The arts community in Charlotte is in dire need of support. Local city government officials recently announced a $1M budget cut for the arts. Various theater companies and galleries have closed across the city due to lacks of space and budget.

Charlotte Hub is focusing on uplifting local artists that are affiliated with The Light Factory - a local nonprofit that hosts photography exhibitions and film screenings, as well as classes that range from basic photography to advanced Photoshop, darkroom techniques, screenwriting and filmmaking. For more than 30 years, The Light Factory has served Charlotte’s diverse community, giving both local and emerging artists a place to learn, while exhibiting internationally-renowned photographers and filmmakers.

To make an impact and support the local arts community, our hub created a project to repaint The Light Factory’s exhibition space inside of the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Center in Uptown Charlotte. By doing this, we helped their exhibition space look uniform (as the walls were previously all different colors) and more modern; giving the artists that call it home a space to be proud to show their work on.

Our hub created three shifts - June 12, 13 and 14 2023 - where members volunteered 2 hours in the evenings to paint The Light Factory’s exhibition space. Throughout the week, we had 13 hub members sign up and complete shifts to paint. This totaled 26 hours of total time poured into the project, not including the time spent on planning/logistics prior to its kick-off.

The project’s short-term goals were to give artists at The Light Factory a space they can be proud of and to provide their dated space an upgrade to match the rest of the venue. Our long-term goals are to support the local arts community in Charlotte. We have created a strong relationship with The Light Factory that can be cultivated and leveraged for future projects.