THE TIES THAT BIND ASHEVILLE (2025)
OVERVIEW
The Ties That Bind Asheville is a durational, participatory public art project that began at the Community Gathering of Grief & Joy on May 18, 2025, curated by Kristen Idhe of Enspiraré. The project invites participants to tie fabric strips onto fences, mesh forms, or mobile frames, creating a collective installation that embodies grief, joy, memory, and care.
From its initial debut on a River Arts District fence, the project has expanded into a modular, citywide practice of connection. Activations have taken place at Warren Wilson College’s Environmental Summit, Local Cloth, and Allon Health & Wellness, with additional mailbox-style stations designed for ease of collective participation.
OBJECTIVES
Provide an accessible, hands-on ritual for processing grief, joy, and memory.
Create a durational, evolving artwork that grows across multiple sites while remaining unified.
Test modular formats (fences, mesh forms, portable frames, mailbox stations) that can be adapted to civic, health, and community settings.
Demonstrate how participatory art can foster resilience and social cohesion in the aftermath of collective disruption (e.g., Hurricane Helene).
PROCESS
Launch Event: The project began during the Community Gathering of Grief & Joy in Asheville’s River Arts District, where community members tied strips of fabric onto a chain-link fence.
Modular Expansion: Strips were later collected through mesh forms at Local Cloth events, a transportable frame passed among participants at Warren Wilson College’s Environmental Summit (during the launch of Thrive Asheville’s recovery research), and a lobby display at Allon Health & Wellness.
Neighborhood Access: To extend access beyond events, mailbox-style strip stations were designed and painted, allowing residents easily reach in, pull out a strip, and attach to the installation
Unification: Strips gathered across sites are periodically transferred back to the primary River Arts District fence, keeping the work visually and symbolically connected across locations.
OUTCOMES
Established a recognizable public ritual rooted in simple, repeatable gestures.
Activated diverse environments: an arts collective, an academic summit, a healthcare lobby, and neighborhood entry points.
Demonstrated the portability of participatory methods, with structures that can be passed, displayed, or installed flexibly.
Strengthened community partnerships across Asheville’s arts, academic, and health ecosystems.
IMPACT
Emotional Processing: Offers a low-barrier, tactile way for participants to externalize grief, celebrate joy, or record memory.
Social Cohesion: Encourages collective visibility, making private emotions part of a shared narrative.
Civic Adaptability: Proved effective across public, civic, and health contexts, demonstrating replicability for other communities.
Durational Growth: Evolved from a single-day event into an ongoing practice that residents and organizations continue to build together.
PARTNERS
Enspiraré / Kristen Idhe — Provided initial public context for The Ties That Bind Asheville through her curated community gathering.
ArtPlay Studios / Kristen Edge — Connector; facilitated initial introduction and partnership
Warren Wilson College Climate Summit / Thrive Asheville / Ryan Smolar — Partner for transportable frame activation
Local Cloth — Host for offsite, temporary environmental activations
Nadja Simon at Allon Health & Wellness — Host for lobby display allowing reflective participation for clients
5/18/25 – Day 0: At the 2nd Annual Community Gathering of Grief and Joy, curator Kristen Idhe (far left) guided participants through a series of ritual moments, interacting with the landscape along Riverside Drive.
5/18/25 – Day 0: Kristen invited Emily Clanton to facilitate the tying of cotton fabric strips to the fence — each representing participants’ wishes and worries.
6/21/25 – Day 34: Emily presented a mobile activation during Summit: Collaboration for Climate Action at Warren Wilson College, inviting audience members to contribute fabric strips just before Ryan Smolar (holding the microphone at front of room, on behalf of Thrive Asheville) debuted the post-Helene research document, "Lessons for the Recovery."
9/13/25 – Day 118: Visitors interacted with a temporary environmental activation at Local Cloth during RAD Resilience, celebrating the River Arts District’s recovery following Tropical Storm Helene in Asheville, NC.
9/29/25 – Day 134: Detail view of the fence installation showing fabric strips, signage, and a hand-painted mailbox that allows passersby to select and contribute repurposed cotton strips.