THE STORY OF DUPP&SWAT.
BEFORE WE KNEW TO CALL IT “MAKING SPACE.”
DUPP&SWAT didn't begin with a business plan to build a creative ecosystem.
It began with a return home.
In 2010, after a life-altering experience brought co-founder Davita Galloway back to Winston-Salem, she made a decision: rather than return to life as she knew it, she would lean fully into art and creativity.
Creativity became a way to reconnect—with herself, with possibility and with what could come next.
That decision would eventually lead to Charlotte, a private studio and something neither she nor her brother Dion could have fully imagined at the time.
IT STARTED WITH A STUDIO.
Davita needed somewhere to meet costume and styling clients. Dion was a creative with his own talents, ideas and vision. Together, the siblings created DUPP&SWAT.
The plan was relatively simple: a private creative studio where they could work.
That lasted about two months. Because people started showing up.
Musicians. Visual artists. Fashion designers. Writers. Entrepreneurs. Creatives who saw something in the space that Davita and Dion hadn't necessarily set out to create.
They didn't just see a studio. They saw somewhere they could be.
And instead of protecting the original plan, Davita and Dion paid attention to what was happening around them.
They said yes.
THE SPACE KEPT TELLING US WHAT IT NEEDED TO BECOME.
The creative energy began to overflow. People wanted somewhere to gather.
We made room.
Artists needed somewhere to show their work.
We made room.
Independent creators needed somewhere to sell.
We made room.
People wanted somewhere to celebrate, perform, experiment, connect and try things they couldn't quite find another place for.
We made room.
Slowly, a private creative studio became an event venue. An art gallery. A retail boutique. A salon. A gathering place. A testing ground. A first stage. A first wall. A first opportunity.
Not because those things were written into some master plan. BUT, BECAUSE DUPP&SWAT evolved in response to the people who walked through its doors.
YES LIVES HERE.
But what made DUPP&SWAT different was never simply what existed inside the building.
It was who was allowed to exist there.
From the beginning, D&S became a place willing to say yes to people who had grown accustomed to hearing no.
Black creatives. Queer creatives. Emerging artists. Nontraditional entrepreneurs.
People whose work didn't always fit neatly into established institutions, industries or expectations.
They could show something unfinished. Try something strange. Host the event. Put something on the wall. Sell the thing. Change their mind. Figure it out.
They could take up space.
And they didn't have to become somebody else first.
That spirit of radical acceptance became part of the foundation of DUPP&SWAT.
AND PEOPLE DID SOMETHING WITH THE ROOM.
Over the years, hundreds—and eventually thousands—of experiences would move through the world of DUPP&SWAT.
Art shows and exhibitions. Fashion pop-ups. Poetry readings. Parties. Markets. Community conversations. Workshops. Performances. Launches. And plenty of things that probably defied a category altogether.
But the events themselves only tell part of the story.
Artists found audiences. Entrepreneurs tested ideas. People met collaborators. Creatives received mentorship, resources and their first opportunities. People found community.
And sometimes somebody simply walked through the door and discovered there were other people who imagined the world a little differently, too.
The space became useful because people used it.
WE'VE HAD TO FIGHT FOR THE ROOM, TOO.
The romantic version of this story would skip this part. We won't.
Building and sustaining an independent creative space is hard. There have been questions of funding. Sustainability. Autonomy. Growth. What to keep. What to release. When to pivot. How to serve community while still building something capable of surviving.
We've opened things. Closed things.
Moved. Changed our minds. Tried again.
And learned that making space also requires figuring out how to sustain it. Sixteen years later, we're still learning.
But through every iteration, we've continued returning to the same question:
What do our people need room for now?
THE ANSWER KEEPS CHANGING.
Sometimes the answer has been art. Sometimes commerce. Sometimes education. Sometimes care.
In 2022, that answer became FRESH PRODUCE, creating a retail platform for clothing, accessories, home goods and work from independent creators.
In 2025, it became CELL THERAPY, our beauty + barber parlor built around another form of creativity we've always understood: how we care for, adorn and express ourselves.
Along the way, other parts of the D&S world have emerged, evolved or taken on lives of their own—from CrownKeepers to Creative Currency, Exhibits at the Stu and the E.T. League.
Different ideas.
Different needs.
Different ways in.
Same instinct: make room.
WE MAKE SPACE.
It took us years to find those three words. But we've been living them since 2010.
We make physical space, yes. But we've learned that space can also be an opportunity. A platform. An introduction. A first chance. A second chance. A check. A chair. A wall. A stage. A conversation. A room where you don't have to explain why you belong there.
DUPP&SWAT has never really been about a building.
It's about what becomes possible when people have room.
STILL BECOMING.
What began as a modest private studio has become a creative ecosystem spanning art, culture, commerce, education, beauty, community and experiences we probably haven't imagined yet. And maybe that's fitting Because DUPP&SWAT was never built by knowing exactly what it would become.
It was built by paying attention.
To people.
To culture.
To possibility.
To what was missing.
And then making room for it.
So no, we don't know exactly what DUPP&SWAT will look like sixteen years from now. We hope we never do.
As long as there are people with ideas that deserve somewhere to go, work that deserves to be seen, voices that deserve to be heard and possibilities that deserve a chance—
we'll keep making space.
DUPP&SWAT
Making space since 2010.
