‘Every time I’ve moved, my work has changed radically,’ said the artist Robert Rauschenberg, who, after growing tired of living in New York in the 1960s, decided to buy a property in Captiva, Florida.

It sounds too good to be true, but the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s residency on Captiva welcomed 100 artists annually before Hurricane Ian flattened great swaths of Florida in 2022—and now, in ...