It can be risky for an attraction to open its gift shop before the museum itself, but that’s exactly what David Greenson and alexandria monque ravenel did with The People's Place AVL — the co-owners of the new museum and community hub decided to build and open the gift shop first earlier this year in Asheville, North Carolina.
Ravenel met Greenson several years ago and learned that they were both passionate about educating the public on grassroots activist movements, she says. After some conversations, she says they developed The People’s Place AVL with a goal of building a museum in Asheville to teach people about activist movements from over the years and across the country. She notes that they also wanted the destination to serve as a space for community groups to meet and discuss change as well as other events.
“What I’ve learned through the years and in working with folks in Asheville is that we can do more when we do it together — it’s about people, power and movement,” she says. “We wanted to look at challenges we’re facing and have faced and bring all that to the table here at The People’s Place AVL.”
Greenson notes that they decided to open a gift shop first as a soft launch for the mini museum in order to showcase souvenirs in support of the new attraction. After finding a small storefront for the museum and gift shop in downtown Asheville, they initially prepped to open in October 2024. However, the impact of Hurricane Helene prompted Greenson and ravenel to put the project on pause for a few months.
“The period after the storm was very intense in a lot of different ways,” Greenson shares. “There were outages, a lack of water for a period of time. But it was also exhilarating, seeing people support one another and stepping outside of normal routines. So we obviously couldn’t go through with the plan to open in October 2024, and we instead turned our efforts to support people who were struggling in the community.”
Although businesses and people around Asheville are still in the process of rebuilding, Greenson says he and ravenel took a risk and opened The People’s Place AVL gift shop and mini museum in January. A sprinkling of souvenirs sits at the front window to encourage passersby to check out the store and mini museum.
Ravenel notes that the gift shop started small with just a few name-drop items featuring the name of the mini museum as well as a few locally made gifts.“Most of our merchandise is The People’s Place-branded items, like T-shirts, mugs,” she says. “Then there are some products from people who are doing things in the community to make the planet a better place, like some honeys or teas. We’re very community oriented, so we wanted to tell these companies’ stories, too.”
There are some one-of-a-kind finds for people who love political history, too.
“You can buy a Greensboro Sit-in puzzle, or an apron that highlights how power, culture, history and food connect!” says Greenson.The mini museum also started small, featuring just a few exhibits that share both historical and present-day activist movements and how they impact communities. One display educates visitors on the history of the Greensboro Sit-In from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. There’s displays highlighting activist work that has been done in Baltimore, Mexico City and other destinations across the world. Greenson says they also set up a station that invites visitors to share their views, such as how they think hurricane relief money should be used by the community.
Greenson adds that they are hoping to host community events at the destination as well.
“We can have some gatherings here, but we can only fit about 20 people,” he says. “So right now we’ve hosted a few other events around town. We had a Juneteenth Karaoke Party at a local bar, complete with People’s Place AVL margaritas.”
He adds that they hope to acquire a bigger space, either in Asheville or nearby, in the near-term future so that they can host more events as well as expand the gift shop and museum.
With a focus on serving the community and being a place to start conversations on change, Ravenel adds that The People’s Place AVL is a unique destination.
“There’s retail, a museum but this is a little different,” she says. “We stick out. We want to be a place where people can ask questions and talk about change they want to see in their communities.”
