Exclusive: McColl Center receives $3.5 million endowment grant for its signature artist residency program

Windgate Foundation, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, awarded McColl Center a $3.5 million endowment grant to support its nationally recognized artist residency program.

Why it matters: Local arts organizations lost $50 million in revenue due to the pandemic. Grant funding provides stability for the program going forward.

• McColl Center will receive a portion of endowment interest, around $140,000 annually, starting in September 2022.
• The institution also received $281,600 from Foundation for the Carolinas Infusion Fund in July, as well as CARES Act funding.

What’s new: McColl Center shortened its name from McColl Center for Art + Innovation. It also adopted a new logo, which pays homage to the original logo by keeping the signature M.

The big picture: Over 450 artists have come through the artist residency program during the McColl Center’s 22-year history, four of which are in-residence now. Resident artists are provided with:

• Housing
• 24/7 studio access
• Lab space
• A monthly stipend
• Last fiscal year, 96 artists were paid over $120,000.

What they’re saying: “The residency is the reason the McColl Center was established in the first place and really is the heart and soul of what we do,” McColl Center President & CEO Alli Celebron-Brown told Axios Charlotte.

What’s next: McColl Center created nine subsidized studios for local artists and new artist entrepreneurship workshops.

• They converted their third floor into rentable studios.
• Studios range from $200-$400 per month and access to McColl labs, which include tools most home studios do not have, like 3-D printing and laser cutting machines.

• The goal is to deepen the connection between McColl Center and local creatives.
• They will hire a new programs director before 2022.
• “That role, as an addition to our staff, will allow us to continue to push things forward and to be creative thinkers,” McColl Center Vice President and creative director Jonell Logan told Axios Charlotte.

More on the rebrand: The logo is black and white at its core, with the option of inserting an artist’s work into the M.

• It was developed with local creative agency Wray Ward.
• “Visually for me, it represents a lot of what we have done,” Logan said. “We’re building off of our history with the M, but it also expands beyond that and suggests this notion of growth and transformation.”