At New Morning Gallery (NMG), the title of a painting by resident artist Amy Noack, Fountain of Hope, Pillars of Strength, speaks to where the gallery and its artists are nearly a year after Hurricane Helene. When the gallery reopened in June after months of repairs, Noack’s fellow artist Sarah Garrard posed with a work of hers that was washed away from Marquee by storm waters and found several miles away covered in mud but otherwise undamaged.
“I haven’t washed it off because I want to remember that through adversity we can survive,” Garrard says. “There’s something very beautiful and symbolic that a large handblown glass sculptural piece didn’t withstand even a chip during a hurricane. I don’t know if I’ll ever clean it off to be honest. I keep it in my house to remind me that we can always get through hard things.”
Artist Sarah Garrard with her glass sculpture that survived Helene
Her experience on the day of the storm was typical of most of us, right down to the naiveté about what might happen as the storm approached. “The day Helene landed, I was actually blowing glass in the River Arts District,” she says. Afterwards, navigating shutdowns and caretaking responsibilities, “I did not start blowing glass until months later,” she says. “A lot of my work right now has been focusing more on sculptural vases with a free form and really exploring the use of color. I continue to make functional ware, but have put more thought into my larger pieces.”
Haw Creek Forge is a small group of artists founded by Catherine Murphy in 1991. “Our business sells to galleries, much like NMG, across the country,” says Margy Murphy. “Before the storm, we were rolling along, but into a slow season before the holidays. After the storm, our main intent was to get the studio cleaned out, and up and running.”
That was time-consuming and labor-intensive, according to Catherine. “Tools, fixtures, raw materials and parts were lost,” she says. “Equipment and tools had to be cleaned and repaired, or replaced. The shop had to be cleaned and partially rebuilt. It was an exhausting process, but with the help of staff, volunteers and our landlord, we were able to reopen our doors for our annual holiday open house on December 6.”
Close partnerships with galleries, like the one Haw Creek Forge artists have with NMG, have been invaluable as artists continue to regain their livelihoods. “When Helene hit we had so many of our gallery owners call and check on us, offer us financial assistance and place orders although we had no idea when we could again create the work and get it out the door,” says Margy.
“When Amy Noack brought in Fountain of Hope, Pillars of Strength, it struck a deep chord for us about how the artistic community is weaving this traumatic experience into their art and helping us all process and connect even more as a community around what we all experienced during Helene,” says Neal Reed, director of operations for New Morning Gallery. “Artists have a special way of creating connection through their work, and we have been inspired by this collective determination that continues to ripple through our area. At NMG, we’ve always believed in the power of art to inspire and connect, and this past year has proved just how vital that connection really is.”
New Morning Gallery is located at 7 Boston Way in Asheville’s Historic Biltmore Village. To learn more, visit NewMorningGalleryNC.com.
