VIDEO: Chelsea Galleries Pick Up the Pieces Post-Sandy

Chelsea Galleries Pick Up the Pieces Post-Sandy http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/838295/video-chelsea-galleries-pick-up-the-pieces-post-sandy

Chelsea Art Galleries Struggle to Restore and Reopen http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/arts/design/chelsea-art-galleries-struggle-to-restore-and-reopen.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Sandy’s Toll on NYC Art http://communityartsnyc.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/sandys-toll-on-nyc-art/


...I went Chelsea gallery district today.

I have all my artworks stored in the ground floor of storage facility on West 29th at 10th Avenues. Although the area still had no power that I had to use a flashlight, luckily, I found all my property was safe and dry. I was told by the storage's manager that flooding didn't reach the block.

Then I walked to the 27th street. My co-op gallery is on the 2nd floor of the gallery building, between 10th and 11th Ave. The building's door was locked but it looked normal from outside. I heard the 27th street was flooded a bit, but the water reached only edge of the 11th avenue. Around there, the basements seem flooded more than ground floor.

Then I walked to the south of West 25th street between 10th and West Side Highway.

The scene I saw there was unthinkable.

I knew that ground floor galleries around 23rd street between 10th and West Side Highway were struck by Sandy really hard, heavily flooded, left damaged many of their valuable artworks as well as their gallery spaces.

But seeing that reality was beyond my imagination.

I was shocked when I saw the Tsunami hit area in the northern Japan a few months ago. But seeing one of a kind artworks piled up on streets while workers were taking water out of galleries, was just too much to bare.

....Is this going to be the end of Chelsea era as a NYC gallery district ? ?


"For all these efforts, it was easy to wonder, on first encounter, if Chelsea would ever come back as an art district."