Emergency Response Studio

The Emergency Response Studio, by Paul Villinski, is a solar-powered mobile artist's studio, repurposed from a salvaged FEMA-style trailer. This sustainably re-built, off-the-grid living and work space is designed to enable artists to "embed" in post-disaster settings, and respond and contribute creatively. Villinski conceived the project in response to the devastation of post-Katrina New Orleans as "a symbol of transformation and possibility for the communities of the Gulf Coast." ERS will be exhibited in Prospect .1 New Orleans, the largest exhibition of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, which opens throughout the Cresent City November first, 2008.

Ananda Hartzell of groSolar did the engineering for this project.  Panels were donated by Evergreen Solar and installed by Advanced Solar Power.  Villinski, who creates art out of discarded objects and repurposes them into provocative sculptural pieces of beauty and transformation, conceived the project in 2006 while in New Orleans preparing for an exhibit at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Moved to create artwork in direct response to the conditions of post-Katrina New Orleans, he wished he could bring his New York studio with him to the Lower Ninth Ward. With the Emergency Response Studio, the artist suggests that inventive, non-traditional thinking practiced by visual artists can be a valuable part of the mix as we attempt to heal what is damaged and confront imminent challenges of all sorts.

Villinski's vision for ERS was realized through vital funding and in-kind donations from generous supporters, including: Advanced Solar Power, Blauen, The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, Build it Green! NYC, Evergreen Solar, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Forbo Flooring Systems, Global Green USA, Green Depot, Greenhouse Capital Partners, GRK Fasteners, groSolar, Cristina Hadzi Interiors, Adam Lewis, Robert Mason with Anthony Dalo Woodworking, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Outback Power Systems, Smith and Fong Plyboo, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Gregg Wagner, RA.

Emergency Response Studio will be exhibited from November 1 – January 18th across New Orleans at sites including the Global Green Visitor Center in the Lower Ninth Ward, The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Charles Colton School, Tulane University, and downtown New Orleans. The studio arrives in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward on October 25th.

For more information visit the project website at www.emergencyresponsestudio.org.