A resourceful space for the younger Charlotte community is no longer just on wheels. It's now a physical hub that aims to bring creative minds together under one roof.
After about a year of renovations, Do Greater Charlotte’s CRTV (Creative) Lab at Shiloh is officially accessible to the public. It held its grand opening yesterday as part of Charlotte’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. The 8,000-square-foot mixed-use facility is located at Shiloh Institutional Baptist Church in Charlotte.
The lab sits in Camp Greene and will serve the underserved communities of Freedom Drive and West and Wilkinson boulevards. It was created to provide a permanent space for youth to explore design, entrepreneurship and innovative technology.
Do Greater Charlotte, founded in 2017, is a nonprofit organization designed to train and offer children in under-resourced areas a space to utilize technology and creative avenues. Its first initiative transformed into the Mobile Creative Learning lab, a mobile-truck classroom that provided iPads, laptops and other technology within a nurturing community. It will continue to be used to build awareness about the program and provide transportation to children who may need a ride to the new physical lab.
Not only did it take vision, determination and time to accomplish the CRTV Lab at Shiloh, but it also took a plethora of help from the community, said William McNeely, founder and CEO of Do Greater Charlotte. About 40 to 50 local organizations provided funding and support. Architecture firm Gresham Smith designed the space, and LaBella Associates provided renderings and engineering specs to help bring McNeely’s idea to life.
“So this entire building is here for what we call building creative competence in youth. And that is helping kids build their creative skills set so they can solve the world's problems, which is what we believe this facility will help do,” he said. “It's a long process that we undertook to get here … But we think that this is something that will benefit the community many, many years to come.”
McNeely chose the Shiloh location at 2400 Greenland Ave. due to his personal ties to the area. He grew up on the west side of Charlotte and his family’s history resides there. He also attended Shiloh Baptist Church when he was younger. McNeely said his mother is still a member of the church.
“When we decided to start Do Greater Charlotte, we wanted to make sure that we were activating our foundation on the side of town that gave to us and gave us our experience as a family,” he said. “It matched our vision and mission of what we wanted to accomplish as well. And so, we decided that the partnership was great for us. We raised the money to build and renovate this space into something that we believe was mutually beneficial for both organizations.”
The CRTV Lab at Shiloh is targeted for middle- and high-school students, but the platform is accessible to children of all ages. Youth will be able to participate in 30- to 40-minute sessions centered around creativity, technology and entrepreneurship, which includes coding, design, video production, photography, music and leadership. The classes are available either in the physical hub, mobile lab or online and will typically occur after school.
During the mornings, the CRTV lab can be used as a coworking space for creative individuals or organizations to work on their own projects or help develop programs for the children, McNeely said. There will also be summer camps and workshops available that will focus on creativity.
Do Greater partnered with Enderly Coffee Co. in Charlotte to provide both a full-service coffee shop for youth and communal space for the public to see what the children are working on in the lab. McNeely said Do Greater is looking to hire more baristas to help run that service. The organization is also seeking a technology coordinator and community manager to work at the lab.
The CRTV Lab at Shiloh will host events throughout the remainder of the week to celebrate its grand opening and provide an opportunity for the public to tour the space, grab coffee, try the new creative studios or participate in daily lunch-and-learn sessions with the Charlotte community.
McNeely said he plans to expand the creative platform here. Within three to five years, he said he hopes to have about five creative labs in “what the city calls, the corridors of opportunity.”
