Elsewhere Collaborative, Greensboro

Housed in a former thrift store in downtown Greensboro, the Elsewhere Collaborative is far from a typical museum-it's a dynamic, ever-evolving space for creativity, collaboration, and imaginative reuse. Once home to Sylvia Gray’s second-hand empire, the three-story building now houses a time capsule of over 58 years’ worth of collected surplus-fabrics, furniture, military gear, oddities, and ephemera-amassed between 1939 and 1997. After Sylvia’s passing, her grandson, George Scheer, made a bold decision: nothing would be sold, nothing added. Instead, the mountain of objects would become the foundation for something entirely new.

That “something” is Elsewhere: part museum, part artist residency, part social experiment. Artists from around the globe, known affectionately as "Elsewherians," are invited to live onsite and create works from within the collection-repurposing, reshaping, and responding to the materials at hand. Think: a piano deconstructed and rebuilt into a sound sculpture or a sea of vintage clothes transformed into immersive environments.

Elsewhere’s collection is both the medium and the message-no object leaves, no new objects enter. Instead, the focus is on reimagining what already exists, using art to spark dialogue, community engagement, and new ways of thinking. It’s as much about the process as the product, as much about play as preservation.

Open to the public on the first weekend of each month (except January), Elsewhere also offers private tours, event rentals, and creative retreats. What began as a chaotic thrift shop is now a one-of-a-kind cultural engine-an archive, a playground, and a provocation all rolled into one.