Red Hook Open Studios forges ahead after fire

Less than a month after a fire devastated a local arts hub, Red Hook Open Studios is going ahead as planned — mostly — this weekend, Oct. 11 and 12.

The annual event invites New Yorkers to explore dozens of usually-private artist studios around the nabe, meet artists, and buy their work directly from the source.

But dozens of those studios and hundreds of pieces of artwork were destroyed in a five-alarm fire at 481 Van Brunt St. on Sept. 18. Many artists lost everything, and even the studios that survived suffered significant water and mold damage and aren’t safe to enter.

The Sept. 18 fire destroyed dozens of studios and hundreds of pieces of art. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell

So Red Hook Open Studios has pivoted.

“There are rumors saying that it’s been cancelled because of the fire but that’s so far from the truth,” said event organizer Deborah Ugoretz .

About 40 artists who had signed up to take part in Open Studios were not impacted by the fire, Ugoretz said. Some, like Ugoretz herself, have studios in parts of the Van Brunt Street warehouse that were unaffected by the blaze. Many others are scattered around the neighborhood, from the waterfront to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Red Hook creates the Rebuild Gallery

But supporting those artists who had lost everything has been front of mind since the night of the fire, said Carly Baker Rice, executive director of the Red Hook Business Alliance , a partner of RHOS.

Almost immediately, Sean Moore, the owner of a soon-to-be-opened waterfront yoga studio called The Swan Club, said they could use his space. Thus, the Rebuild Gallery was born, featuring about 50 pieces of art from those affected by the fire.

Some of the artists taking part are exhibiting work they had stored at home, Ugoretz said, or managed to borrow their own pieces from other exhibitions or buyers. Others, like Faye Harnest , created something new.

The Rebuild Gallery at The Swan Club features works from about 50 artists impacted by the fire. Photo courtesy of Ethan Cornell

Harnest, a comic and sculpture artist, had been sharing a studio at 481 Van Brunt St. with three other artists for about a year, she said. But she had been dreaming of working in the building for much longer.

“Every day I was like, this is a dream, this is too good to be true,” she said.

Some of Harnest’s work was saved by chance. The night of the fire, much of her work was on display in galleries and exhibits, far from the warehouse. Her studio mates lost their finished pieces, art supplies, and more.

“The biggest thing for me, besides just losing that dream of a space, was that I had my sketchbooks in there, sketchbooks of the work I’ve been doing for the last couple of years on a graphic memoir I’ve been working on,” Harnest explained.

But she also lost a space to show off her art.

“I had signed up for the Open Studios and was really excited,” she said. “I was just gonna put everything in there and let people, like, touch my sculptures and look through my comics and be able to ask questions.”

When she was asked to be part of the Rebuild Gallery, Harnest decided to create a new piece titled “Are We Safe?”

Harnest’s piece for the Rebuild Gallery, titled “Are We Safe?” Photo courtesy of Faye Harnest

The piece features a large, soft sculpture surrounding a drawing of floating islands and buildings, all asking each other “Are you safe?” and “Are we safe?”

One of the buildings is an homage to 481 Van Brunt St., with its brick walls and large, iconic windows.

“When I started making it, it was about all the artists that lost so much and their grief and just kind of, wanting to make something about that for them,” Harnest said. “It became about the community’s ability to help and their generosity, and then it kind of made me think of the world at large and how there are just so many people in so many places that are not safe … there are other people who are asking if they can help, and who are helping, even if they’re not completely safe for themselves.”

A sliver of 481 Van Brunt St. on the left side of the illustration. Photo courtesy of Faye Harnest

Red Hook Open Studios is a group effort, and this year’s event has needed more volunteers doing more work than before.

Artist Ethan Cornell , one of a number of artists who had studios at Hot Wood Arts , which was devastated by the fire, helped organize the Rebuild Gallery.

Cornell rented a studio at Hot Wood for ten years, he said, and had longed to join the collective for years before a studio became available. Hot Wood offered more than just a space to work, he said, it offered a community of artists supported by founder Megan Suttles, who is also a RHOS co-organizer.

“I had paintings in there that had serious personal history for me, but also works that I had sold, and that people were gonna come pick up, so some things that people had paid for,” he said. “It was, it was sort of multi-level, like, I lost the tools, I lost the artwork, I lost the money, I lost memories.”

Staying busy has helped keep his mind off the loss, Cornell said, and helping with the Rebuild Gallery has kept him plenty occupied.

“It’s been really good,” he said. “People were very appreciative when they came and left work, people have said they’re really glad to have it happen.”

The Rebuild Gallery ensured those artists who lost their space and work could still take part in Red Hook Open Studios.Photo courtesy of Ethan Cornell

It has also highlighted the strength of the community, Cornell said. Some artists have been able to salvage works from 481 Van Brunt St., but the gallery had to ask that those pieces not be exhibited due to mold concerns.

But that message came late for at least one person, who arrived at the gallery with a piece rescued from the warehouse and were told they had to bring it home. For a moment, the artist was fairly upset, Cornell said.

“Alomost immediately they were like, ‘I’m really sorry,’” he said. “And I was like, ‘I’m really sorry too.’ Everybody’s a little jangled up, especially people who actually lost their space. I felt there was a lot of community, even when we were disagreeing or something like that.”

Cornell said he didn’t have a piece hung in the gallery as of Thursday, but has a small painting — about six inches by six inches — that he would try to find a space for.

Supporting artists and celebrating Red Hook Open Studios

Outside the studio tours themselves, RHOS is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an outdoor sculpture garden and live performances throughout the weekend. The event is one of Red Hook’s biggest, and shows off the “hidden” studios and businesses tucked away in its industrial corners, Baker-Rice said.

It’s also an opportunity for New Yorkers to support local artists by buying their work.

“You will not regret it when you buy art that you can afford and you put it on your wall and see it every day,” she said. “Everybody has the power to become their own art collector and grow their collection. And Red Hook Open Studios gives you access to art you can buy and art you can afford.”

Red Hook Open Studios runs Oct. 11+12, 1-6 p.m. Admission is free, find a full list of events and a map of studio locations on the RHOS website .