RAD is State of the Art

Asheville locals are the first to admit their town is a smidge offbeat. After all, it is one of few places where yogis get zen with goats and breweries serve gummy worm-infused ales. But there is one Asheville neighborhood that truly delivers on the city’s promise to keep things weird: the River Arts District.

Located on the fringe of downtown, the River Arts District is a bohemian mecca, home to more than 250 artists and a host of eateries. A trip down Riverside Drive reveals Epicurean delights (think: calves’ brain gratin), craft cocktails, basket-weaving demonstrations and mixed assemblage exhibitions.

In short, the RAD is, well, rad. Antique dealer Robert Nicholas knows this firsthand. When Nicholas moved to Asheville 18 years ago, he had never heard of this artistic haven situated on the banks of the French Broad River. But one morning, a friend invited him to breakfast at a joint on Clingman Avenue.

“That was my first taste of the district,” he says. “After that, I started getting nosy and poking around. I realized how cool of an area it was.”

Nicholas and his wife, Rebecca, soon decided to put down roots. In 2014, they opened a storefront for Splurge, their antique furniture and custom lighting business, in Wedge Studios on Roberts Street. The building, which was originally built in 1916, was reimagined into studio spaces by sculptor John Payne in 2002.

It is now inhabited by the likes of cold wax painter Cindy Walton and contemporary artist Meryl Lefkovich. Walton moved to Asheville in 1988, years before the RAD had emerged as a cultural mecca. “I didn’t even know the River Arts District existed,” Walton says.

But when Lefkovich rolled into town six years ago from Boston, the area had already asserted itself as a harbor for creatives. The Massachusetts transplant was instantly “blown away by how supportive other artists were.”

“The River Arts District just has a different flavor than downtown Asheville,” says Lefkovich. Despite the neighborhood’s tiny footprint—it’s only about one square mile—you “can make a whole day out of it,” she says, especially now that Nicholas has launched Marquee.

Located on Foundy Street, Marquee is a 55,000-square-foot design center featuring a carefully curated hodgepodge of Asheville’s most eccentric and talented artists, Lefkovich included. The cavernous space also features vendors like Sleepy Hollow Antiques, Blue Ridge Botanicals and Splurge.

Since opening in December 2021, Marquee has been booming. On any given day, you can find smartly-dressed couples streaming down Foundy Street, toting funky lime green chairs and bottles of merlot. There is a spirit of levity and promise in the RAD.

But it was not always like this.

Remembering the RAD’s Roots

If you are not familiar with the history of the RAD, you need to know this: before there were artists, there were factories. So many in fact that the area was known as Factory Hill: a less-than-savory manufacturing district where working people labored for low wages.

The neighborhood got its start in the 1880s when the Norfolk Southern Railway expanded along the French Broad River. This made nearby properties prime real estate for industrial tycoons like the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) and Moses Cone, a local textile manufacturer known as “The Denim King.”

The area soon saw an explosion in production. “Asheville Cotton Mills, built in 1887, employed hundreds of people manufacturing denim and flannel,” says Katherine Calhoun Cutshall, collections manager at the Pack Memorial Library in Asheville. “Other operations like Hans Rees and Sons tannery, meat packing facilities and tobacco and livestock warehouses were scattered along the French Broad River.”

This meant “residents of riverside industrial neighborhoods were constantly bombarded with a symphony of sounds and smells,” says Cutshall. One Factory Hill resident interviewed in 1938 brusquely described neighborhood conditions, saying, “I don’t reckon there’s a dirtier place on earth to live than here."

Industrial workers were also paid such miserably low wages that many women turned to larceny, prostitution and bootlegging to keep their babies from going hungry.

Life only got grimmer in 1916. After a series of heavy rains, the French Broad jumped its banks and the ensuing flood wreaked havoc on Factory Hill. Buildings were so badly damaged that business owners and residents left for higher ground. In the decades to follow, Factory Hill continued to devolve into a neglected backwater of Asheville frequented by few.

But in the late 1970s, that shifted. Downtown Asheville was experiencing a cultural renaissance. After decades of empty sidewalks and boarded-up storefronts, the city was taking steps to jump-start revitalization. Restaurants were serving alcoholic beverages (Asheville was previously a dry community) and the city was building parking garages.

This development ushered in a wave of business activity, causing rent to skyrocket. Desperate for cheaper studio space, creatives began to wade into an industrial zone rife with derelict warehouses. In 1994, a few artists banded together to host the area’s first Studio Stroll. It was then that the RAD was officially born.

Developing Creative Infrastructure

Between the 1990s and now, this Asheville neighborhood has experienced a radical glow-up. Vestiges of its industrial past are still evident, but the district now has a more refined, polished look. Part of that is thanks to New Belgium Brewing Company, says Kit Cramer, president and CEO of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

In 2012, the nationally-distributed brand chose a brownfield in the RAD as their second home. In the years to follow, New Belgium cleaned up the stockyard, uncapped a stream and helped make the RAD more pedestrian-friendly.

Then, last spring, the City of Asheville completed the River Arts District Improvement Project after five years of construction and a decade of planning. The $35 million endeavor restructured the district, adding four miles of sidewalk, two miles of greenway and the first protected bike lane in Asheville history.

