RIVER DISTRICT ARTISTS MOVE TEMPORARILY UPSTREAM

Noting that the New York Times has called Asheville the ‘Paris of the South,’ many people have concluded that the River Arts District is the Left Bank. Left Bank? The French Broad River is very much in view in Asheville, separating West Asheville from Downtown. Squeezed between Downtown and West Asheville, not too far from the former burley tobacco auction houses, is an old warehouse district. There on the Right Bank of the French Broad River, in the flood plain, is the River Arts District (RAD).

The French Broad River
(whitewater in Madison County 

downstream from Asheville) 

In 1994, the first artists arrived, renting space for working studios in what is now the Warehouse Studios at 170 Lyman Street. After arriving in Hendersonville in 2000, I became aware of Studio Strolls that opened up studios to visitors on two weekends a year. When I first visited the RAD, perhaps twenty painters, sculptors, jewelry makers, potters and other artists were working in the Cotton Mill Studios, Curve Studios and other buildings on both sides of a disturbingly active railroad line. (One year, a train parked in the district during the semi-annual Studio Stroll, blocking both connecting roads for hours.) Interest boomed beginning about 2003 and by the time I moved to Asheville in 2007, one hundred artists were there. Now more than 120 artists of all kinds (including dancers and musical instrument makers, contemporary crafters, avant garde sculptors and painters) work in twelve buildings, six of which are owned by artists. The RAD is Asheville’s answer to New York City’s SoHo district. 

The Cotton Mill Studio
(one of twelve buildings housing 

artists in the River Arts District) 

Upriver from Asheville, twenty-five miles south by road (more by the tortuous French Broad) lies Hendersonville, a popular retirement community amidst the agriculture area dominated by apple orchards. Hendersonville also has many fine artists and a number of galleries. On Friday, May 1 in the lobby of the Blue Ridge Performing Arts Center on the main floor of the old Skyland Hotel building at 6th and Main in Historic Downtown Hendersonville, the Arts Council of Henderson County awarded prizes and officially opened the exhibition “River District Artists.” This is a groundbreaking event: the first time that the River District Artists of Asheville have held a collective exhibit outside the River Arts District itself.

Lochie Overbey, the chair of the Arts Council of Henderson County, made remarks, as did Janice Lierz, chair of the Asheville Area Arts Council and Eileen Black of the River District Artists before Jim Faucett, Executive Director or the ACHC, officially opened the show and invited the crowd of perhaps 150 people to move upstairs to the D. Samuel Neill Gallery.

I spotted perhaps twenty RAD artists that I knew, and I have no reason to doubt that in attendance were more than forty of the sixty artists who have works in the exhibit. I was pleased to see not only Hendersonville gallery owners Ann Oliver, William Gordon, David Voorhees and Constance Vlahoulis but also other key people active in the cultural affairs of Hendersonville. I chatted with Bob Wiley of Hendersonville Chamber Music, Elaine Ciampa of the Hendersonville Film Society, George Alexsovich and Harry Sparshott.

I met for the first time Kate Brighton, the theatrical producer and artistic director who recently bought the Blue Ridge Performing Arts Center and is reviving the Absolute Theatre Company that used to operate when she previously lived in Hendersonville in the 1990’s. I also met Julie Spalla of the Revolving Arts Gallery, a new gallery that will be opening soon next to the Mast General Store in Hendersonville. Galleries have been disappearing or retrenching on Main Street. Touchstone Gallery, A Show of Hands and Divine Stained Glass are no longer there and the Wickwire Gallery has dropped its second location. So it is good to see Brighton and Spalla defying the recession by initiating new cultural ventures.

“River District Artists” will be on exhibit now through June 20 at the Neill Gallery in Hendersonville at 538 North Main Street, 2nd Floor, open Tuesday to Friday from 1:00-5:00 pm and Saturday from 1:00-4:00 pm. You may find out more about the River Arts District at their extensive website: http://www.riverdistrictartists.com.

© 2009 Edward C. McIrvine

Arts Spectrum column #432

May 8, 2009