Given Charlotte’s urgent need for affordable creative space, Charlotte Is Creative is doing what we can to help. We’ve teamed up with the Nine-Eighteen-Nine Studio Gallery in the VAPA Center to provide studios – and the access to creative peers that comes with them – for local artists.

Dubbed the Charlotte Space Program, this initiative selects two visual artists every four months who gain access to a free, private studio in which they can create work for a future project or show. One space in the Studios at McColl Center is also available through this program; our current resident there is Jamea Marlowe, a former public school art teacher and founder of The Broken Crayon, a mobile studio and pop-up art program.

Two artists – Caeli Faisst and Teresa Hopson – are now at home in their new studios at Nine-Eighteen-Nine through mid-September. Let’s get to know them:

TERESA HOPSON
IG: @TCFINEART | @BLACKBIRDARTS_OFFICIAL

In 2019, Teresa Hopson set out on a journey to become a professional acrylic painter. She began in the space she had available – a corner of her kitchen. Her subjects: Black women based on women who have inspired her throughout her life.

Since then, she’s participated in local installations and art shows, curated events and started working at the Levine Museum of the New South. But, she needed a dedicated space to move in new directions. “At the top of the year, I wanted to push myself and try new things and break out of my comfort zone,” said Hopson. “I wanted to grow and expand. Personally, I didn’t see that happening in my kitchen.”

With her mini-residency at Nine-Eighteen-Nine, she’s experimenting with oils – a new medium for her.

What is Teresa excited about now?

• Being an active participant in the diverse community, disciplines, perspectives and experiences at the VAPA Center
• Growing and expanding her career in her new studio
• Developing the next group of curated shows as part of her brand, Black Bird Arts

What are the most significant challenges she’s facing in her career right now? 

• Establishing an LLC
• Researching sources of funding and paid opportunities and applying for grants

After completing her four-month residency, Hopson will focus on finding a permanent space to grow and expand her career.

CAELI FAISST
IG: @CAELI.FAISST

Caeli Faisst is an upstate New Yorker-turned-Charlotte writer who moved here six years ago. She has experience as a ghostwriter, writing podcast scripts and writing for music videos and spoken-word performances.

She intends to use her studio at Nine-Eighteen-Nine to explore her passion for blackout poetry. Faisst takes old books and marks out large sections of text. The remaining words become a poem, and one work of art has been transformed into another.

What is Faisst excited about now?

• Focusing on her creative works and projects in her studio
• Connecting with artists in the VAPA Center
• Taking part in the Doomsday & Night III group show opening at Goodyear Arts on June 30

What are the most significant challenges she’s facing in her career right now?

• “[Overcoming] the fear that no one is going to get [my work] when I’m done.”
• “Motivation and pushing myself to finish work.”
• “Giving myself grace! We want things to be perfect, but they’re never going to look that way.” Faist wants to learn to celebrate the joy of completing an imperfect work of art.

The Biscuit will check-in with Faisst and Hopson throughout their time in the Charlotte Space Program at Nine-Eighteen-Nine.