Impromptu arts installation in front of a building in the RAD as recovery efforts began. Image courtesy of Arts AVL.
By Remy Cox
Those who call Appalachia home are intimately familiar with Hurricane Helene, which pummeled the region, especially western North Carolina, over 6 months ago. The destruction was immense, and even now the death toll continues to rise. The French Broad River runs through the heart of Asheville and is a defining geographical feature of the aptly named River Arts District. As the waters of the namesake river rose over the banks, the work and livelihoods of hundreds of artists who housed their work in dozens of quirky studios along the banks were washed away. Countless buildings that had been defining elements of the area for decades were damaged beyond repair, and those that were still structurally sound had to be completely gutted.
Helene revealed both the latent danger in the river-laden land that Appalachians call home and the strength of our communities in times of crisis. Artists immediately came together to fundraise for their community and for their peers whose livelihood depended on the sale of the art that the river took. Venues like The Orange Peel and the Grey Eagle hosted supplies and handed out food to people from their parking lots, and as rebuilding efforts got underway the Grey Eagle provided a space for artists to come together creatively with other people who were impacted by the disaster.
Some of the most fascinating productions of the River Arts District’s path towards revival were in artistic endeavors. Erica Shaffel helped to create and fund raise The Flood Collection, a deck of cards and book compiled of art by Asheville creatives that were lost in the flood. The initial monetary goal was $15,000—they raised over thirteen times that. Artist-driven fundraising did not only take on physical form. Rusty Sutton, one of the contributors to the compilation album Cardinals at the Window, released just under two weeks after Helene and including the work of over 130 different musicians, wrote this in reflection about the storm—“[w]e’re river people. We identify as Mountain Folk, but the truth of it is, we’re river people. The rivers and springs of our home have been the lifeblood of our communities for generations…a friend of mine who stayed behind to spearhead aid efforts in his neighborhood shared these words earlier, and I think they’ll live with me forever: “Our terrain wasn’t meant to handle this storm, but our community was built for the aftermath.””
Now, six months after, there is so much of the River Arts District open for business that it is impossible to visit it all in a single day, and events like the upcoming RAD Renaissance on May 10th seek to bring visitor attention to this gem of Asheville. Although the waters have long receded, the marks remain, and it’s the work of those who bore the storm to rebuild in its wake.