Tom Ashcraft and Georgia Deal: Three Issues Facing Contemporary Asheville Artists

Asheville artist Tom Ashcraft and his wife, printmaker Georgia Deal, maintain separate practices but always “come back together” for shared projects. In fact, that’s how the two first met. Both artists established their careers in Washington, D.C., where Georgia chaired the Corcoran College of Art & Design’s printmaking department for over 30 years. Meanwhile, Tom settled into carpentry and architecture and held a teaching position at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University. The two crossed paths multiple times over the years but wouldn’t become creative partners until they formed Dog Dream Project, a collaborative group of Washington artists creating immersive installations. Now married and based in Asheville, NC, Tom and Georgia continue collaborating under Workingman Collective, a group of artists whose membership, goals, and mission change with each project.

“I've worked with everybody from artists and biologists to barbers and architects,” says Tom, who co-founded Workingman Collective in 2005 with Peter Winant and Janis Goodman. The Collective soon gained new members, including Georgia, whose interests often “overlap” with Tom’s. For instance, Tom and Georgia’s recent collaboration, Uncharted, evolved from a shared creative rut triggered by the pandemic. “I was really stuck with making work,” Georgia admits. “We kept talking about what was happening in our individual studio practices, and we came up with this idea of being adrift. We started thinking of ourselves as being adrift at sea.” Appropriately, the finished body of work puts Tom’s extensive toy boat collection to good use.

While Georgia maintains an independent practice outside her work with Tom, the longtime printmaker hosts workshops in her studio, Swannanoa Paper, where regional artists gather to learn paper- and printmaking techniques. As the MFA director for the School of Art & Design at Western Carolina University, “serial collaborator” Tom designs participatory projects for a new generation of artists facing mounting pressures. While both artists are “thrilled” to live in Asheville, they recognize the city's unique challenges for emerging artists working in different fields. In a new series, ArtsvilleUSA investigates the major issues facing Asheville-area artists through first-person interviews with regional leaders in the craft field. This month's guests are sculptor Tom Ashcraft and printmaker Georgia Deal.

Owning or Renting a Studio Space

Last month, we learned that Asheville-area real estate prices exploded during the pandemic. “When people started realizing they could work remotely, places like Asheville just went over the moon because it's the sort of place where you've always wanted to live, but you couldn't live there until you retired,” says our last guest, regional ceramicist Robert Milnes.

As reported, access to affordable studio space, especially for young or unestablished artists, hinges on the housing market. According to The Asheville Citizen Times, the city’s median home prices have increased by 53 percent since 2019, outpacing the national average of 48 percent. Market rates for a one-bedroom apartment in Asheville have increased by 78 percent in the same five-year period. Many artists, including Robert, avoid the extra cost of studio rental by building makeshift spaces on their already-owned properties. But Asheville’s surging housing prices bar younger, less financially stable artists from home ownership and, in turn, a home studio.

Tom and Georgia seem to agree with Robert’s assessment of the housing situation. “I think there was a lot of opportunity for people 10 or 20 years ago, and housing was cheap,” says Georgia, who relocated to Asheville with Tom in 2018. The couple is well acquainted with artists who were able to buy affordable properties before the housing market in Asheville exploded. “They were able to get studios and have good opportunities,” says Tom, “but it doesn't seem they are available for young artists.”

Making Experimental Work

Many wealthy arts patrons who wind up in Asheville also gravitate toward the natural beauty of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains; the artwork tends to reflect that dynamic. Tom, whose work is “pretty experimental,” knows firsthand the challenges that come with making conceptual work, which often changes in scope, scale, and material from project to project. Tom spent roughly 40 years developing his work, starting off in a low-rent warehouse where he could experiment with concepts and materials.

In Asheville, most of the gallery support and infrastructure is centered on craft-based work, an interesting inversion of the typical art-world hierarchy, which places “fine art” at the top. As Georgia says, Asheville is like Mecca for craftmakers. Experimental or conceptual artists living in the area often look toward other markets for their work while enjoying residency in the scenic mountain city.

Finding Opportunities

Finding opportunities in Asheville can be a struggle for young or unestablished artists. “That really weighs on me,” says Tom, who runs the graduate program at the School of Art & Design at Western Carolina University. “I’ve designed [the program] to be intergenerational so that we can have a healthy mix of returning students that have had careers and other students who come right out of school. We try to develop strategies and build networks for the grads if they want to stay in the area.”

The area, Georgia says, is full of people who come from different parts of the country and decide to stay in Western North Carolina: “It’s made the region very rich, culturally speaking. But they’re not really young artists. They’re slightly older. I do worry about the young artists.”

Still, the couple finds reasons to feel hopeful about the future of art and craft in and around Asheville. “The artists are pretty resilient,” says Tom. “There’s always been a rolling renaissance among the younger artists. These artists look at the landscape and socioeconomic space and just figure out how to make it work. Things are happening, but you have to look inside the cracks.”

Georgia Deal: Website | Instagram

Tom Ashcraft: Website | Instagram

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All photos published with permission of Tom Ashcraft and Georgia Deal. Featured photo courtesy of Bob Ware.