A Tale of Two Hurricanes: ‘When the Water Rises, Artists Rise, Too’
Jeffrey Burroughs, President of the River Arts District Artists, reflects on his role as a speaker and participating artist in the climate-themed exhibition ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’
As the ArtsvilleUSA-supported exhibition A Tale of Two Cities draws to a close on Saturday, Nov. 8, we would like to share an open letter from fine jeweler Jeffrey Burroughs, President of the River Arts District Artists and founding Member of RADA Foundation and Unified RAD. As a participating artist, Burroughs spoke during the exhibition's opening weekend on Sept. 12-13 at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts and offers his reflections on the experience below. View the archived virtual exhibition on ArtsvilleUSA.
It is a true honor to be here in New Orleans for A Tale of Two Cities and to stand in a room with artists, thinkers, and visionaries who know in their bones that art is more than decoration. It is survival. It is resilience. It is how we remember who we are. I want to thank our hosts at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, ArtsvilleUSA, and my own community, the River Arts District Artists in Asheville, North Carolina. The fact that our two cities are connected in this exhibition is profoundly meaningful. Both places are shaped by water. Both have seen devastation. And both know what it means to rebuild not just structures, but spirit.
The River Arts District Before the Storm
The River Arts District, or RAD, as we call it, is one of the most concentrated communities of working artists in the country. More than 750 artists call it home, working in every medium you can imagine: glass, metal, ceramics, fiber, painting, jewelry, wood, sculpture. It is not a museum where art sits behind glass. It is a living ecosystem, alive with the hum of creativity. Before Hurricane Helene, the RAD was a place of joy and gathering. People came to see artists at work, to buy directly from makers, to eat and drink and listen to music among the studios: the cultural heartbeat of Asheville.
Hurricane Helene and the Aftermath
On September 27, 2024, that heartbeat faltered. Helene brought nearly 30 feet of floodwater into parts of the district. Entire studios were submerged. Kilns cracked. Looms warped. Paintings, prints, photographs, years of work, washed away. As the waters receded, the air was thick with the smell of mud and mold. Where music and laughter had once filled the air, silence lingered. It felt like a nightmare you couldn’t escape. And yet, without pause, something else happened. People showed up. Artists checked on one another. Neighbors brought food. Volunteers came from across the country with shovels. We were muddy, tired, grieving, but we were together. And in that togetherness, resilience took root.
The Recovery and Rebirth
Recovery has been slow, layered, and ongoing. Some spaces are gone forever. But many have reopened, and more return each month. We created emergency stipends to help artists cover basic expenses. We launched the RADA Outpost, a downtown pop-up gallery, to give displaced artists visibility and income. We organized art markets in parking lots and partnered with groups as far away as Atlanta to help artists sell their work. RADFest brought more than 10,000 people back through the district: a lifeline for many artists who had lost everything. At those events, the pride and defiance were palpable. That is the power of art: It gives people a way forward when everything else feels uncertain.
Art as Resilience
That is why A Tale of Two Cities matters. Some may ask: Why bring together Asheville and New Orleans in one show about climate disasters? The answer is simple: We are linked by shared experience. New Orleans carries the deep, enduring scars and lessons of Hurricane Katrina. Asheville is now living through its own story of devastation and rebuilding. By bringing our voices together, we create a dialogue across geography and time that speaks not just to the power of art, but to the universal need for resilience in the face of climate change. Artists, throughout history, have helped cities understand who they are: past, present, and future. In New Orleans, music and art tell the story of survival, cultural fusion, and celebration. In Asheville, the RAD tells a story of reinvention, of industrial buildings transformed into creative hubs, of artists shaping identity through glass, metal, fiber, wood, paint, and clay.
After Helene, I saw firsthand how the arts were not just decoration but essential to how Asheville found its footing again. Studios became gathering places. Markets became lifelines. And every piece of art created in that moment echoes the story of our resilience. The goal of this collaboration is not only to honor what has been lost, but to reveal what has been built. It is to show how artists take devastation and transform it into dialogue, into beauty, into calls for action. Creativity is not a luxury. It is a necessity for survival.
My Own Work for This Show
For this exhibition, my piece reflects both the destruction and the rebirth we have experienced in Asheville. This has been a way to say: Yes, we were broken, but we are not finished. Yes, we were flooded, but we are not drowned. The works in this show, “Through the Flood” and “Helene’s Renaissance,” reflect my own witness to devastation and my role in helping guide a community toward renewal. They carry two gazes: one clear, one veiled. They cascade with gemstones like floodwaters catching the sun. They hold eyes that are watchful, framed by sculptural hands, ringed with sapphires, topaz, and aquamarines. They are visions of loss, resilience, and rebirth. They also speak to a larger truth: artists and jewelers work within fragile systems. Just as floods disrupt, so too do tariffs, delays, and global supply chains that can stall the very materials we rely on. But even when forces beyond our control intervene, the story of resilience and rebirth continues.
Looking Forward
Looking ahead, I see the RAD not only recovering but transforming. We are planning more festivals, more markets, and creating opportunities for artists to create, teach, mentor, and inspire. We are working to ensure artists are neither displaced by development nor disaster. We are advocating for affordable space, scholarships, and long-term investment in the creative economy. And we are inviting the world to be part of that transformation.
A Call to Action
So I want to end with this thought: Each of us has something we are running toward. For some, it is strength. For others, it is clarity, healing, or connection. In Asheville’s RAD, we are running toward resilience. We are running toward a future where art is not just preserved, but elevated. Where creativity is not just a product, but a process that shapes culture and community. The most important thing any of us can do is take a risk and make a choice. It may not always be perfect, but it allows us to reflect, adjust, and evolve. That is how transformation begins: with the courage to move. This exhibition reminds us that when the water rises, artists rise, too. By creating, by connecting, by insisting that beauty, justice, and resilience belong at the center of our communities. Thank you for believing in the power of art to heal, to connect, and to carry us forward. Together, through unity, creativity, and love in motion, we can shape the future we believe in.
Copy published with permission of Jeffrey Burroughs. All images published with permission of the artist(s); featured photo: Richard Vallon.