Stepping into Mill No.1 on the Golden Belt Campus reveals an array of artwork covering the walls — paintings, sculptures and fabric work. The wide range of different techniques and designs reflects the diversity of the artists who work in the building. A trip down the hallways takes visitors past independent artists’ studios, each decorated to reflect their unique styles. The artists may even be at work in their space, welcoming visitors and engaging in conversations about art.

Golden Belt Arts is a complex of buildings that hosts studios, galleries and event spaces. The Mill No.1 building is a part of the Golden Belt complex and accommodates 25 artists in its studios.

“Within Golden Belt, I think we all work to support each other,” Matt Tomko, Golden Belt painter, said.

Tomko’s journey as an artist began when he was younger. He received private art lessons as a teenager, but when he went to college, he majored in mathematics and eventually got a job in engineering.

“I kept in touch with art,” Tomko said. “I would do a piece or two a year, mostly in pencil.”

Tomko moved to Durham in 2009 and took it as an opportunity to see what other opportunities were out there. He was getting burnt out at his consulting job and decided to explore the possibility of being an artist. He reached out to a few artists to learn about the arts community in Durham.

“The arts community, from my perspective, was very connective, very willing to support me as a new artist, very easy to make new connections,” Tomko said.

From 2010 to 2015, Tomko split a studio with another artist, while continuing to work in consulting. He said he slowly transitioned into doing more artwork than consulting.

When Golden Belt opened Mill No.1 in 2018, Tomko was one of the first artists to switch to the new studios.

In the new space, artists can leave their studio doors open to welcome visitors while they work or close them to work in private. The artists in the studio are all familiar with each other and will offer creative input and bounce ideas off of one another.

“We’ve got a huge variety of art in a very small space,” Tomko said. “We have people from all around the world in these 25 studios. It creates not just art that can be very interesting to people but conversations about art that could be very interesting to people.”

Christine Hager-Braun, a fiber artist at Mill No. 1, came to Durham from Germany. As Hager-Braun was growing up her grandmother, a seamstress, taught her how to sew. Like Tomko, Hager-Braun did not go to art school. In college, she received her master’s in biology and a PhD in biochemistry. It wasn’t until years later, after she’d moved to Durham, that she decided to pursue art full-time when she realized it helped her battle her depression.

“I was surrounded by darkness,” Hager-Braun said. “Focusing on a quarter-inch seam allowance did not leave room in my head for negative self-talk.”

Hager-Braun’s pieces focus on mental health, chronic illnesses, and disabilities, both visible and invisible. Working in Mill No.1 allows her to talk with visitors, inspiring conversations about mental health.

“What started out as my approach to healing became the purpose for me to talk about it,” Hager-Braun said.

The conversations compel visitors to share their own experiences and struggles with mental health, inspiring Hager-Braun to make more art.

While the Mill No.1 building is open to the public seven days a week, Hager-Braun and the other artists get most of their visitors during the Third Friday Durham Art Walk and Gallery Crawl.

Every third Friday of the month, all the artists and galleries in Durham open to the public to promote the art community. Like the other artists, Hager-Braun meets most of her customers at third Friday events.

The hardest part about making sales is customers not wanting to pay full price for her work, Hager-Braun said.

“You don’t go to the dentist and say I would like to have a crown but I want to negotiate the price,” Hager-Braun said.

Hager-Braun is a member of the Durham Art Guild, a nonprofit that has been connecting and supporting artists since 1948. She said that the DAG helps ensure that its members get paid through several organized programs that set up paid opportunities for the member artists.

Many of the Mill No.1 studios’ artists are members of the Durham Art Guild.

Adam Narcross is a Mill No.1 artist and is planning on joining the Durham Art Guild before the end of this year.

Narcross first joined Golden Belt Arts in 2009, but his journey into art began much earlier. He first found a love for art in the mid-1990s when he was in his early 20s. He said he went to a lot of parties that incited a lot of creative ideas.

“As I became more exposed to the world around me, as I saw the world and spoke to people from different backgrounds I was inspired,” Narcross said.

He began painting and to this day is entirely self-taught. Narcross’ paintings include “slightly unorthodox presentations and representations of the human figure.”

While Narcross has refused to censor himself, he said one of the main challenges he faces is the “unfortunate streak of conservatism that runs through this area.”

“It is something that is always present in the concept of art, especially in the South where more art is flooding in from people mostly from the North,” Narcross said.

Narcross still spoke highly of the Durham art community. “In the last three or four years I have encountered, befriended, met some amazing people who have modeled for the paintings,” he said.

He mentioned The Fruit, an art gallery and concert venue in Durham that showcases exhibitions, installation art and performance art.

“An art venue instead of an art gallery which I think the future of art should lean into because it reaches a far more diverse group of people,” Narcross said. “The fact that there are more art galleries and venues popping up is really a testament to Durham’s attitude towards art.”

Narcross also praised the artists at Golden Belt Arts. “At Golden Belt there’s not a weak link anywhere, we’re really supportive of each other,” he said. “We want to grow with the community as well. We want to make sure culture has a place in it.”

Mill No.1 has five different countries and multiple cultures within its 25 studios.

“People born around the country around the world have ended up in this place at this time to create such a wide variety of art,” Tomko said.

Edited by Will Kleinschmidt