The Eno Arts Mill has quickly become a staple of the Hillsborough community located in a space with a prominent historical past.
The mill recently celebrated their one-year anniversary, and provided exciting updates of their accomplishments at an October Orange County Board of County Commissioners meeting.
The Orange County Arts Commission (OCAC) opened eleven artist studios at the Eno River Mill in March of 2020.
The Eno Art Mill was created in a mission to provide low-cost access to local artists. It transformed an unused space into an arts destination and economic asset for Hillsborough and the county.
In May of 2021, the commission was allowed to lease more space adjacent to the existing studios. These spaces are known as the Eno Arts Mill, which is composed of 10,000 square feet of space, including a gallery, classroom and seventeen artist studios.
Katie Murray, the arts director of the OCAC, said the grand opening of the mill was October 2021, and its popularity continues to grow.
“Word is already getting out — we’ve received a ton of really good press and positive feedback,” Murray said.
Murray highlighted several positive contributions the mill has made to the area since its opening last year.
In April, the Eno Arts Mill partnered with the Orange County Department of Housing on an exhibit called “Home,” which was an artistic exploration of housing in the Triangle area.
“The resulting exhibit featured 100 works of art from 54 artists all throughout the Triangle area focused on the unaffordability of housing in our community as well as the impact of the pandemic,” Murray said.
In July, Murray said they hired two artists — Mango Martinez and Natalia Torres de Valle — to curate an exhibit called “Building Bridges.”
“It showcased nineteen Latin-American artists around the Triangle. The opening featured Joe Troop, who is another grant recipient tonight, and Larry Bellorín,” Murray said. “And the Takiri dancers had everyone dancing in the parking lot. It was awesome — it was a great night.”
Murray said she is particularly proud of the mill’s efforts to foster accessibility and diversity over its first year.
Murray said the center has been intentional in messaging and programming. She added as a result, 44% of their tenant artists identify as a member of a marginalized community and 38% are people of color.
“We’ve come to learn that our space is actually one of the only truly accessible arts studios in the Triangle,” Murray said. “It was made even more accessible with the help of AMS, who installed automatic door openers for us so that our three tenants who use wheelchairs can get in easier, so it’s a great source of pride for me.”
The mill has also allowed the OCAC to forge new relationships, Murray said. A therapy institute opened a Hillsborough office in the Eno Arts Mill’s space, and the mill partnered with the Art Therapy Institute to provide free family activities during their opening.
“One of the most profound moments in that was our July opening, which was right after the Uvalde shooting,” Murray said. “Our friends in planning printed Amanda Gordon’s “Hymn for the Hurting” poem — which was in the Washington post — on a 9-foot banner which was put in the classroom and asked the kids to write words and feelings and images on leaves, which we then put on this tree to make a community mural.”
Murray said the Art Therapy Institute also started an LGBTQ teens arts collective and partnered with the North Carolina Artists Guild and the North Carolina ClayWorks Guild.
Future goals for the mill include a community ceramics studio, community dark room and an accessible children’s theater.
“I believe that the arts are for everyone, and I think that everything we do needs to reflect our entire community,” Murray said.
Photo via John Michael Simpson/Chapel Hill Magazine
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