An Abingdon renaissance

MOUNTAIN MELTING POT

Asheville, N.C. melds mountain culture with urban hipness.

ABINGDON -- This little town might be the next Asheville, at least according to the buzz downtown.

It has been a sudden, subtle change, but seemingly overnight, the same sort of art galleries and crafty, eclectic shops that define that North Carolina tourist center are popping up in Abingdon -- another artsy mountain town that some say is on the verge of discovering its creative economy.

As a regional artisan center prepares to break ground and Abingdon's existing arts center prepares for a major overhaul, the downtown area is seeing a wave of creative entrepreneurs setting up shop.

"I believe we're at the beginning of a new art renaissance," said John Buckland, owner of the newly opened Blue Windmill Galleries and one of the people behind the Arts Association of Abingdon, which seeks to bring all of the town's art venues under one marketing umbrella.

"The more we've got, the more we'll get. That's the whole point," Buckland said. "Everybody always talks about competition, but I wish there were a dozen art galleries on Main Street in Abingdon because it helps make it an arts destination for tourists."

Among the new businesses that have taken off downtown are Babycakes Cupcakery, specializing in cupcakes, and A Likely Yarn, specializing in yarns made from a far-flung list of places and materials.

Both shops have come through Zazzy'z, a coffee shop that itself was a venture out on a limb two and a half years ago but has become an unofficial small-business incubator for the arts. The coffee shop shares a little enclave on East Main Street with Blue Windmill and several artist studios, a growing hot spot for "the artsy community who enjoy a good cup of coffee," said Zazzy'z owner, Ramsey White.

"Art sells in communities and art sells communities if people want to come and see it, even if they're not buying it," White said. "I think it upgrades the town."

Betsy White, Ramsey White's wife and the retired director of the William King Museum, is leading the museum's new cultural-heritage project. She said she hopes that 20 years of work at the arts center have made an impact -- but it's excitement over a regional artisan center that has sparked the sudden burst of artistic energy.

Heartwood, as the long-discussed project is called, is planned for groundbreaking next month on the campus of Virginia Highlands Community College.

Designed in the form of a huge, deconstructed barn, the center is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of people off Interstate 81 to browse local crafts. The center would then serve as a starting point for folks to set out into the region to visit artisans and music venues, as well as other arts-related attractions throughout Southwest Virginia.

The center's location recognizes Abingdon as the region's cultural center. Diana Blackburn, executive director of Round the Mountain, a regional artisan network closely connected with Heartwood, said its anticipated opening has spurred arts-related growth in town.

"The message that we've been trying to spread out in the community is that art can build communities," Blackburn said. "The arts-and-crafts is a viable industry."

Renovations planned at the William King Museum will open its campus to Main Street and add an artisan courtyard with working studios. Museum director Lemont Dobson said the project will turn the museum grounds into a public art space connected to downtown by foot traffic, a place that could blend a Sunday picnic spot with the study of sculpture.

The draw of an arts-centered community already is apparent in the new shops downtown.

"This is my kind of place," said Elaine O'Doherty, an art teacher from Baltimore who stopped on her way to Asheville and shopped at A Likely Yarn. "I came to ride on the Virginia Creeper [Trail] . . . and I discovered this wonderful town."

The shop sells silk yarn, cashmere and alpaca. It sells yarn made from corn, from sugar cane and from the New Zealand broad-tailed possum. And it's doing well, said Janet Woolwine, who runs the store.

When the economy is down, Woolwine said, the craft business always picks up.

"It's sad to say you can't find yarn shops anymore like you used to be able to find," said Mary Eckert, a customer from Gainesville, Fla. "But more and more people are learning how to do the knitting and the crocheting and they're coming back to it."

At Babycakes Cupcakery, owner Natalie Shortridge has been similarly amazed by the speed at which business has taken off.

"It is way beyond what I could have expected," said Shortridge, whose cupcake shop has been open for about a month inside Zazzy'z. "I think people may not be splurging on vacations and fancy cars and things like that right now, but they can splurge on a $2 cupcake."

She said that, in a way, the recession is turning out to be a good thing on Main Street, even spurring some of the small business growth here, because people are staying and shopping closer to home.