A Familiar Story
Today one of my Belmar woodcutting students came to the Studio to make up for time missed due to Sandy related complications. Didn't get any photos, but she gets one more visit, so maybe next time.
Early in the week I'm often catching up with reading the weekend paper. The Times this past weekend had an article about recent problems at the Westbeth. It's a complex of buildings occupying a full block in the West Village, with inexpensive artist residences, large basement studio spaces, and big gallery spaces. Thanks to those amenities, many of the residents have been there since the place opened in the late 1960's. I am familiar with it mostly because I had some work in an exhibition there about 16 years ago. One of the faculty at Montclair State had some kind of connection there, and so they seem to have had a series of juried exhibitions there for students and alumni. (it was called the 3rd Biannual such show, though I never heard about the two previous ones, or any subsequent shows there) I was then recently back from the midwest, submitted three recent prints, and had all three accepted. It was a very nice ground floor space, big enough to hold a show with 153 works from 112 artists (most only had one piece in the show). My first time showing work in New York City.
But that's not the connection I'm thinking about right now. Though Sandy came ashore a few dozen miles south of where I live, it also did serious damage up in coastal areas of New York. The tunnels and subways were flooded and out of commission for days, so it's not surprising to read that the extensive Westbeth basement studio complex was also flooded, with up to 10 feet of water. Studios that sometimes had more than 40 years worth of an artist's work. Citing dangerous conditions, building management wouldn't let the residents down to the studios for more than a week, by which time there wasn't much left to be saved. In my case, the delay in getting down to my flooded art storeroom was only a few days, and it was only about 2 feet of water, and the only artwork of mine that I had that was over 40 years old (a framed nursery school painting) was safe in my apartment, but I do know what it's like to make many trips into a flooded basement, rescuing what could be saved, and hauling everything else to the trash pile.
Early in the week I'm often catching up with reading the weekend paper. The Times this past weekend had an article about recent problems at the Westbeth. It's a complex of buildings occupying a full block in the West Village, with inexpensive artist residences, large basement studio spaces, and big gallery spaces. Thanks to those amenities, many of the residents have been there since the place opened in the late 1960's. I am familiar with it mostly because I had some work in an exhibition there about 16 years ago. One of the faculty at Montclair State had some kind of connection there, and so they seem to have had a series of juried exhibitions there for students and alumni. (it was called the 3rd Biannual such show, though I never heard about the two previous ones, or any subsequent shows there) I was then recently back from the midwest, submitted three recent prints, and had all three accepted. It was a very nice ground floor space, big enough to hold a show with 153 works from 112 artists (most only had one piece in the show). My first time showing work in New York City.
But that's not the connection I'm thinking about right now. Though Sandy came ashore a few dozen miles south of where I live, it also did serious damage up in coastal areas of New York. The tunnels and subways were flooded and out of commission for days, so it's not surprising to read that the extensive Westbeth basement studio complex was also flooded, with up to 10 feet of water. Studios that sometimes had more than 40 years worth of an artist's work. Citing dangerous conditions, building management wouldn't let the residents down to the studios for more than a week, by which time there wasn't much left to be saved. In my case, the delay in getting down to my flooded art storeroom was only a few days, and it was only about 2 feet of water, and the only artwork of mine that I had that was over 40 years old (a framed nursery school painting) was safe in my apartment, but I do know what it's like to make many trips into a flooded basement, rescuing what could be saved, and hauling everything else to the trash pile.
posted by arrabbiata at 8:12 PM
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