McColl Center is pleased to partner with Independent Picture House (IPH) for a special screening of Ashes to Art, a 41-minute film by educator Eric Whiteside documenting the 1999 performance by Artist-in-Residence alum Marcus Schubert. The film captures Schubert’s original work, Ashes to Art, a powerful reenactment of McColl Center’s origin story, the fire that ultimately gave rise to what is now a haven for artists. As the building approaches its 100th year, this screening offers a timely reflection on transformation, legacy, and the enduring role of artists in shaping place.
Hosted as part of IPH’s monthly programming for the Carolina Independent Film Collective, the evening will bring together the film community and McColl Center’s network of artists, supporters, and collaborators. The program will begin with welcome remarks by Mitchell Kearney, the photographer whose iconic images of Schubert’s performance helped usher in the celebration of McColl Center’s 25th anniversary.
The film’s performance response will feature de’Angelo Dia (McColl Center Artist-in-Residence alum), Dylan Gilbert (WAY OUT), and Rahquelah Conyers (Baran Dance), who will collectively present an interdisciplinary response weaving together poetics, sound art, and dance, extending the spirit of the original performance into the present moment.
The program will continue with a panel discussion featuring McColl Center documentarians Mitchell Kearney, Ben Premeaux, and Eric Whiteside, moderated by McColl Center President and CEO Asa Jackson. Together, they will reflect on the building’s 100-year history, the vital role of documentation in preserving artistic legacy, and the lasting impact of McColl Center’s work over the past 25 years. The evening will conclude with an audience Q&A, inviting collective reflection and dialogue.
Through film, performance, and conversation, the program offers a space to consider how acts of preservation, whether through image, lens, or lived experience, shape the narratives we carry forward.
Panelists:
Ben Premeaux is an artist and educator who has worked in various capacities with the McColl Center since 2009. His tenure began as Media Lab Associate, followed later that year by his appointment as photographer for the Center’s Artists-in-Residence. In 2011, he was named Art Teacher-in-Residence, a role that deepened his interest in camera technology and expanded his work into digital filmmaking. Over the past fourteen years, he has photographed more than 150 McColl Center Artists-in-Residence and produced 135 video portraits documenting the artistic process.
Beyond the McColl Center, Premeaux’s work extends across Charlotte’s cultural institutions. In 2012 he founded Smart LAB, a hybrid production and art studio through which he produces short films and develops his artistic practice. Since 2023, he has led EnVision Me, a Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture outreach program that teaches Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking; to date, students in the program have produced more than 100 original short films.
Premeaux’s independent collaborations include projects with former McColl artists-in-residence such as Mel Chin, Asa Jackson, Matthew Steele, Sarah Sudoff, Zuzanna Dyrda, and William Caballero. Most recently, he served as cinematographer for Caballero on TheyDream, which received a Special Jury Prize for Creative Expression at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Premeaux’s installation Echoes, part of the 2025 The Long Exposure retrospective at the McColl Center, reimagined his artist portrait films as an immersive video installation.
Mitchell Kearney has a keen artistic eye for detail and is a passionate observer of life, taking great pleasure in capturing the essence of a moment. For more than 30 years, he has created insightful portraits of his subjects.A native New Yorker, Mitchell earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He documented the early days of CBGB’s punk music scene after dark while photographing for Cartier, Bloomingdale’s, and Macy’s during the day.
After opening his Charlotte studio in 1983 with his producer partner, Connie, he has continued to photograph executives, artists, writers, actors, and musicians for a wide range of commercial assignments and editorial publications. From 1999 to 2008, he created environmental portraits of the first 185 artists-in-residence at The McColl Center as part of the organization’s ongoing residency archive. Over a three-year period, he documented the construction process and produced a portfolio of finished views of the Levine Center of the Arts in Uptown Charlotte. His fine art work has been exhibited in numerous shows in New York City, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Reite, Italy.
