This September, my life changed shockingly and irrevocably when Hurricane Helene swept a path through Western North Carolina. My ground floor ceramics gallery and studio, located in Asheville's River Arts District, was inundated by flooding from the nearby French Broad River, the building submerged in water up to the middle of the second story. My employees and I were able to move about half of my pottery out before the full force of the storm hit, but all the equipment—kiln, wheel, tools, and materials—as well as furniture and hundreds of pots and all my work in progress, are now destroyed.

It will be a long road to recovery, with many months, maybe a year, to reorganize and rebuild what I've lost, if it's even possible. I will be losing these next three months of sales during what is normally the busiest time of year. I need to make sure my amazing studio assistants and gallery employees are able to continue to earn a living while we comb through the wreckage and start to rebuild.

I moved to Western NC from Brooklyn, NY 21 years ago, with my wife Cynthia, finding here exactly what I'd been seeking in order to nurture my evolving ceramics practice. I fell in love with the beauty of the land and the wonderful community of creative people I found here. Inspired, I built a pottery studio in my home in Swannanoa and, several years later, was able to establish myself and my work here, in a 1600 square foot studio/gallery close by the French Broad River, that was the heart and soul of my life's work.

Now it seems that to continue with this work, I need to ask for your help.

To try and get things going we are setting our goal at $80,000 but in reality our expenses from the damage amount to $304,330.00 upon initial estimate. Below is everything we can see that has been destroyed. This is everything that made our business run, the biggest missing item of course is the gallery space itself we do not yet know if this building can function again in time or if we will have to find somewhere else.

Our life is completely turned upside down now and ... we are the lucky ones. We have neighbors who have lost everything. We will be helping each other locally as a community while we all reach out to our larger community and ask for help. We would be so grateful for any assistance in getting our life and work back on track. Every bit helps and I hope to be bringing you more work and pots and workshops soon.

With immense gratitude,

Akira Satake

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An itemized list of losses:

• 2 Shimpo pottery wheel $3500
• Skutt Kiln $6000
• Furnitures $18000
• Video and camera equipment $5000
• Pottery $30000
• Sculpture $38000
• Greenware (in fired pots) $3000
• Clay $3000
• Canceled workshop $36000
• Next three months of gallery sales $75000
• Packing materials $1200
• Office tools $3500
• Square processor for credit card $300
• TV $300
• Pottery tools small $2800
• slab roller, $2500
• Banding wheels x 22 $680
• Rolling pins x22 $400
• Carpenter tools $4000
• Paintings $8000
• Refrigerator $600
• Ware carts x11 $10000
• Shipping station $1800
• Wooden boxes from Japan $5000
• Payment to my employees for next 3 month $30000
• Cleaning expenses $5000
• Lighting $3000
• Music station $650
• Office supplies $ 1200
• Hot water dispenser $1200
• Kitchen equipment and supplies $2500
• Signs $800
• Business cards, club cards, $1400

Total $304,330.00