The Outpost Art Space

COLUMBIA, SC. — March 3, 2020 — You’re strolling through Five Points, glancing through storefront windows, when you catch sight of what looks like grandmas, retro, funky living room. 

Behind this narrative based store front, you walk inside to discover that this peculiar place is none other than what Columbia residents used to know as the Tapp’s Art Center, reinventing their creative mission in what is now the Outpost Art Space. 

The former Tapp’s Art Center located on Main St. in Downtown Columbia relocated last year to Columbia’s cultural and creative center of Five Points due to funding issues.

“I think the foot traffic and the tone and the spirit of Five Points matched our mission,” executive director, Caitlyn Bright, explains, “which is the celebration of and support of experimental and innovative art practices.”

In its new space, the Outpost Art Space is a creative incubator for artists of all kinds to come and focus on cultural entrepreneurship.

“We help artists with their business plans, and their marketing, and their vision. We help them further realize what they want to do. Whether it’s to be a part of something or start their own business, being empowered allows you to make those decisions more effectively,” Bright said.

The new Outpost is a more intimate space than the old Tapp’s building where they used to be located. Inside, the storefront welcomes the community to experience and interact with their artists products and installations. Behind the face of the store, the creative space continues to include artists studios and more working space.

The space is still being created and built as new ideas emerge for what can be added to make their creative laboratory experience the most unique and culturally favorable as possible.

Kiber Selig, the artist curating the storefront of the Outpost, calls her creative workspace “The Trade Station”. She plans to incorporate all sanctions of the arts of everyday life in an interactive space where people can come indulge themselves.

“The idea here is we’ve used this window for music. So far we’ve had a few DJ’s play and we’ve also had some bands do some live sessions in here. We have cassette tapes, artists prints, and we also have a tape player. We had a cassette listening party here the other night, and so we had people come in and bring their tapes. A little “bring a tape, leave a tape” kind of thing, so we're trying to get more people to donate to that now, and hopefully some records too,” Selig said about her storefront.  

The Trade Station also exhibits other products in its “Cabinet of Curiosities” from vintage clothes, jewelry and hats to bean bags, wood prints and knick knacks. The space also includes activities for down-time and rest for the makers and artists like playing video games or watching TV.

 Bright said, “We definitely understand that hard work is important, but taking breaks and resting your brain is also fun and necessary, so we have little things to do here.”

The possibilities are endless in the form and delivery of art at the Outpost. 

“We're keeping it really open because creativity intervenes in so many different practices and we want to help artists understand that they effect your life more than you think. And we want the community to understand that too,” Bright explained, “So we thought it better to have these narrative based experiences where you can come in and make smell, touch, sound and memory based relationships with the objects and things that we have in here.”

The community is encouraged to join in their mission “to help Columbia create, learn and grow” through workshops, classes and events they plan to offer. Ideas like candle making, listening parties, and art exhibitions are all ways in which they aim to encourage community engagement and artistic expression.

They will be holding their first exhibition for the community during Columbia’s First Thursday on Main, March 5th. Around eight artists will be creating tiny installations in the cubby holes in the back of the warehouse-like space about their own definition of utopia. 

Bright said, “We were talking about how it’s a completely different vibe, but it feels so much better here, so we were like it’s our own little utopia. And then, we were having dialogue about why is it utopia? So, we wondered what other artists think is the ideal space, and that’s what they’re going to be talking about in the exhibition.”

Have you been looking to find your own utopia?

The next time you are in Five Points, wander in to the Outpost Art Space and you might find just what you’ve been looking for.