Hurr Helene Destroyed Asheville, NC Arts Community, the River Arts District. Can They Rebuild What Was Lost?

[appalachiablue]

The Guardian, Oct.15, '24. Ed. The River Arts District attracted artists with cheap rents. With buildings flattened, the community fears a land grab
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The arts community in Asheville, North Carolina, is piecing itself together in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. In the River Arts District, artwork was destroyed, and the buildings that once housed studios and galleries are mud-caked or crumbling. As they face the immediate challenge of survival, the community now wonders if what it once had can ever be rebuilt from the ground up. On a recent morning, the painter Elizabeth Porritt Carrington drove from her home in West Asheville to what she called her “village” – the RAD.

It was once a colorful neighborhood of art galleries and restaurants, and a vital part of Asheville tourism.

When Helene hit western NC on 26 Sept., the French Broad River flooded; it crested on 28 Sept. at 24ft, surpassing previous records. Water, debris and mud transformed the RAD into an apocalyptic Dr Seuss landscape – trees bent sideways, or fallen, plastic bags shredded to ribbons in the branches. Sheets of metal, like those from raised garden beds, are wrapped around the trunks. Mud puddles are thick, and passable only by ad hoc plywood bridges. Brown dust covers everything.

Carrington approached Riverview Station that morning to visit her 2nd-floor studio and gallery space; the 1902-era building was home to 60 artists. She came across 8 art prints splayed out across the dusty grass. Water had seeped underneath the plastic coverings and warped cardboard and paper. Carrington realized 6 of those prints were her own works, being sold at Tyger Tyger Gallery on the 1st floor, she said. Someone must have brought the works outside to dry in the sun. With her face covered in an N95 mask, Carrington peered through the gallery's dark, open front door. “I believe one of my paintings is stuck up in the rafters in there,” she commented.

The Blue Ridge mountain town of Asheville is considered one of the south-east’s top arts communities.

Carrington is one of 300 or so working artists in the RAD. Her studio is on Riverview Station’s 2nd floor, and ahead of Helene, she thought: “I don’t have to worry at all.” The gallerists there did worry, though. Carrington was visiting family in County Clare, Ireland, when Helene hit. She estimated 80% of her work was saved because one gallerist moved her work to a higher floor, and another gathered up her paintings and delivered them to her home. Who is going to want to buy a painting that’s been in 2ft of contaminated mud? When floodwaters receded, artists like Carrington returned to the RAD to salvage artwork and belongings...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/15/asheville-arts-community

Oct. 11, 2024. 2 mins.

Oct. 14, 2024. 2 mins.

[jimfields33]

1. Like Florida, I don't think they should rebuild.

I think they should go more west. We have to reconsider rebuilding over and over again in destructive areas.

[Think. Again.]

2. Hopefully, a new arts area will develop organically somewhere else...

...because you can bet that corporate types will swoop in on that district with their carefully computer-designed "hand-drawn!" logos and marketing-psychologist-approved "funkiness" to capitalize on any resurgence they can force onto the devastated River Arts District.

[Silent Type]

3. I think/hope they will rebuild. We usually go to that area during Fall. May still try to visit a little later just

to add some tourist income.

[appalachiablue]

4. Sounds good, I've not visited the area, but it's def on the list, esp now.

Thanks for commenting.

[4TheArts]

5. Art Councils work together

Just so you know, while much recovery effort must be directed to homes and infrastructure and lives, the Arts Community as a whole works a recovery effort for this disaster, just as was done to recovery the creative industries from Covid shutdowns, in a very organized manner.
All Art Council directors in the western counties have worked collaboratively for decades, and in this time of crisis are meeting weekly, to help each other, and our meetings include North Carolina Art Council senior staff (including the state's Executive Director) and other officials such as the Director of the advocacy group ArtsNC. Top level arts leaders have already met with groups of funding agency leaders who are devoted to helping the Arts Communities of western NC recover and reestablish themselves. The western area Art Councils are already sharing resources to assist those of our colleagues who have been most impacted. We all know that The Arts are seriously important, both for quality of life and literally for the economy of our Appalachian towns and rural residents.
WNC Arts members (western NC Art Council directors), all know each other. We know who has power or water or mud in their gallery or who works right now in spite of having lost their own home.
The Arts will recover. Both the organizations and the individual working artists. The North Carolina Arts Council and 23 Art Council leaders in the western counties will make sure of that.