Tweet
Fire plus art don't mix
You all remember the thread I put up last year about building my own art studio/apartment here in Boston.
Things have been rather crazy these last few weeks and I wanted to make sure anyone that might care hears it from me instead of through the grapevine and knows that I’m fine. If you're wondering why I didn't post this before... lets just say I've been a little out of it.
On December 29th at 3 am the apartment next to our studio caught fire. Everyone got out of the building safely, including my two cats and the fire department came quickly. They put the fire out extremely quickly. However, in order to do so they tore down the wall between our studio and the apartment in question. Additionally, they broke every window in the studio to let out the smoke. Late the next day we were allowed back in to get some clothes and assess the damage. For about a week we didn’t even know if we’d even be allowed to move back into the building. As it turns out we will be able to move back into the building but it will likely be a month before we get to. The landlord now has to bring the building up to code and make the city of Boston happy on every count. With an old building in Boston that can take a lot of work, this goes double for a converted factory building like ours.
The support my roommates and I have received from everyone has been amazing. Within hours of the fire we had numerous places to stay until we knew more (Thanks Gurm!!!). My parents were down that very day to take the cats back up to Maine while I figured out what was going on and hopped from futon to futon. A benefit show was put together by a friend of ours at one of the local clubs, Great Scott, this last Tuesday. All proceeds were to go to Pan9, our neighbors who had the fire and had lost a great deal. When they came forward to accept them they said they had already had more support from so many directions they couldn’t accept this. They knew they weren’t the only ones affected by the fire and said the proceeds were instead to go to Claymonkey Studio to help our own rebuilding and moving our projects forward.
Aside from the missing wall and windows most of our damage has been from water. Very little personal property was damaged in the fire and I thankfully have renter’s insurance. Unfortunately, the wall that was torn down was also where the storage from the drawing group I’ve been running was. Many of the people coming to the group stored their supplies and drawing at the studio and almost all of them were destroyed.
If you’re interested I’m also including links to articles about the fire. Pictures I took and the old website that I was updating back when I was building the place and need to completely revamp.
http://www.claymonkey.net – the old site
http://www.flickr.com/gp/35657458@N00/JB5B41 - pictures from the fire (if the walls are purple I’ve moved into Pan9)
articles:
Things have been rather crazy these last few weeks and I wanted to make sure anyone that might care hears it from me instead of through the grapevine and knows that I’m fine. If you're wondering why I didn't post this before... lets just say I've been a little out of it.
On December 29th at 3 am the apartment next to our studio caught fire. Everyone got out of the building safely, including my two cats and the fire department came quickly. They put the fire out extremely quickly. However, in order to do so they tore down the wall between our studio and the apartment in question. Additionally, they broke every window in the studio to let out the smoke. Late the next day we were allowed back in to get some clothes and assess the damage. For about a week we didn’t even know if we’d even be allowed to move back into the building. As it turns out we will be able to move back into the building but it will likely be a month before we get to. The landlord now has to bring the building up to code and make the city of Boston happy on every count. With an old building in Boston that can take a lot of work, this goes double for a converted factory building like ours.
The support my roommates and I have received from everyone has been amazing. Within hours of the fire we had numerous places to stay until we knew more (Thanks Gurm!!!). My parents were down that very day to take the cats back up to Maine while I figured out what was going on and hopped from futon to futon. A benefit show was put together by a friend of ours at one of the local clubs, Great Scott, this last Tuesday. All proceeds were to go to Pan9, our neighbors who had the fire and had lost a great deal. When they came forward to accept them they said they had already had more support from so many directions they couldn’t accept this. They knew they weren’t the only ones affected by the fire and said the proceeds were instead to go to Claymonkey Studio to help our own rebuilding and moving our projects forward.
Aside from the missing wall and windows most of our damage has been from water. Very little personal property was damaged in the fire and I thankfully have renter’s insurance. Unfortunately, the wall that was torn down was also where the storage from the drawing group I’ve been running was. Many of the people coming to the group stored their supplies and drawing at the studio and almost all of them were destroyed.
If you’re interested I’m also including links to articles about the fire. Pictures I took and the old website that I was updating back when I was building the place and need to completely revamp.
http://www.claymonkey.net – the old site
http://www.flickr.com/gp/35657458@N00/JB5B41 - pictures from the fire (if the walls are purple I’ve moved into Pan9)
articles:
Damn, makes my post seem trivial now.
Comment