The late-September arrival of the remnants of Hurricane Helene, a slow-moving deluge of rain and destructive winds, killed 42 citizens of Buncombe County, which surrounds Asheville, North Carolina. This Western North Carolina city of less than 100,000 is a glassblowing center, where the steady flow of tourists on weekends, especially in the months from October to December, have supported multiple glass artists in their careers. The natural beauty of this mountainous region regularly drew weekend shoppers watching the leaves turn and stocking up on holiday gifts at the burgeoning galleries, artist studios, and craft marketplaces such as the Marquee, which opened in Asheville's River Arts District in 2021. But the trillions of gallons of rain that fell across the Southeast U.S. on September 27th as the hurricane made its way north caused catastrophic flooding across Buncombe County, and especially in downtown Asheville, where the French Broad River crested 24-feet above normal the waters, climbing to the soaring ceiling of the Marquee.
For two days before the hurricane officially hit, it had been already been raining, saturating the ground and weakening the tree roots. As weather forecasters plotted the likely path of Hurricane Helene, the large community of glass artists here in Western North Carolina began to prepare, with the biggest concern being the power going out. That meant bailing glass out of furnaces and closing studios in anticipation of a short-term power outage they knew might occur if the high winds took down the region’s power lines. What nobody expected was how the high winds would knock down countless trees and the epic amount of rain would result in extreme flooding that would not only destroy property and equipment, but also drown the town’s tourist economy.
Asheville glass artist Kristen Muñoz of Moon Girl Glass will never forget the Friday morning of Helene when her cell phone reception suddenly dropped. She decided to drive a short ways from home to find reception elsewhere, only to be cut off by a chaos of sirens and EMS officials.
“It was like a warzone,” she said in a telephone interview with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. Muñoz returned home and switched the radio on to hear that all roads were closed and that she, and the rest of her community, were effectively trapped in Asheville. They had no other choice than to gather together and brace for the coming storm.
Flooding unleashed by the trillions of gallons of rain that Helene dumped across the southeast U.S., but some places were hit harder than others due to the topography of the land, and where buildings were located in relation to rivers. Asheville’s proximity to the French Broad River, which crested at over 20-feet above normal, decimated the River Arts District, a formerly thriving shared space for studios, galleries and markets such as Riverview Station and the Marquee, both of which remain closed following the storm. The sought-after work by the glass artists concentrated here attracts tourists all year-round, but October is typically the kick-off of the busy season, providing a crucial boost to the annual income. Asher Holman of Small Batch Glass said that over half of his income from last year came from this period alone. This extra income, according to Kathryn Adams of Kathryn Adams Glass, gets everyone through the difficult months of January through March, which are looking to be especially brutal economically without the fall harvest of sales. Add into the lost studios and equipment for some, and the magnitude of the loss becomes clear.
The devastation of the River Arts District devastated the glass businesses in or nearby. Both Mountain Glass Arts and Level 42 Gallery were completely destroyed, their structures destabilized and their interiors soaked. A bit further away, Ashville artist Victor Chiarizia of Victor Chiarizia Glass lost both his home and his studio to the high water and has had to try to navigate his life in Asheville now that his belongings, including his electric furnace, are damaged beyond repair and he has to start essentially from scratch. Local officials like firefighters and search-and-rescue teams are regular sights in his mountain area.
“There’s nothing left to do but clean up and wait for state help,” he said in October. “I’m in a lot of debt…I didn’t have flood insurance. I don’t think anyone here does.”
Those lucky to escape direct catastrophe still feel the long-term effects of the severe damage to Asheville’s power and water systems. Generators went under, and everyone in town spent at least several days without any knowledge of their neighbors’ whereabouts. Sarah Vaughn of Sarah Vaughn Glass lost her area’s entire power grid, which will take considerable time and effort to rebuild. While power is slowly returning to Western North Carolina, the cell network and Internet service is spotty. Muñoz recalls the feeling of camping alone on her property, drinking well water, and waiting for her phone or Internet access to return. ‘I didn’t see the full devastation until the power came back,’ she says. ‘The roads were just gone.’
