Artists Scramble to Rescue Works After Queens Building Fire
Linda Ganjian worked to salvage pieces from water damage after a blaze erupted in the Long Island City building where she and Ilan Averbach had studios.
A fire that broke out in Long Island City on Monday left two Queens artists scrambling to rescue decades of work and look for new studios.
Linda Ganjian spent much of the day inspecting and salvaging 20 years of sculptures and mixed-media works from water damage after a fire erupted in the two-story loft at 10-15 48th Avenue where she and sculptor Ilan Averbach had studios, she said.
Known for making intricate table-top sculptures that play with West African and American craft traditions and for her murals in JFK Terminals 4 and 8, Ganjian stored many of her works in cardboard crates in her first-floor workspace. She did not notice any smoke damage but worried about mold that could form, since she could not retrieve the works once the city cleared out the building.
“Some of them got wet, but so far the work is mainly ok,” Ganjian told Hyperallergic. “I lost a collage, and there was some fixable water damage on a couple others.”
Firefighters received a call at 8:46 am on June 8 about the three-alarm blaze that started on the top floor of the artist-in-residence loft building in the Hunters Point section of LIC.
Three firefighters were sent to local hospitals after battling the flames, which they contained in just over two hours, according to FDNY officials. There were no other injuries. The cause remains under investigation, they said.
Building inspectors found multiple rooms with opened and exposed ceilings, multiple windows missing, and extensive charring throughout the second floor, and issued a full vacate order for the property, a Department of Buildings spokesman said.
Officials also required the owner to install a sidewalk shed after finding a section of corning hanging loose and said they would coordinate with tenants to allow them to retrieve their belongings once another inspection determines the building is safe, but did not offer a timeline.
For now, Ganjian has been packing and following up on leads for a new studio and storage space after posting the request on her Instagram page. (Averbach did not respond to a request by press time.)
“The stressful part is having to vacate the studio ASAP and find another space to put everything,” she said. “They will probably have to do a gut renovation because of mold, so it’s uncertain when or if we’ll be back in.”
The incident comes less than a year after a massive blaze tore through one of Brooklyn’s most iconic artist studio buildings in Red Hook, leaving tenants with persistent water and fire damage to their work.
