AKRON, Ohio — An area twice the size of Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood in Asheville, North Carolina, was essentially wiped off the map by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene.
The devastation delivered a major blow to Asheville's River Arts District.
As the city dried up, so did the tourism dollars artists there rely on to pay their bills and create.
I continue to follow through on Northeast Ohio's role in the recovery efforts underway.
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There is some good news, as people in Asheville, and many who live beyond the city limits, work to put that community back together, part of the River Arts District is now welcoming visitors again, as more galleries, studios, and art spaces reopen.
An Akron-based business is helping make it possible, and artists like Greg Carr are grateful.
Carr defines his art by telling people's stories by painting what they love.
"Cans of PBR or Flaming Hot Cheetos, so that's really what I'm known for," said Carr.
Carr's work, like hundreds of other artists in Asheville, was abruptly sidelined when Hurricane Helene sent waves of water through the River Arts District.
"Six hundred artists here lost their studios, their equipment, full collections of work, and their entire source of income," said Erica Shaffel.
To help her fellow creatives overcome the devastating setback, Shaffel partnered with Akron’s Art X Love.
"We created a card deck, which includes 54 pieces of art that were lost in the storm," said Shaffel.
"The further we get into this, the more connections we find between Asheville and Ohio and it's really nice," said Shaffel.
Artist Mac Love came up with the idea called Akron on Deck in 2020 to highlight the cultural assets across the Rubber City while giving a financial boost to local artists.
"Our playing cards set, it is a beautiful mechanism," said Love.
A Kickstarter campaign, with an initial goal of $10,000, raised $230,000 to produce the Asheville on Deck Flood Collection and a coffee table book.
"Yeah, it definitely ended up being bigger than we thought it was going to be," said Shaffel.
At the end of last year, each Asheville artist featured in the project received a check for $1,400. Carr is one of them.
"I was denied FEMA aid, but then I got, you know, $1,400 from the Flood Collective, which is like double what FEMA would have given me," said Carr.
Now, after months of planning and production, Asheville on Deck is in stores and available for purchase online, as the art district itself slowly comes back online with support from Northeast Ohio creatives.
"When you see something like this happen where a community really steps up and kind of adopts another community and says, hey, we want to support you, even though we've never really met you, that's just incredibly heartwarming," said Carr.
You can get the Asheville on Deck Flood Collection and coffee table book at floodcollection.com.
Starting this week, some featured artists will have some of their pieces available for purchase in Northeast Ohio.
"We're very excited to be putting together a show at Stewart's Caring Place that'll be opening March 19th that'll feature over 30 artists' work from Asheville on Deck. So, it's a great opportunity to not just support these artists, you will be able to purchase their artwork," said Love.
All of the proceeds from all sales will go directly to the artists.
The show opens this Wednesday, March 19 and runs through July 1 at Stewart's Caring Place in Fairlawn.
