Self Portrait, ca. 1970-1971. Photo by Andrea Clark, courtesy of Andrea Clark Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library
By Emma Castleberry
A new exhibit at the Asheville Museum of History, The Photography of Andrea Clark: Remembering Asheville’s East End Community, features rare images of Asheville’s East End neighborhood, downtown and other city sites from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Clark, born in Massachusetts but descended from generations of African Americans that lived in the Carolinas, moved to the city in the 1960s to document her community—including landmarks built by her grandfather, master brick mason James Vester Miller.
“The photographs provide a glimpse into the people, businesses and relationships which flourished and enriched the East End Valley in downtown Asheville,” says Katie Ritchie, visitor services and development manager at the museum. “Clark’s photography also captures many views across downtown Asheville, which hold the iconic Blue Ridge Mountains against the city skyline in the same ways we are able to still recognize today.”
Big Deuce’s House, Valley Street Neighborhood, ca. 1968-1971.
The exhibit showcases more than 35 framed prints, some of which are on loan from the Pack Memorial Public Library. The opening of the exhibition was celebrated in September, prior to Hurricane Helene, with a ticketed fundraiser and a Community Day. The fundraiser was catered by Chef Hector Diaz of Modesto and featured music by DJ Raf, both friends of Clark. The free Community Day opening included lectures, a panel discussion, and drumming and photography workshops. “Hurricane Helene was far from any of our minds when the exhibition opened only a week prior to the storm,” says Ritchie. “There was a focus on the loss of the community that we saw in these photographs. Many conversations and academic presentations of our Community Day focused on the systematic and unrelenting forces which drove community members to relocate from the historic East End neighborhood.”
Ritchie explains that after Helene, the experience of community loss that is explored in this exhibition became more universal. “While we cannot return to the Asheville we knew prior to the storm, we also cannot leave our friends and neighbors behind as we make plans to move forward,” she says. “Andrea Clark’s exhibition serves as a reminder of what well-meaning efforts to ‘save’ something could mean for those who are considered ‘voiceless’ in the decisions made on behalf of themselves.”
In February, a new rotation of Clark’s photos will be unveiled, showcasing additional images from Clark’s collection that show the depth and variety of her work. The Museum will host another event to mark the second part of the exhibition, with details to come in January.
Learn more at AshevilleHistory.org.
