The arts community in Asheville, North Carolina, is working together in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen.
In the River Arts District, artwork has been destroyed and buildings that once housed studios and galleries are covered in mud or crumbling. Faced with the pressing challenge of survival, communities are now wondering whether they can rebuild from the ground up what once was.
On a recent Saturday morning, painter Elizabeth Pollitt Carrington drove from her home in West Asheville to RAD, a place she calls “the village.” It was once a vibrant neighborhood filled with art galleries and restaurants, and an important part of Asheville tourism.
When Helen hit western North Carolina on September 26, the French Broad River flooded. It crested at 24 feet on September 28, surpassing the previous record.
Water, debris, and mud turned RAD into a post-apocalyptic Dr. Seuss landscape. Trees were bent sideways and falling, and plastic bags were shredded into ribbons by branches. A sheet of metal, similar to those found on raised garden beds, is wrapped around the trunk. The mud puddles are thick and passable only by temporary plywood bridges. Brown dust covers everything.
That morning, Carrington approached Riverview Station and visited the studio and gallery space on the second floor. Built in 1902, the building was home to 60 artists. She came across eight art prints spread out on dusty grass.
Water had seeped under the plastic cover, distorting the cardboard and paper.
Carrington noticed that six of the prints were her own work, which was on sale at the Tiger Tiger Gallery on the first floor of Riverview Station, she said. Someone must have taken the work outside to dry in the sun.
Carrington, whose face was covered by an N95 mask, peered through Tiger Tiger’s darkly open front door.
“I think one of my paintings is stuck in the rafters over there,” she commented.
The Blue Ridge mountain town of Asheville is considered one of the top arts communities in the Southeast. Carrington is one of about 300 artists working at RAD. Her studio is on the second floor of Riverview Station, and before Helen, she thought there was “no need to worry at all.”
But ArtPlace and Tyger Tyger’s gallerists were worried. Mr Carrington was visiting family in County Clare, Ireland, when Helen took her life. She estimated that 80 percent of her work was saved because one gallerist moved her work to a higher floor and another collected her paintings and delivered them to her home.
Who would want to buy a painting that was submerged in two feet of contaminated mud?
elizabeth pollitt carryington
Once the floodwaters receded, artists like Carrington returned to the RAD to salvage their artwork and belongings. The power outed Riverview Station was eerie, pitch black and hallways filled with puddles of mud. Carrington was able to get back her laptop and camera, as well as her most expensive oil paints, she said.
The sketchbook she had had since she was a child was severely damaged in the flood. She was also able to recover some paintings. What hung on her gallery wall was relatively intact. The objects propped up on the floor of her studio were caked with mud.
(At the time of the Guardian’s visit, nearly everyone at RAD heeded warnings about toxins in the mud and was wearing face masks and other personal protective equipment.) It will be discarded.
“How do you hose off an oil painting?” Carrington asked. “Who would want to buy a painting that was in two feet of contaminated mud?”
Start rebuilding
Artists say it’s too early to imagine how RAD will bounce back, and while they’re still traumatized, they recognize that rebuilding will look different. Many of the old, low-rent industrial buildings that drew artists to RAD in the first place have literally collapsed.
“It’s overwhelming to think about what it would take to make the River Arts District what it used to be,” said mixed media artist Bridget Benton. “The River Arts District was completely unique.”
The owners of the RAD building were dedicated to providing affordable studio space to working artists. Now, Benton worries that real estate developers with the capital to clean up and rebuild won’t be able to work as hard on affordability.
“People with money in their hands are going to be looking for a return on investment,” Benton said, adding that RAD “will come back with some big, shiny, high-end galleries…Small manufacturers will “…” he added. You just won’t be able to afford it. ”
Nikki Eldred, who just a month ago opened Asheville Dispensary, a Chinese tea and elixir bar in the Marquee, felt the same way.
“I’m very scared that land developers are going to take the land and bulldoze everything and build something that doesn’t preserve the heart of Asheville,” she said. “I try not to lean into that fear too much.”
“How can I start making money?”
Western North Carolina’s fall foliage season brings billions of dollars in tourism revenue to the region, but Gov. Roy Cooper has warned that many roads are impassable and there are widespread water outages. They are begging tourists not to come.
RAD artists are currently struggling with how to recoup losses due to the cancellation of the tourist season.
“How do we start making money?” Benton said.
The art school 310 Art, where she was a lecturer, is said to be “completely destroyed.” She hopes it can be temporarily moved somewhere nearby.
To generate income, she envisions hosting collage nights and watercolor sessions (“We did a lot of that in the early days of coronavirus,” she said).
Gallery ArtPlay posted all the works they exhibited online, and 75% of the funds raised were immediately donated to the artists. Carrington said she sold one piece for $600 through the ArtPlay sale. However, she has never had a strong interest in online sales.
“I was really dependent on RAD and the galleries I belonged to,” she said.
There is also pressure to capture the moment when the damage caused by the storm makes the news.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Why haven’t we set up a GoFundMe page yet?'” Benton said. “I feel like if I don’t fundraise now, no one will care about it in a week.”
Carrington wanted to increase her online presence in the fall. Well, it’s a must-have.
“We have to completely change what we’re doing and start over,” she said. “I imagine I will and I believe in myself that I will. I don’t know yet what that looks like.”
