Artists Not Affected by Sandy: Put the Studio Protector to Good Use
Nov
12
Written by:
11/12/2012 12:00 AM
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| List of Supplies from the Studio Protector Clean-up Booklet |
You may not have been directly affected by Hurricane Sandy, but as an artist, you have special skills you can put to work helping artists and others who were affected. The Studio Protector can help you get organized. If you do not have a copy, it is now available online formatted to display well on mobile devices, and the Studio Protector Online Guide has more in-depth information on Clean-up and Salvage.
Many artists have told us that, while they greatly appreciate the help of volunteers, it is a stressful experience trying to organize and supervise them. Volunteers who know what to do and can go about their work without supervision are worth their weight in gold. I had the opportunity to do just this when I went to help friends after the floods in Nashville. I got out my Studio Protector, used the list of useful supplies as a guide to load up my van. A quick trip to the hardware store was needed to pick up a few things I did not have on hand. We took extra respirators, rubber gloves, and other safety equipment. If I could do it over, I would have taken more. Many volunteers had shown up without any protective gear and were handling some really gross stuff without proper protection.
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| The Studio Protector wall guide - online and mobile-ready |
If you have some special skills, like knowing about tearing down and rebuilding machinery, or conserving artworks, personal photos, etc. you can save some items that are really important to artists, and which they may not have the insurance to replace. Not every artist has those skills, and even if they do, they have so much to do and are under so much stress that they may not be able to do it.
If you do not feel competent to help in this way, even with coaching from the Studio Protector, you can help someone by having them over to dinner and promising not to talk about the disaster. See this video from Russell Karkowski about how important it is to have a break from the disaster. Helping alleviate the stress of the disaster, even for a few hours, may be one of the most important things you can do