Arts AVL Director Katie Cornell spoke to the community of artists recently about what Arts AVL is doing to help our arts community recover from Hurricane Helene.
Katie said there are over 1,100 arts businesses in the WNC area affected by Helene. Of those, 483 are in Buncombe County. She said that “one thing after another has hit our arts businesses,” citing high cost of living, still-lingering impacts of COVID, the election slowing disaster relief aid, a slow tourism season before we lost the last quarter of the year, and massive regional job loss.
She said that despite these challenges “good things are happening and coming in arts recovery.” In the immediate aftermath of Helene, Arts AVL launched a needs-assessment survey to hear from the community. The biggest need was heard loud and clear: money for bills and food. They launched an arts relief grant and were able to award 1,500 artist grants! They went on to partner with organizations both local and national to bring attention to our artists’ needs, even visiting Washington to talk about arts recovery. And Arts AVL is not done. They currently have open applications for new grants through March 14, with further plans to offer more. They have also developed a Connections Campaign to promote four major art hubs of WNC: downtown Asheville, the RAD, downtown Black Mountain, and downtown Weaverville.
Hear Katie’s entire presentation featured in the AFM News Hour archive.