Artists Seek Aid for Sandy Cleanup

Artists, galleries and lofts, many that helped bring about a renaissance in the ribbon of all-but-abandoned warehouses that line New York’s coastal areas, face tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. Though no major museums reported damage, the toll among smaller operations and individual artists is steep. In response, various institutions and foundations are offering recovery help ranging from grants to free advice on how to rehabilitate damaged works of art.

Requests to the New York Foundation for the Arts for storm-related assistance total $12 million among almost 500 artists in New York and New Jersey, nearly 90 percent of them in New York, executive director Michael Royce said.

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund, or CERF+, said it has gotten applications from 65 artists, most without insurance in devastated areas of Staten Island, Red Hook and Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section where many waterfront warehouses have been turned into art studios.

Many individual artists “are still dealing with life issues and can’t be thinking of earning a livelihood. Many are still really very fragile,” said Craig Nutt, director of programs at CERF+, a national organization that helps professional craft artists like Buxton-Kutch through personal and natural disasters.