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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 24 > Entry
What if FEMA deployed artists?
What if FEMA deployed artists to post-disaster areas?
What if, along with re-building efforts after a hurricane or a flood or an earthquake, artists were invited to be a part of a community’s re-building effort?
New York artist Paul Villinski thought about that as he got ready for an exhibit in New Orleans in 2006. He wanted to create some kind of artistic response to the devastation wrought on the city by Hurricane Katrina.
But to do so, Villinski, who builds beautiful sculpture out of discarded materials, realized he would need to transport his entire studio the New Orleans. And so he created the Emergency Response Studio, a mobile self-contained sustainability solar-powered live-work artist’s studio.
Through May 2 the Emergency Response Studio will be on view outside the Long Center for the Performing Arts, co-sponsored by Arthouse and the Fusebox Festival.
Hours are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through May 2, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday. Admission is free.
Villinski salvaged a 30-foot Gulfstream Cavalier travel trailer identical to the ones distributed throughout the Katrina afflicted areas by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He gutted the trailer, replacing the interior with sustainable eco-sensitive — and health-sensitive — materials. Solar panels on top charge 1.6 kilowatt system that powers all the trailer’s electrical needs along with the power tools in a small workshop. A geodesic dome on top sheds natural light throughout the trail and a section of the trailer wall folds out becoming a porch, a work platform or possibly even a stage.
Villinski said he wasn’t suggesting what artists should do in a post-disaster area, but rather, his project is aimed at suggesting a means for artists the flexible means to be able to live and work some place that lacks power.
“I think artists have something to bring to a post-disaster situation,” said Villinski on Wednesday as he installed his mobile studio. “I’m not saying artists can save the world, but artists can solve problems in really unorthodox ways. And we shouldn’t be on the fringe of our communities. The world would be lost if we didn’t have art.”
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