Emerge Gallery & Art Center is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to educate, inspire, and make the arts accessible to the entire community within Greenville and Pitt County, East Carolina University, and the eastern North Carolina region. Emerge is currently the Provisional Pitt County Arts Council.
Emerge has an 8000 square foot facility located at 404 S. Evans Street in Uptown Greenville. There are three gallery spaces, including two that rotate monthly with new exhibitions. There are also three smaller gallery spaces around the art center for community and student exhibitions to be shown. Emerge has a full art center including a pottery facility with 13 potter's wheels, a metalsmithing studio, photography classroom, and two general classrooms. Emerge offers weekly adult and children's classes, workshops, and special events, as well as a full children’s summer program.
Emerge's newest addition is a Painted Pottery Studio. All the bisque ware is created by local artists and the proceeds go to support the Emerge Education & Outreach Program. The Emerge Friday Night Live Series offers an event every Friday night including the performing arts, film, literary, and visual arts events.
Part of Emerge's mission is to make the arts accessible to the entire community. For every five paid programs, one is completely free and targeted towards at-risk or underprivileged youth. We do this through after school music and art programs in the Pitt County Public Schools, artist in residency programs, and our Youth Arts Initiative program that includes scholarships and our Youth Public Arts Project working with the Juvenile Justice Department and School Counselors. Emerge has also provided consultant services for civic art projects for the City of Greenville, and plans to continue to offer advice and gain public input to encourage that Civic Art remain an important and necessary component for our streetscapes, new construction, and an added feature to Pitt County, our businesses, and organizations.