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

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