Artists' Quake Aid Final Report 

 

This report was published in September 2001.

Table of Contents

  • Forward
  • Executive Summary
  • Section II: Summary of the Artists' Quake Aid (AQUA) Report
  • Section III: Artist and Gallery Case Studies
  • Section IV: General Conclusions
  • Section V: Key Concerns for Artists
  • Section VI: Short Term Set of Recommendations
  • Section VII: Long Term Recommendations/Issues Raised by the Earthquake
  • Section VIII: Artists' Quake Aid Statistics
  • Section X: Studio Preparedness Earthquake Tip Sheet
  • Earthquake Preparedness Resources 

    • Section V. KEY CONCERNS FOR ARTISTS

    Artist Trust Program Director Heather Dwyer began to hear from artists immediately after the earthquake. They were looking for help, resources and someone to listen to their problems. What Heather heard from artists was that their studios were evacuated and closed and that they had suffered severe damage to their inventories of artwork. Those who lived in their studios were also suddenly homeless

    1. Loss of Artwork and Equipment

      The biggest impact on artists was damage to artwork and equipment. Over 41% of applicants to AQUA suffered this type of damage (see Artist Case Studies 3, 4, 5 & 6). This area accounted for the highest financial loss as well, totaling over $950,637.

      Most of the artists who had breakage were visual artists. There were a high percentage of glass, ceramic and neon artists who had broken artworks. Ceramists had broken kilns, a hand-made paper artist team had lots of broken supplies, a musician had equipment broken, and a photographer had damage to his computer, printer and lights. One artist who uses porcelain casting had all of her pieces for an entire exhibition break just before the firing process.

      The losses affected the artists in different ways. The loss of inventory will affect artists in the next months and years to come, as they do not have the inventory to send out to galleries and clients. They also need to reinvest funds for materials and time to recreate and build inventory to make up for the losses (as in Artist Case Study #3).
    2. Loss of Work Time
      Forty-one percent of applicants identified loss of work time as the biggest impact. This is directly related to the loss of inventory (described above) and to the loss of work space (description to follow.) Artists who lost inventory had to spend time cleaning up the breakage and then spend time recreating the broken artwork. Artists who lost work space were out of work as long as they were looking for new space.

      One artist had a relatively minor loss of one of her small sculptures that was broken at her gallery. The piece had already been sold to a client and was ready for pick up at the time of the earthquake. Remaking the piece took her over 40 hours for which she received no compensation. This example is a relatively small loss in comparison to other artists but serves to demonstrate the amount of time even one piece of broken artwork can take to recreate.
    3. Loss of Work Space
      The third largest area of loss - loss of work space - is associated with the loss of work time. Thirty-one percent of the applicants lost their work space temporarily or permanently, with relocation costs two months after the earthquake totaling $64,621.

      Artists who lost their work spaces were out of work from one to four months. Some of the artists found temporary solutions such as working in the corner of a friend's studio or in their basements (if they had one.) Five months after the earthquake, many of these artists are still working at a reduced level or not at all as they have not found new work spaces (see Artist Case Study #2). Moreover, many artists' work requires special equipment, proper ventilation and substantial work space, which make working in substandard conditions difficult, if not impossible. The loss of space in some instances aggravated the financial impact. As in the case of the choreographers in Artist Case Study #1, the costs for making their work were doubled, due to the need to rent alternate rehearsal spaces.
    4. Emotional Trauma
      More difficult to measure are the non-tangible impacts of the earthquake on artists. We spoke to many artists at length about their losses, answering questions, making referrals for needed resources, and simply listening to them. There are no quantifiers to the stress and trauma caused by losing your living space, work space, artwork, art community, and ability to earn your livelihood in a matter of seconds. In fact, several artists expressed their feelings of shock and feeling overwhelmed and alone. The stress from the earthquake left one artist commenting, 'Everything is temporary - nature is a powerful force.'
    5. Loss of Artistic Community
      Many artists expressed their sadness and frustration at losing their artistic communities, through the condemnation of their artist studio buildings. In a few cases, artists in these buildings went in many different directions to solve their loss of work and living space.

      The artistic community in these buildings serves artists in many ways. Artists are able to help each other out - borrowing tools or moving large objects; share their artistic accomplishments and offer critiques to one another; share knowledge and resources about exhibition or performance opportunities; host community art exhibitions, open studios and performances in their buildings that draw larger crowds when there are more artists to see; and finally, the buildings offer a sense of community and neighborhood (especially to those living in the buildings).