Expanded work leads to a name change for this prominent Charlotte arts group

It will still serve residents all over Mecklenburg County. It will still teach thousands of people. It will still help folks make and appreciate culture.

Yet though it’ll operate around the community as a school devoted to the arts, it won’t be Community School of the Arts. After nearly 50 years, one of Charlotte’s venerable cultural institutions now goes by Arts+.

Some organizations take new names to reflect what they want to be. Arts+ has changed its name to show what it has already become.

“We needed to make the brand reflect the dynamic nature of what we do,” says Leslie Gillock, who chairs the board of directors. “We’ve moved from giving music and (visual) arts lessons to instruction, classes, workshops, camps, recitals, community events, outreach – it’s so much bigger (than people realize).”

OK, that’s the “Arts” part. How about the “+“? (Or the “plus,” as the website is artsplus.org.)

“Arts education builds discipline, perseverance, confidence and other things that help students succeed,” she says. “People participate because the arts are fun, but that’s not the full effect we have on them.”

President and executive director Devlin McNeil finds the old name ambiguous. “People who didn’t know us thought we were part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools or had a brick-and-mortar building,” she said. “We’re here in Spirit Square without any storefront, so we don’t have a clear identity.”

The home page on the old website (csarts.org, which re-routes to the new site) shows the late Henry Bridges, who founded CSA in 1969 at First Presbyterian Church. (He was the church’s organist and choir director.)

Bridges knew the church had 15 unused pianos in its basement and sat among neighborhoods full of kids who’d benefit from music lessons but couldn’t afford them. He recruited four piano teachers to instruct 20 children and ran the ever-expanding program until 1982.

The school became a nonprofit, then moved to Spirit Square in 1998, where its headquarters and cramped studio space remain. More than 50 instructors now serve more than 4,600 students; roughly 2,200 people participate in outreach programs, such as Project Harmony. (That pairing with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra puts instruments in the hands of disadvantaged students in Charlotte’s east, west and southwest neighborhoods.)

But Spirit Square’s uncertain future, which will almost certainly require tenants to move, inspired Arts+ administrators to seek home ground elsewhere. They’re talking to prospective partners about a permanent space uptown or slightly farther out along the light rail line.

Meanwhile, they’re planning a temporary “creative arts lab” where passers-by can stroll in off the street to watch art being made – or maybe make some themselves. “In this space, we are all about the end product,” says McNeil, speaking in a paint-spattered workroom at Spirit Square. “At the lab, you might come just to experience the process.”

If funding arrives as expected, that lab could open as soon as spring 2019 in a neighborhood within a mile and a half of uptown. (No spot has been chosen yet.)

This Arts+ Creative Lab would offer drop-in studio hours for families and adults, recurring classes and one-time workshops. It would let Arts+ test new programming and evaluate community needs; then, when the permanent facility opens, this prototype could be recreated there.

“Our list of must-haves (for the lab) is small: bathrooms, running water and lights,” says McNeil, laughing. “Ideally, there would also be a street-level presence and parking nearby.”

CSA/Arts+ has been financially healthy, generating an operating surplus for the last 12 years. It has been ambitious: The current 50th-year celebration will include Charlotte residencies by musicians and artists known regionally and nationally.

Now it wants to be better understood.

“We have built on our foundations and are experimenting, always pushing the envelope,” says Gillock. “We’re creative and collaborative and accessible to everybody. The new name will help everyone understand that.”

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 7:00 PM.