Why Artists Love Building Their Careers in Greenville, NC
Pitt County, North Carolina, and its county seat of Greenville, are an ideal area for artists to live, providing them with a great platform to showcase their work. The community is supportive and appreciative, and the region’s arts scene is always growing. Two local artists share about nurturing their craft in the area.
Jazz It Up
North Carolina native Quincy Jones is a local musician and East Carolina University (ECU) alum who’s been living in Greenville since graduating in 2015 after studying jazz performance. He travels some for work, but primarily, he performs at bars and restaurants in and around the community, including Starlight Cafe and Farm, Homage and Black Rose Bottling Co.
Jones says one of the best things about the Greenville-Pitt County region is how supportive and enthusiastic the community is.
Most of the musicians and venues in the area “are pretty connected with one another,” he says. Similarly, he says the bulk of the city’s venues cater to artists, making sure they’re well taken care of and working to promote them. Jones says this level of care and attention distinguishes Greenville-Pitt County from other communities.
While Jones acknowledges that competition among artists exists everywhere, he says rivalries in Greenville-Pitt County tend to be more friendly than fierce.
“The thing around here is that people aren’t just trying to take everybody’s gigs,” he says. “Greenville has enough venues here for everybody to have an opportunity.”
This could likely be due to the continuous growth and adaptation of the cultural scene in the Greenville-Pitt County area.
Michael Tracy, a local professional glassblower and an instructor at ECU’s glass blowing facility, The GlasStation, located in nearby Farmville, says he’s seen a lot of change since he moved to the region in 2017 and feels that community support for the arts is only getting stronger.
“Especially in Pitt County, there is a lot of support for the arts,” he says. “Overall, people seem to be very in favor of the arts being here.”
Creativity Is Common
The broader community is part of what helps the area create and enable creativity, Jones says.
“The (Pitt County Arts Council) does a really good job of branching out,” he says. “They do a First Friday ArtWalk downtown, and it involves a lot of the local businesses, music and events. It brings a packed crowd on those nights.”
Tracy agrees, acknowledging that the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge Gallery & Art Center does an amazing job promoting the arts locally. It’s a quiet community that feels like a small town, he says, yet the artistic offerings seem on par with those of bigger cities.
“First Friday ArtWalk includes a lot of the local businesses, a lot of music and a lot of different types of events going on,” he says. “It always seems to be a packed crowd on those nights. They’re just doing an incredible job of making the arts more accessible to the community.”
As a glassblowing instructor, Tracy now focuses on creating work for larger shows and has a piece that was sent to be displayed at Norfolk International Airport. His work was also featured in a show outside of Philadelphia in December 2025 called Craft Forms 2025.
Between showing his work and teaching, Tracy says he’s very content in his career in Greenville-Pitt County.
Jones also shares that sentiment, especially with regard to the community.
“The people who live in Greenville, I hope they just continue to support local artists and keep the momentum going in the area,” he says. “Support starts at home, so if you keep supporting locals, you never know when you might find your next superstar.”
Classes on Glass
In the spring of 2017, ECU began offering glassblowing classes through The GlasStation, its functioning hot-glass studio located in a refurbished Gulf gas station in nearby Farmville. Available for college students and the public, the studio came about largely due to the Farmville Group, which was trying to promote the town and its economic development by using low-cost artist studios to attract graduate students coming out of the university.
In a serendipitous move, faculty member Michael Tracy says ECU’s dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication wanted glass added to the School of Art and Design, so everything kind of fell into place.
“The Farmville Group secured the building and did the renovations, and ECU rents out the building and supplies the equipment and faculty to teach college classes here,” Tracy says.
The result is a unique resource: a small, world-class glassblowing studio that’s accessible to the entire community.
In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students, The GlasStation offers about 20 workshops per semester through ECU’s continuing education department that are centered on a theme, like vases, paperweights or holiday ornaments. As part of its focus on community outreach, Tracy does public demonstrations and open-house demos for The GlasStation on the third Friday of each month. He says the community’s responses are fun and rewarding to witness.
“It is kind of infectious to see their excitement and be able to share that,” he says.
For the latest happenings, visit facebook.com/ECUGlasStation.
Get to Know Greenville, NC
Want to learn more about living and working in Greenville, NC? Check out the latest edition of Livability Greenville-Pitt County, North Carolina.