|
Never before has a hurricane like Katrina hit the United States, and never before has a whole art colony been completely destroyed in a single day. The most beautiful part of the Mississippi Gulf Coast community was its art colony: studios, galleries, museums, family compounds with generations of artists working and living their creative lives.
600 artists and craftsmen who made up the structure of the arts lost everything at the beginning of the season. With studios, homes, cars, galleries, inventories, records of work, collectors - gone, with every tool for living and creating - gone, these people have to start completely over.
With the initial donation of a truckload of professional art supplies from Artisans / Santa Fe, and a loom from a Santa Fe weaver, the Art Supply Relief Effort was started and has been able to distribute $150,000 of supplies and equipment to the Gulf Coast artists and craftsmen. This has been an all-volunteer effort, all materials donated.
Those who we have been able to help have turned around and helped another. Galleries across the United States have opened their arms and taken in artists who have been able to restart their studios. But there is an estimated loss of 3 million dollars of equipment and supplies.
These people, who every year generously donated their creations to auctions to help your communities, now need to help save their art community.
Please help us, help them.
|
