If you’ve read this blog long enough, then you probably already know I have a thing for hoarders. I used to work for one (that didn’t work out so well) and have a family member (or two) whose baby toe is slightly keeping them out of the deep end of the hoarding pool. As a museologist, I find the accumulation of stuff fascinating, whether it’s collected in a museum display case or kept in a pile in the garage. We all like crap, maybe some more than others. Someone who definitely followed the hoarder path was Sylvia Gray of Greensboro, North Carolina. She once ran a thrift store for 58 years. Shit piled up to the ceiling because she never threw anything out. Besides the fact that she shopped twice a day at the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores always bringing back more and more stuff. When she died 15 years ago, her grandson (who happens to be an artist) turned the shop into a museum called the Elsewhere Collaborative. He wanted to preserve her collection but also give new life to the space. Nothing is for sale or leaves the building, but resident artists are allowed to alter or create new meanings to all the objects amassed by Miss Sylvia. It’s nice that he turned what some people would see as a negative into a positive and created a living history/art museum. Or let’s just call it what it really is…a hipster’s paradise.
Elsewhere Collaborative, North Carolina
