Help Rebuild The Nation’s Only Chair Weaving School & Museum

Silver River Center for Chair Caning is the nation's only chair weaving school and museum. We lost our location due to flooding from Hurricane Helene, along with three-quarters of the shop and 80% of the neighborhood and community where it was located.

Miraculously, we have found a new location just a few months after the storm. We used to push against the lost art moniker, but now we see how quickly traditional craft can be lost or swept away.

We are looking to rebuild our chair nerd community in Weaverville and need help. Traditional government funds and grants have been few and far between; we have been denied by insurance and FEMA, and the SBA is out of money. Many grants we applied for are also out of money. It has been the kindness of the Chair Nerd community that has helped us through these few months, and we plan to rebuild our community and keep the craft alive.

We need new floor mats, worktables, tools, office furniture, a shop vac, and other equipment, and weaving materials. Also needed are the hidden expenses of marketing materials, website updates, signage, permits and other non-income generating activities and expenses.

We also need a couple of months to work on a major project that has been lingering since COVID. When the pandemic hit (just yesterday), we pivoted to learning video production so we could create an online school to generate income should something like this ever happen again. We created a growing YouTube following, learned video editing and streamlined the process. Now, after the second major crisis in 4 years, creating videos to upload to an online learning platform has moved from the back burner to a priority. We can share our craft with a larger audience and keep going when the next crisis hits.

Another priority is cataloging all of the chairs we saved and creating an online gallery. We want to send the museum chairs on tour to historic homes and small museums. We anticipate both projects taking 2 to 3 months. We have already contacted small museums and historic sites to host a traveling exhibit in the future.

These two projects will be a safeguard for our future and for the future of the traditional craft, which I hate to admit is on the tightrope for being a lost art. There is nothing like our school and museum in the country. And we are just two people sharing an income.

Please donate if you can, and share if funds are tight.

Thank you,

Brandy, Dave, and Rosie

See comments for our financial plan and images from our past classes, videos, and the damage to our museum and community in the River Arts District:

www.SilverRiverChairs.com

@SilverRiverChairs on YouTube & Instagram

@SilverRiverCenterforChairCaning on Facebook