In the wake of Hurricane Maria’s crushing devastation of Puerto Rico, leaving half the island without power and the official death toll rising, Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA PS1 and chief curator at large for the Museum of Modern Art, and Christopher Gregory, a Puerto Rican photojournalist based in New York, traveled together to see how artists were facing the challenges of a post-disaster island.

Through decades of economic hardship, and years of financial crisis, the art world in Puerto Rico has had to learn to survive during lean times through a new artistic “sharing” economy — sharing knowledge; resources; and access to infrastructure, materials and spaces. Might these artists now serve as an example — and catalyst — for other communities?

In Santurce, a district in San Juan, the visitors found Zilia Sánchez, 91, in the remnants of her studio where she had worked for nearly 50 years. Sunlight streamed through the jagged beams. There were no tarps to protect the roofless houses in her neighborhood, but Ms. Sánchez considered herself fortunate. Born in Havana in 1926, she settled here after years working abroad and is one of the most influential art teachers in Puerto Rico. Now her former students, including Jorge González, had come to help her rebuild her studio which she envisions with a protective concrete box around it, so she could continue to create the shaped paintings, suggesting female bodies, which look like ocean waves.