These two projects “opened people’s eyes to the opportunities in the area for residents, additional businesses and visitors,” says Cramer.

As have the efforts of RiverLink. In 1992, the environmental nonprofit purchased the former Williams Feed Store Building, now known as Warehouse Studios, and used the first floor as an office and leased the upstairs as artist studios.

RiverLink volunteers have since “spent decades slowly cleaning up derelict industrial properties and illegal dumpsites along the French Broad River,” says Watershed Resources Manager Renee Fortner.

Today, there are plenty of public green spaces to explore in the RAD. Families can roller skate on the Wilma Dykeman Greenway or launch their kayaks from the new boat ramp on Riverside Drive. RiverLink is also in the midst of transforming a five-acre former junkyard on Amboy Road into the Karen Cragnolin Park.

These infrastructure projects have helped the RAD assert itself, says painter Daniel McClendon. “As opposed to a cliff note or an afterthought, the River Arts District is now much more of a force,” he says.

Welcoming New Neighbors

McClendon moved to the “little hippie town” of Asheville in 2008. At the time, the RAD was “definitely gritty,” but that was part of the appeal. McClendon was able to snag a rough-hewn warehouse on Depot Street and transform the building, which was originally built by Nabisco in 1907, into The Lift Studios.

In 2011, McClendon opened his doors to reveal an ultra-modern space with industrial flair. There are brick and stone walls, pine flooring and exposed rafters. Like many other artists in the area, McClendon welcomes passersby into his office to watch as he produces the “most honest and unfettered paintings possible.”

“I don’t mind people coming in and disrupting the flow of work,” he says from the second floor of his 5,000-square-foot studio space.

In fact, being able to build relationships with community members is the “value of the neighborhood,” says McClendon. It is also why the RAD continues to attract out-of-town artists, Reid Dawson being one.

Dawson is the curator behind Foundation Studios, a community art center on Foundy Street where more than 80 resident artists across a variety of mediums—from solar pyrography to celestial ceramics—show their work.    

“One of our main goals in having the space is to provide artists with representation,” says Dawson, who opened the collective in 2019. His venture, Modern Wave Gallery, is also housed there. “We want to give them the one-on-one experience they need to grow their business.”Before Dawson debuted Foundation Studios, the building was a condemned, graffiti-covered warehouse. But with some elbow grease, the 29-year-old has transformed it into a stomping ground for up-and-coming creatives—a place where artists can make a name for themselves in Asheville’s weirdest neighborhood.

“We want to continue giving artists the opportunity to create in a public space like the River Arts District,” says Dawson. Because, after all, “art just has such a larger impact than what meets the eye.”

Where To Eat & Drink: Vivian

Shannon McGaughey always knew she wanted to open a restaurant off the beaten path. “You can get huge numbers from the downtown crowds,” says McGaughey, “but there’s something to be said about guests specifically seeking you out just for what you’re cooking up.”

That’s why, in December 2017, McGaughey and her husband, Josiah, chose to open Vivian on Depot Street. Vivian, or “Viv” for short, is a fusion of Old World European flavors and traditional Southern cuisine. Though the menu rotates frequently, mainstays include the nordic deviled eggs, steak tartare, scallop quenelle and crab souffle omelet.

“Our executive chef takes a lot of these classic ideas, traditional sauces and preparations and melds them with his southern heritage growing up in Georgia,” says McGaughey. “This results in decadent, comforting dishes that have high-end creativity but don't skimp on the portions or the flavors.”

Vivian, 348 Depot St., Suite 190, Asheville.

Where To Play: French Broad Outfitters

Sure, you could explore the RAD on foot. But for a more interesting perspective, Scott Thomas suggests you grab a kayak or canoe.

Thomas is the store manager at French Broad Outfitters, an Asheville-based business that offers a six-mile float trip through the RAD. The adventure begins near the confluence of Hominy Creek and the French Broad River and then continues downstream.

“It’s a fun stretch of river to be on,” says Thomas, “and you definitely get a view that you don’t get anywhere else.”

Because of the urban setting, this bit of the French Broad is prime for people-watching. But for a wilder taste of the water, Thomas suggests kayakers paddle up the Swannanoa River, which intersects near Amboy Bridge.

French Broad Outfitters, 704 Riverside Dr., Asheville.

Where To Shop: Sew Co.

A century ago, the RAD was a booming industrial center. Though Factory Hill faded in the mid-1900s, Libby O’Bryan hopes to revive the area’s manufacturing ethos.

O’Bryan is the woman behind Sew Co. (pronounced “SoCo”), a 7,500-square-foot cut-and-sew production facility on Clingman Avenue Extension. The warehouse is a place where independent designers can talk shop. But it’s also a place where consumers can try on Sew Co.’s brand of high-end women's wear, Rite of Passage.

“We’re trying to help people understand that they have choices when they purchase clothing,” says O’Bryan, noting that the retail space—which is situated in an old truck well—looks right into the factory. This way, “visitors can have a connection to where, how and who” is making the clothing.

“We’re excited to be maintaining the open studio culture of the River Arts District with insight into a more industrial manufacturing perspective,” says O’Bryan.

Sew Co., 240 Clingman Ave. Ext., Asheville.