For the artists at Orr Street Studios, it's a surreal scene: empty spaces on empty walls. The creative hub was disrupted by a fire on the night of July 21 which spawned behind the building and made its way into the studios when cardboard stuck underneath the back wall ignited. After evaluating the damage with the Columbia Fire Department, Orr Street board member Donna Checkett said the studio plans to be fully restored in approximately six weeks.
"I think we're close," Checkett said. "The main thing is just the longer we're not open, you know, the more the gap financially grows. And so I still say we're still assessing the overall economic impact on Orr Street as an entity and on our individual artists."
While the fire ate at the walls and ceiling, the tall, sliding doors to each of the eight studios suffered only minimal damage. The doors to each studio are independently designed and created by the artist in residence at each studio.
For me, it was water damage. I lost sketchbooks, that was disappointing, about 20 years' worth of sketchbooks, and then other things that just were too waterlogged to be salvaged," said Tootie Burns, an Orr Street artist who, prior to the fire, had occupied the same studio space for 11 years. Burns said the community has since raised more than $12,000 to help the Orr Street artists recover from the fire.
It’s a community whose support has been built, in part, through drawing people together in the district on the first Friday evening of each month. Since its creation in 2014, First Friday has reflected how much of a creative haven and a destination the North Village Arts District has become. Member businesses report attendance to the district’s board, but Burns says venues have become less consistent with their reports.
Still, Serendipity Gallery and Salon owner Elizabeth Jordeheim, says she now expects between 300 and 800 visitors every First Friday.
"It used to be a little more quaint, but now its a big deal and it’s important for us who have businesses here," she said.
That sort of attendance is a big increase from some humble beginnings.
"Gosh, First Friday went from a group of us sitting around a table 10 years ago questioning whether or not we could put on a monthly event and wondering if anyone would come on an ongoing basis, to now thousands of people coming down to see our area," Burns said.
Some gallery owners and artists said First Friday lets in a larger influx of people than normal business hours allow. Burns said this opportunity creates space for more impactful relationships.
Nickie Davis serves on the board for the North Village Arts District. She said the neighborhood has been able to quantify the impact of First Fridays as a means of expanding the arts district.
We would count heads, we'd know how many people were coming through and this would help us get grants that then would help us do more cool things," Davis said. "And now it's turned into such an amazing event with so many people and so many different things going on that we've kind of surpassed that and it has turned into, how’s it going at every single one of these places? What is working for these individual businesses? What’s not?"
Today, the Arts District hosts more than two dozen tenants, from salons to galleries to cafes. And while the area also boasts brightly-colored public art, it’s at its most vibrant the first Friday evening of each month.