Muñoz’s use of her well wasn’t just a whim. Asheville residents have not just had to make do without their power and cell service, but their water as well. Damage to the nearby water pipes left a large number of homes and workplaces without running water, and depending on their location, they continue to go without. Chiarizia has no access to a flushing toilet, and has been told that he can’t expect it for another month. Holman’s studio is still without running water, a major impediment to the continuation of his business. ‘I have to spend a decent amount of working time procuring water and moving water around,’ he says. ‘That’s not something you get used to.’ Other artists in the neighborhood are in the same boat of grappling with the exhausting day-to-day while trying to look towards the future. It’s difficult to envision what new work to create when you have to worry about having a working sink first.
The River Arts District was primarily a commercial neighborhood, made up of communal studios that artists rented to work and teach side by side. As of early October, Deb Williams of Deb Williams Designs reports that the district’s studios are 80% destroyed, leaving artists without their work and without a workplace to continue creating. These places of business played such a large part in building Asheville’s cultural and artistic identity that the loss is occasionally too much to take. ‘We’re seeing people leave,’ Williams relates. They say they don’t have the energy to go back to this, there are a few of those. Moving to another place, finding another community, maybe Knoxville, Tennessee..to see what they can do.’ Even moving is difficult with major roads like Interstate 40 washed out and torn, leaving artists stranded in place. For those who choose to stay, a main deciding factor for them is the sense of community that only strengthened after the disaster. Mountain Glass Arts, a glass supplier that lost their main location to Helene, shared that the staff feel overwhelmed by the amount of love and support they received when they were able to update their social media again.
Due to the severity of the initial onslaught, it took several days for artists to even remember that they had their finances to worry about. Glassblowers whose entire bodies of work were destroyed had no time to grieve as they went about picking up the pieces.‘No one wants to even look,’ Adams confesses. ‘No one is going to the studio to assess, we’re just avoiding the area…we kept the furnaces on at first. Then we had to make the snap decision to abandon them.’ Orders had to be canceled as the total inventory loss was assessed. Resident artists were asked to leave their institutions until they were returned to full functionality. And, of course, there was the impending weight of a year without tourism. However, even with all the difficulties facing the Asheville glass community, they haven’t been beaten yet.
With characteristic creativity and energy, Asheville’s efforts to rebuild are inspiring and highly impressive to witness. As Vaughn points out, ‘self employed people have to always be making plans…You have to stay on top of things. But if you need something, someone shares.’ In the early days, Asheville residents with access to potable water and food supplies traveled with large quantities in order to share them with residents outside the urban center. Several weeks later, many residents find that the aid outpouring has been sufficient in providing enough to meet basic needs in the present, but that support is still needed in aspects of life like financial stability in the future.
Some of that support is now being provided by public and private art spaces throughout Asheville that the storm left undamaged. Although gallery spaces used for installations remain closed for the most part, galleries that remain open like Mark Bettis and Philip DeAngelo Studio have been establishing makeshift studios and bringing food to the artists working there. Holman is one of several artists who have opened their own studios to displaced artists and they now work alongside one another. Large art organizations like the River Arts District Artists Organization and Explore Asheville have launched webpages featuring local artists and their work in order to spread awareness and circulate funds. All of these efforts combined have been able to provide workspaces and financial support to those who need it most.
In addition to the volunteer initiative, Asheville has been receiving government help in the more heavily affected areas. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been active in western North Carolina doling out emergency funds and supplies. Williams recalls several artists receiving $750 checks to maintain their online businesses. However, the resources are beginning to stretch thin with such a large number of North Carolina residents requiring financial assistance, and artists have had to establish new strategies to keep themselves afloat. A major shift was made to online ordering, and glass artists like Holman and Vaughn predict that the shift will remain even when businesses begin to open again. The general consensus is that buying from an artist’s website is the best way to support that individual if they have work available, and if not, donating to a public fund or personal GoFundMe page is very helpful as well.
Even though Asheville glass artists are making use of their tight knit community, the area still has a long way to go. Adams’ impression of the current mental state is “When someone says they’re okay, it means they’re alive, but their whole livelihood could be lost. It was a sprint to help at first, but now it’s a marathon to keep going.” Muñoz, concerned about the mental well-being of Asheville youth after the trauma they experienced, recently opened a new class for teenagers to learn in groups about glassblowing and express themselves through glass. They gather at her home to create with glass for the first time. “They’re really engaged with each other,” Muñoz explains. “It gives them time to make something. I tell them to use this opportunity to keep your vision strong for what the new world is going to be, because you’re creating it right now.”
Donate to the River Arts District Fund
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Donate through the Penland School Of Craft