She's tired and admittedly feeling a little nasty from a hard day of cleaning and painting" but Alexis Mastromichalis can't hide her excitement for the future of Nightlight the venue she owns and runs with the help of about 15 people.
And in the last three weeks since Skylight Exchange moved out of the space Mastromichalis has gotten to know those people very well" spending the weekends ""essentially gutting the place.""
""It just looks so beautiful"" she said.
Change is nothing new for the space on Rosemary Street, which has seen its share of re-imaging since it was originally opened in the '70s.
A lot of people don't know this was the original Cat's Cradle"" Mastromichalis said.
For the past five years, though, Nightlight and Skylight Exchange have served as two distinct business operations sharing one space, with Skylight selling used books, coffee and sandwiches during the day, and Nightlight operating as a music venue at night.
But, a month ago, when Skylight closed and moved out, Nightlight took over sole operation of the space. A change that has brought about many upgrades to the room.
We painted the walls and cleaned the floors" she said.
We even climbed up on the roof and scrubbed the skylights" so there's light now.""
The most visible change" though is the removal of the bookshelves record racks and booths of Skylight Exchange" a move that Mastromichalis said has greatly increased the venue's capacity.
""We can hold like three times more people now" she said.
We've gone from having a capacity of about 135 to well" huge.""
Nightlight now stands as one of the few mid-sized clubs in town"" with a capacity that exceeds Local 506.
""I'm so excited to be one of the clubs Cat's Cradle will be presenting shows at"" Mastromichalis said.
It will be interesting to see the kind of shows we can put on now.""
The new space was on display at an early '90s dance party featuring WXYC DJs on Friday.
Mastromichalis said the event drew more than 400 people.
While increased capacity is something that excites her"" Mastromichalis maintains that Nightlight's place within the community remains essentially unchanged.
""Nightlight doesn't want to be exclusive" she said.
We want artists to know that this is a very safe space" and that if they bring their art here it will be appreciated.""
As part of that community mission" Nightlight will host workshops on topics like screenprinting and audio engineering" as well as offering itself as a practice space for artists.
Local musician Jenks Miller books concerts for the Nightlight. He said the expansion will allow for the club to accommodate bands with larger fan bases.
""I don't expect the booking process to change much in the future"" but I do think that expanding our facilities will allow us to better accommodate bands with larger draws.""
Miller agreed with Mastromichalis on the point of expanding the venue's place in the community by making it available to more artists.
""Because we can now offer our space during the day"" Nightlight has a chance to expand our role as a resource for musicians in the community. Practice spaces are hard to come by in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area.""
But" although the space has increased in size and scope" the core of loving people running it remains unchanged.
""Since I've been here" there has been such a strong community of organizers committed to this place" I can't wait to see what comes out of this upgrade.""
""We'll be able to offer so much more.""
Contact the Dive Editor at dive@unc.edu.
Nightlight ready to shine
