Art Garden Gallery + Studio Remodel

Hello Friends and Creative Community! Art Lovers and Plant People!

Art Garden is a new gallery, studio space, and community center conceived by artists who have been a part of the Asheville art scene for over 10 years. Built by and for artists, its mission is to lift up emerging artists and spotlight the innovative, passionate, and dedicated creators in our community. Art Garden also seeks to be a gathering place for intentional activism and education – offering events that promote artistic and spiritual enrichment and connection.

We are here to ask your help in realizing a huge dream with a swift schedule, because the opportunity arrived at an unexpected time, and we only need just a small boost to make a really great thing happen.

We seek to contribute to the growing paradigm in art and creative community in Asheville by actively nurturing support systems for local artists and creatives in order to preserve cultural integrity. 

A diverse group, we range widely in media and style, but are all dedicated in some way to expressing the potency of plants and our relationship to Nature. We offer painting, illustration, ceramics, fiber art, sculpture, gardening of course, and more. To learn about our artists and artwork, visit our brand-new website: http://www.ArtGardenAVL.com 
and follow us on Instagram  and Facebook  :  @ArtGardenAVL

We are asking for your help in funding the materials for a very basic remodel and up-fit of our new space in the River Arts District of Asheville. We'll be doing 100% of the labor - we have a crew of 8 artist friends with varying skills and experience in carpentry and remodeling. We will be working together int he first weeks of November to transform the old French Broad River Academy into a multipurpose artist maker-space and gallery in a glorious 1902 red brick building on the north end of Riverview Station in Asheville's River Arts District.

We need to build several walls, install gallery lighting and some gift shop fixtures, repaint absolutely everything, make a sign, and spruce up the garden a little bit. You can view our entire itemized budget and build plans here . It is broken down into essentials and next-level goals-- the amount set for the Go-Fund-Me goal is the essentials minimum budget. If you’d like to donate any of the items or materials we are budgeting for in leu of a cash donation, that would be oh-so gratefully received as well!

~~~Gallery and Gift Shop elevation sketches. ~~~Five working artists' studios provide space for creative exploration and exhibition in a collaborative environment. Workshops and events hosted in the gallery, and in the garden and the courtyard as well. 
Gift shop offers wide range of accessible, affordable art.
Hosting thought-provoking curated Gallery shows presenting artists throughout the Asheville area's creative community.

Funding now will allow us to hit the ground running at a crucial time of the year to do so. The more remodeling we can do before we open our doors, the more economical and effective it’ll be in the long run. 

Your help with this building phase will allow us to secure a space in the Arts District for emerging Asheville Artists. There are few opportunities for up-and-coming artists here in this city whose tourism industries thrive off of the artistic charm we boast so well. Many artists here are being squeezed out by increasing rents and living costs, and additionally struggle to find representation for our art. The majority of galleries in this city represent artists who are not from the Asheville area, and the spaces that are inclusive are over-saturated, leaving many to cruise coffee shops and breweries for display space… Relegating their works to act as free interior design for the businesses, and entertainment for those who came for the “Arts City” experience, but rarely generating sales made to support the artists in these circumstances.  To make matters tighter, two galleries that were focused more on up and coming Asheville artists closed down in 2019. Studios are scarce, while predatory landlords are not..  

We have been witnessing this need amongst our peers, and experiencing it ourselves first-hand, for years now. We are beyond grateful to finally have the opportunity to do something about it! 

Jack  Henry and I started hatching the idea to create Art Garden in early summer of 2018, but were unable to secure a location, as Asheville’s commercial real estate is incredibly competitive, and we are of modest means being independent, up-and-coming artists ourselves. At the end of 2018 we found a seemingly suitable studio to rent in the mean time, and put Art Garden on the back-burner while we focused all of our hearts and minds on helping to get that place going. It became increasingly clear over 2019 that that was not going to provide the safe creative environment to support us or the community of artists around us that we knew we could foster given the right circumstances. And LO, in the same week that we decided we would have to move on from that place, great fortune befell us and we secured our own location!! In the Arts District!! The timing is sudden and feeling a little rushed, but perfect, because we are prepared, and have tailored our plan to this new space in an incredibly exciting, and sustainable way, with an amazing team of artists.  We cannot wait to welcome you to our new collaborative art space opening in November!

Thank you so much for your support---We don’t take it lightly! This means the world to us, and we hope to create a world of good from it.

Annie, Jack, and the Art Garden Crew