Eric D. Whiteside is a retired CMS public high school teacher and the videographer behind The Work of a Young Artist as an Adult. For over 23 years, he taught English, Film and Theory of Knowledge. In addition to Bill Viola, Andrei Tarkovsky, Anselm Kiefer and Steve Reich, Eric considers his students to be the greatest influence on this and his other experimental films.
Moderator: Asa Jackson, President + CEO of the McColl Center
Asa Jackson is an American artist and arts leader based in North Carolina. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jackson’s work explores the cross section of textile from various countries, peoples, time periods, and personal histories. His works are often anthropological studies, representing the lives of myriad people, their collective and individual stories. By cutting and sewing fabrics together, Jackson metaphorically mixes cultures, time periods, people and places into unified works of art.
Jackson studied sociology at Boston University. He then moved to New York in 2010, where he was featured in several exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at the Samuel Owen Gallery in Greenwich, CT. Jackson then opened 670 Gallery in Virginia, leading the gallery as its director from 2014-2017. He has since been featured in numerous exhibitions, including more recently MoCA Arlington, VA, Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Virginia MoCA in Virginia Beach, VA, and the Harvy B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, NC. His work is a part of various prominent collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Capital One Corporate Collection, The Mint Museum, and The Rockwell Museum. Jackson is the co-founder of the CAN Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization in Newport News, VA, with a focus on building sustainable careers for the creative class. He served on the board of the Virginia Commission for the Arts from 2018-2023 where he acted as chairman for FY 2022. In January 2025, he became President and CEO of the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC.
Performance Response Featuring:
de’Angelo Dia is a theopoet and mystic whose work explores culture and moral imagination through poetry, performance art, and photography. Rooted in the aesthetics of Black liberation theology and Southern Gothic literature, his creative practice engages themes of contemplative spirituality, embodiment poetics, and Gullah mythology.
His poetry collections include bifurcation (Union Presbyterian Seminary, 2022), the poetry zine sacred|spaces (Theurgical Studies Press, 2024), and the chapbook nightshade (Bottlecap Press, 2024). His work has appeared in BLACK BOY Journal, The Skinny Journal, Artists Writing on Liberation, Cru Arts & Culture, and elsewhere. Dia serves as the Director of Education & Community Engagement at IPH and is a member of DOOMSDAY.704.
Dylan Gilbert (he/him/they/them) is an American songwriter, producer, and performer from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a member of the Goodyear Arts Collective and a former member of genre-bending punk band HECTORINA. His compositions range from wild guitar-based art rock to experimental and minimalist music.
Gilbert has been self-releasing music and DIY touring since 2005 — with appearances at Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC), CMJ Music Marathon (New York, NY), Philadelphia Fringe / Cannonball Festival (Philadelphia, PA), Asheville Fringe Festival (Asheville, NC), Indie Grits Film Festival (Columbia, SC), Don’t Sweat It Fest (Rock Hill, SC), and CLT BOOM Festival (Charlotte, NC) — and sharing the stage with artists such as Sylvan Esso, The Ataris, Man Man, Helado Negro, Des Ark, Owen Pallett, Blitzen Trapper, Ava Luna, and Mike Watt— His 13th solo album WHEN DID EVERYTHING CHANGE? was released by Potluck Foundation in 2024. In addition to his own work, Gilbert has been a prolific collaborator. He has written original scores for film, theater, podcasts, commercials, video games, and live dance, including multiple projects with dancer/choreographer Sarah Ingel.
Rahquelah Conyers is an Asheville native with a love for performance and art that explores the commonalities and intricacies of human nature. Her movement and creations are a culmination of her studies in Psychology, Sociology, and Human Sexuality at UNC Charlotte. She is a former member of Moving Spirits Inc. and an active member of Baran Dance, incorporating her training in Modern, West African, African Brazilian, and Commercial Dance into her practice. She is motivated by collaboration with artists outside of dance to create expansive art that continues to seek out venues that can make a difference.