Last year, Nina Simone's childhood home was put on the market. The legendary singer was born in a 660-square-foot house in Tryon, North Carolina, and was in danger of being torn down after the man who’d been attempting to preserve it encountered financial trouble. However, thanks to four prominent artists including Highpoint Editions artist Julie Mehretu, the birthplace of the musical legend will continue to stand. Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher, and Julie Mehretu quietly pooled their money to purchase the home for $95,000, in the interest of keeping a key artifact in the histories of American music and civil rights alive. Mr. Pendleton said, “We don’t have a blueprint for our ideas yet, but I think sometimes artists are the best people to deal with really tricky questions — like, for instance, how to honor the legacy of someone as vital and complicated as Nina Simone,"
Julie Mehretu and other artists save Nina Simone's childhood home