Carolina Record Shop Creative Residency
Founded in 2020, the Carolina Record Shop Creative Residency Program provides an annual opportunity for artists in Buncombe County to create new, research-driven creative work using BCSC’s historic resources, and to present their work in the Carolina Record Shop, a dedicated exhibition space in the BCSC reading room.
The goals of the Carolina Record Shop are to
- offer new, diverse perspectives on our shared history,
- identify and address gaps and/or amplify narratives that are historically underrepresented in our collection, and
- educate and inspire non-traditional users of archives and special collections to engage with the collection in new ways.
2024 Creative Resident: Eric William Carroll
Eric William Carroll’s work on photography, science, and nature explores the differences in how we experience, organize, and represent the world. Through his photographs, books, installations, and performances he explores themes of human obsolescence, ephemerality and memory. As a public scholar, he activates archives and collaborates playfully with artists and non-artists alike. At the heart of Carroll’s practice is a genuine sense of curiosity and humor that questions traditional binary relationships. In the past he has collaborated with scientific archives at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory (Chicago, IL), the Bakken Museum (Minneapolis, MN), CalTech (Pasadena, CA), and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (Rosman, NC).
Carroll’s project will be a deep-dive exploration of scrapbooks held by Buncombe County Special Collections, highlighting the creative & lasting potential of this form and demonstrating contemporary strategies for reviving this lost art.
The 2024 Creative Residency is made possible in part by the Trust Fund for Buncombe County Public Libraries.
Proposals
The application period for the 2024-2025 round of this program will open up in Fall 2024. Please feel free to reach out with questions in the meantime!
Past Carolina Record Shop Creative Residents
Miles Lamberson (2022-2023) curated the exhibition Belonging & Non-Belonging: The History and Futures of Zines in Western North Carolina, featuring new collections of DIY self-publishing from the region, including the archives of the Asheville Zine Fest. He also led a research talk and hands-on zine workshop.
Visit the digital exhibition or visit in person–exhibition on view now!
Honey Simone (2020-2021) was artist-in-residence during the inaugural creative residency launched in partnership with Engaging Collections. The inaugural project included large-scale changes to BCSC’s space, the creation of the Carolina Record Shop space, and an exhibition on Black history in Asheville.