ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) – What does it mean for art to be “elevated?” A new player in the Asheville art scene hopes to answer that question.
After the destruction of the River Arts District, the old Moog building is rising to fill the gaps in the art market as Resurrection Studios Collective. The art space will be having a grand opening from 5 – 10 p.m. on Friday, March 7, 2025. Kira Bursky, a local artist with a collection of pieces themed after the recent natural disaster, will be opening her pop-up shop that night.
Resurrection Studios Collective
Heidi Adams is the director and founder of Resurrection Studios Collective. Her husband was the former president and owner of Moog. When Mike Adams sold his company, he expected the corporation to remain in Asheville. When they left, the Moog manufacturing facility sat abandoned.
It broke her heart to see the old music-making facility sitting abandoned. “So many people would come to Asheville just to see Moog,” Adams stated, expressing her discontent that there was nothing for these visitors to see apart from an empty husk of a building.
An art major in college, Adams had thought for a while that she could make something of the historic space. But “it was the storm that made this happen.” After the destruction of the River Arts District, Adams wanted to give artists a space to be.
“I am being very intentional about who I bring in here,” Adams explained, repeatedly affirming she wanted the products made there to be “elevated art,” not wanting to be solely a sticker shop.
With such a massive building as a canvas, Adams hopes to fill it to the brim with creatives of most varieties. “We currently have 23 leases. I am hoping to hit 50.” Feasibility is a factor though. Adams mentioned glass blowers, in particular, need too many specialized tools to be able to share the art space.
If you are an artist looking for a studio, you can submit an application here for Resurrection Studios Collective.
The name Resurrection Studios Collective has two meanings for Adams. Helene “was the Biblical storm” and this is a “sacred space we are kind of bringing back to life,” she explained, referring to the Moog building.
For those who never got to see the manufacturing hub in its heyday, Adams hopes to maintain the space as “an homage to Moog.” Adams’ priority is shifting the building’s purpose, “moving from audio to visual but still keeping it an arts space.”
She hopes one day the interstate will cease to divide the downtown, allowing Resurrection Studios Collective to perform as “an extension of downtown.”
“Asheville is shifting,” Adams proclaimed. “It is time to step back and really reorganize.” She wants to “set a tone” of sustainability and elevation in the Asheville art community.
Kira Bursky’s Hurricane Helene Collection
“Creating things is a form of play that allows me to live curiously,” said Kira Bursky, age 28, who splits her time between Asheville and Greenville, S.C. “I use my art to process my thoughts and feelings.”
“Inspired by perceptions of reality,” Bursky expresses herself by blurring “Lines between reality and fantasy, conscious and subconscious.” She continued, “Everything I do is inspired by mental health.”
“Every project,” Bursky stated, “has to be up to where I am at personally, emotionally and psychologically.” Her philosophy is “Life is strange, life is fun, life is beautiful” and hopes her art reflects that.
Bursky said she has been creating “Art since I was a kid. By age 12, I started pursuing filmmaking.” Having attended a film boarding school, she believes cinematography combines all art forms, as it is “everything rolled into one.” Today, Bursky has “60 plus short films and music videos” under her belt, with many available on her YouTube channel.
But for a few years now, Bursky has focused on other art forms. When Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) burst onto the market in 2021, she began making art to sell as NFTs. “I was a full-time crypto artist,” she said, having sold more than 2,500 one-of-one tokens.
Recently, she has been feeling drawn toward other mediums. “When a feeling overcomes you, it distorts reality, discolors reality,” she explained. The natural disaster “was changing my lens of reality.” Her artwork, Bursky stated, “are all definitely my distortions.”
Hurricane Helene distorted her world, turning it black and white.
Each day in October, Bursky drew a new piece in a similar color palate. “Black and white felt fitting for the content,” Bursky explained. She had already planned on participating in Inktober, an annual visual art event in the internet art community, but this year took on a new meaning. “I decided to take the month to process the storm through art,” Bursky relayed.
Bursky is inspired by many artists, especially the Surrealists like Salvador Dali, but her Hurricane Helene collection centers on one of her greatest heroes: Tim Burton. You can see Burton’s influences clearly in pieces like “The Neighbors” and “The Crescent Moon” as slender, abstract figures glide across the canvas.
The prints of her Hurricane Helene collection are available now on her website or will be for sale soon in-person when her pop-up shop opens at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 7. 20 percent of profits from every piece sold in her Hurricane Helene collection will benefit recovery efforts.
Not finished with her storm collection, Bursky plans to animate her drawings into a short film after the pop-up shop closes in two months. She also hopes to tour the southeast exhibiting the hurricane art at galleries.
But the solemn black and white color scheme of her Helene prints are rare. Typically, Bursky can be seen jumping about in a colorful world of her making. The clothes on her back are her own designs, enhancing the whimsy already present in her personality. She sells the same clothes on her website, All Around Artsy, and will also in the pop-up shop.
She sells products in a plethora of mediums. Pillows, rugs, prints, jackets and button-up shirts, all branded in her signature vibrant, surreal color wave. Whenever possible, Bursky said, “I strive to be local” with supplying materials and manufacturing her fashion and home goods. “My art prints, I’m having made in Greenville, South Carolina” and “Story of a Storm,” the piece combining all her Helene drawings into one, is being woven into rugs by Manual Woodworkers & Weavers in Hendersonville.
Resurrection Studio Collective will have a grand opening from 5 – 10 p.m. on Friday, March 7, 2025, with live music, drinks, tours of artist’s workspaces and the opening of Bursky’s pop-up shop. If you are unavailable for this event, Adams plans to invite the community to the studio on the first Friday of every month for a time of connection.