Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Has Been Saved By 4 African-American New York Artists

With the help of four New York artists, a piece of Nina Simone’s legacy will been preserved forever.

 

The late and legendary singer’s North Carolina childhood home, located at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was purchased for $95,000 by a group of four black New York-based artists, according to FADER. Adam Pendleton, sculptor and painter Rashid Johnson, filmmaker Ellen Gallagher, and abstract painter Julie Mehretu, reports FADER.

The three-room house has been on the market since 2016, but the four artists decided to step in, describing the purchase as “an act of art but also of politics, a gratifying chance to respond to what they see as a deepening racial divide in America.” Without the artists stepping in, the home could have been demolished.

The three-room house went on the market in 2016 and could’ve been demolished without the artists’ intervention. While the group hasn’t laid out any specific plans for the property they did say that they want to honor Simone’s legacy,

“My feeling when I learned that this house existed was just an incredible urgency to make sure it didn’t go away,” Johnson said.

Pictures of the house, plus a 360-degree video of the interior, can be seen here.