In Nashville, the PSV Store is Operating as a Creative Intersection for the City’s Budding Renaissance
Evan Dale + Alberto Aliaga // Nov 28, 2021
As unassuming as its name, 100 Taylor Arts Collective sits just North of Central Nashville, a large repurposed brick warehouse that has, somehow away from the greedy eyes of explosive gentrification, thrived in its existence supporting local artists and merchants. Within its walls, art and photography studios linked by meandering hallways drowning in natural light are interwoven further with a coffee shop, small-scale textile and clothing operations, jewelry designers, sculptors, brand stores, and other businesses operating less interactive workspaces sans the open door policy that drives so much of the collective’s collaborative identity. The entire space is a case-study on the joint arts co-op model that hasn’t yet infiltrated the smaller markets of the United States en masse. Instead, reminiscent more of the vertical operations one finds in Brooklyn, Harlem, and Tribeca, the artistic hotspots that have been moving across the bridge from San Francisco to Oakland for decades, the communally supportive creative collectives found all around European cities, and the burgeoning street art district turned all-encompassing creative community that is OCT Lofts in Shenzhen, China, 100 Taylor Arts may be unassuming from the outdoors, but once inside grants its visitors a vibrant glimpse into the dynamic range of Nashville’s quickly rising creative underground. Down a particular hallway near the back of the building, lies PSV: a shop that in many ways feels amalgamate of what 100 Taylor Arts – and amalgamate further of what the Nashville creative sphere at large – is putting on display.
Once you meet Terrance Simpson, a double entendre seems a fitting way to name a store that, too, serves many purposes. Originally established in 2015 as PlusSignVibez – the name through which he navigated an early Nashville hip-hop, jazz-founded, and neo-soul-oriented underground that has in the years since continued its ascent – it existed early on as a lifestyle brand on a truly trailblazing scale for the city. When he both slowed down the creative output of his music and had his personal life shaken up by the unpredictability of the pandemic era, he ‘knew it was time to revisit the brand on a whole new level.’
‘I wanted to highlight my friends’ businesses and brands, so I came up with the PSV Store where Peers Support Victories,’ he told us as we exchanged messages on Small Business Saturday, speaking further on how he had first opened the store almost exactly a year ago in November of 2020. Like the double entendre in his name, the timing of our conversation felt unavoidably kismet. More than a shop owner hosting and highlighting the brands and business of those who he had met and continues to meet through Nashville’s creative community, but an artist himself, Terrance seems handpicked for a role that is constantly allowing him to act as a multi-dimensional bridge between varying sides of the Nashville creative scene.
‘I don’t even see myself as a bridge, honestly. I’m more of an intersection. We’re all supposed to meet at some point. I just make it a little more intentional on showing love while we are all at this particular red or green light. Really, I’m just the crossing guard,’ he said when we asked him to speak on connectivity. Ask any Nashvillian to discuss creativity or traffic metaphors, and you’re sure to get a thought-out response.
Through his time working on music, he has been able to build a network and connect to so many other influential figures and friends within its wide-ranging Nashville scope; Through a life in the creative sphere at large, he’s been able to meet and connect with so many other artists crafting something unique in the city; Through 100 Taylor Arts in particular, he has connected even further with a tangled web of visual artists and photographers while also existing in an artistic hub that connects creatives with intent; And through the PSV Store, all of those worlds collide. More than a shop – more than a shopkeeper – PlusSignVibez and Peers Support Victories is a central idea and intersectional space in a city undergoing a mosaic of Renaissance changes.
‘Overall, the vision was to create a hub for artists, entrepreneurs, and creatives to be able to exist under one roof at any given time,’ he explained while divulging his vision for the space. And yet, as wide-ranging as that central ideology might be, it turns out there’s even more to it. Amongst others, Quez Cantrell, Ron Obasi, Chuck Indigo, Brian Brown, Mei, Orande, MillyRose, Bella Moon, Mic Carr, and Vibeout have introduced their influence on Nashville’s rising musical underground to the PSV shop floor. Beyond that, Terrance and his widely connected network of creatives ‘are currently in the process of cooking up something big for the first quarter of the year.’
‘We’ve been able to utilize the space to create intimate performances from local artists so that they can create a more direct relationship with their core audience. It’s dope to see artists learn their range when it comes to things like how many tickets they can sell or what songs connect directly to their listeners,’ Terrance said while speaking on the intersections of space, music, and performance within the PSV shop itself. Reminiscent of the intimacy in an NPR Tiny Desk, performances at the PSV store are homey, warm, and cozy. And just like the rest of the space, that’s by design.
Quickly annexing the available space next door to his own within 100 Taylor Arts, Terrance’s operations expanded early on in the shop’s timeline, granting it a more well-rounded and intriguing spatial environment. When walking into the main shop floor, a staircase hugs the wall ahead, leading up and left to a loft that feels like a particularly well-curated boutique. If instead, art is on your mind, the annexed space through a door to the right has plenty of it on display from floor to tall, tall ceiling, where that art also acts as stage backdrop when artists and spoken word poets perform. Art also adorns the outer walls of the PSV Store’s collective entrance. In the main room, a vinyl collection with Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City locked and loaded on the turntable, a few couches and comfy chairs, racks and shelves of PSV-adorned goods, and a television on a silky rotation of music videos and live performances make it feel like what all of us wish greeted our guests when entering our own homes.
Perhaps curating intersectional spaces that bring community moments into focus is something that you’re born with – or born into – because Terrance’s brother, Clarence also operates within the curation spectrum. After years organizing space, gallery, community, and shop in New York, Clarence recently relocated back to Nashville and opened Cë Gallery North of the city. An open floorplan and an offset multi-floor layout, Cë has since its opening been serving as a space for everything that the true side of Nashville ‘s renaissance moment has to offer. From photo shows like that from V$NR at the beginning of the Summer to live models for figure drawing clinics, art exhibitions, immersive meditations like their Sound + Soul series, and live jazz performance, the Cë Gallery – like the PSV Store – is meeting a critical moment for an intersection between creativity and community. And both of the creatively curated spaces are born from a critical truth in Terrance and Clarence’s collective upbringing.
‘We’ve always had to use our creativity and imagination to carve our own way since we came up with very limited resources. It was the “Oh, we can’t afford that name brand? Cool, well we will create our own shirts. At least no one will have the same outfit as us” kind of mindset. I think that what we’re currently building individually is an enhanced representation of that exact same mentality. Also, coming from a single parent home showed us that we can make something out of nothing. We never sought approval from our peers or the world in our creative paths. It was always about creating from a genuine space for us. Let’s be disruptive and innovative at the same time. It’s always about creating things and moments that we’ve yet to see or experience.’
‘”If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” That’s the most important factor of all when building anything. If I build alone, I only see one side of the spectrum. If WE build, other perspectives will make the structure much more functional. That’s what it’s all about. In order to see creative movement progress in Nashville, it’s going to take a collaborative effort.’
And the PSV Store offers creatives and community members alike a space to see that collaborative effort come to life. Those communal-creative intersections deserve to be at front of mind. Artistic movements, musical moments, entrepreneurial rise, and ultimately genius, emerge from the kind of renaissances that Nashville is currently experiencing. But without spaces – like the PSV Store – that bring together so many differing yet connected corners of the creative community, a renaissance will never fully bloom into its potential. But in Nashville, Terrance Simpson, his brother, and the community at large are doing things differently – doing things right.
