27th February
Its over a week since the fire. Life has been so busy as this emergency demanded space in what was already a busy time.
We have held a Green Door network meeting to update people, seek their support and ideas for future decisions, visited premises, and finally last night met as the steering group so that we could make the final decisions about what offers to accept and how we will manage the uncertain future.
Before the meeting I spent an hour with Richard focusing on our joint proposal of work for the Green Door show for Farfield Mill in a fortnight. It felt like grabbed time for me but so welcome to be thinking about our work rather than the fire.
This week I haven’t had a swim, played my saxophone or much else so need to change that to restore energy levels. I know that others are stressed out too but if feels like we are so much better placed now than a week ago.
I keep thinking of that charred wood and ash as pigment.
Monday 22nd February
Its been a manic weekend. Phone calls, emails have kept coming in. A press release has been written and put out to the media. We wanted people to know how the studio group has been affected because initial reports weren’t mentioning us or the impact of the fire on us.
It’s so strange how one minute you can be so down and anxious and then something changes and spirits and energy levels soar again. A local councillor and Imelda, the Arts and Events Officer, have worked magic somehow and following promises of trying to help with practical support have already found a temporary building free of charge within Kendal College for the studio group plus a start up fund for materials to get people working again and even some furniture to put in the empty building. By the end of the day it’s as good as signed off that these offers are secure.
The speed of the decision making just blows us away. Its also the best feedback for us as a group as to how we are so positively perceived.
My jaw becomes even slacker as later that day another offer of temporary free premises for a short period just outside Kendal in Stavely Old Mill Yard comes in.
Farfield Mill also say they have studio spaces available free of charge in Sedbergh for six months and offer fund raising support.
Other calls identify other possible sources of temporary space. Its just amazing. From having apparently lost everything we now have real offers on the table.
For the short term we know we are more secure and from there we can see what the longer term will bring.
20th February
I drive into Kendal and park up away from the blocked off area. Walking towards the studios along Highgate – it’s deserted – the high crane brought in from Barrow in Furness dominates the sky line. By now we know the police suspect arson.
I meet up with Jill, Elizabeth and Donna (studio artists) behind the building. The extent of the damage at the rear where the fire started is immense. The front of building on the main street appears relatively normal apart from the fact that the roof over my and Jill’s space had to be pulled away to dowse the fire that got into the roof and was spreading along the terraced buildings. At the front I can still see my space intact through the window but know that debris and water and now weather will be destroying the contents.
The back of the building is so damaged the whole building is unstable. The rear wall looks ready to collapse. The floors must be unstable. What was onece a grand Georgian building with a floating cantilevered spiral staircase with cupola window overhead now looks like it could collapse at any minute.
My thoughts are so mixed. Loss of work from the last decade, work being prepared for my show with Richard in April at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal – and yet also the thought that I want some of the charred wood and ashes to do something with – a drawing or something, I don’t know yet. Although Jill says I’m ahead of her thinking so positively, I know how poignant it would be to use pigment from the fire in some way.
We can’t do anything so go for coffee. As we return to the scene the crane is in use with a new fire tender on the scene. The fire has restarted and more water is being dropped into the building. We learn later that the fire restarted from a drawer in a filing cabinet in what was left of our studio office. Having got in it was kept secure until released presumably by a rush of oxygen when the drawer was opened, its still unclear exactly how.
As the day progresses we realise that we may never be allowed in to see what we can salvage. Even the police can’t get in to complete their inquiries into the cause of the fire.
19th Feb
Jill rings me throughout the day. She is outside the building and talking to fire fighters and police and gleaning information. It’s thought to be arson. This emerges during the day as a window is found removed from the landlord’s offices at the rear. Our thoughts are about whether something will be retrievable from the damaged building and whether it’s the end of the studio group.
Green Door is both a studio group and a large network of artists that collaborates together. The studios have always been the physical and psychological hub. The future feels so uncertain.
So many phone calls offering sympathy and support come in. It’s times like this when you find out how you’re seen by the community.
I know there’s nothing I can do that day so decide to keep away from the mayhem until tomorrow. Getting into Kendal will be more complicated as the central road system where the studios are is completely blocked off.
19th February 2010 – 4am
A fire starts in offices connected to the rear of the Green Door Studios. It spreads into the studio building and the upper floor is mostly burnt out. The remaining areas are affected by smoke, water, and falling debris from the roof that needs to be hacked open to dowse the flames.
The main road through Kendal is closed off and the Highgate becomes like a pedestrian zone instead of its usual one-way traffic.
The studios were set up in 1995 by a group of artists to provide affordable studio space. Today it looks like everybody’s work, equipment and materials or water damage, or because we will never get into the studios again because the building’s structure has become so unstable. It’s a real mess.
