is continuing this project, with local artist Charles Chace currently installing his own creation that will adorn those windows for the Spring.
“This is the first time I’ve installed a vacant building,” Chace said. “It’s nice and quiet, and you get to people watch.” Chace received little notice from passersby when he first began the installation, but now people will stop and give him a thumbs up.
While art may be art, working in a vacant building poses several unique issues with this installation. “There is no back drop and people can’t come in, so I turned the back drop into the art,” said Chace. “From the outside you see all this color, but it blocks out the inside.”
"It's almost a better view from across the street because you don't get the reflections," Chace said. He is currently working on the first of two installations that will fill the building's front windows for the Spring. Eric Pait/reesenews
In Carrboro, members of Carrboro Commune are planning a guerrilla gardening day on March 17th to turn the unused lot at 201 N. Greensboro Street into a useable garden.
From the News & Observer’s coverage of Carrboro Commune’s plan:
The group called Carrboro Commune includes members of the local anarchist community and Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro movements. On Monday, Occupy said it did not endorse the building takeover, which ended when police ordered the demonstrators out or said they would arrest them.
“The Carrboro Commune, an open affiliation of community members concerned about the corporate domination of public space, will collaborate with other local organizations to transform the unused lot at 201 Greensboro Street into a vibrant garden providing edible, medicinal, and beautiful plants for the general public,” the group announced this morning.
A fence was put up around the building at 201 N. Greensboro Street after it was occupied by protestors. Eric Pait/reesenews
