Resilience After Disaster: The National Endowment for the Arts Visits Western North Carolina

Following a major natural disaster, artists, culture bearers, and arts and cultural organizations are some of the most vulnerable populations, often encountering difficulties accessing relief funds and services. The National Endowment for the Arts has a long history of supporting communities following disasters and continues to look for ways the agency can support arts organizations with both preparedness and recovery.

For its recent National Council on the Arts meeting, the Arts Endowment visited Western North Carolina, an area known for being an arts hub. Before Hurricane Helene hit in September 2024, the creative economy in that region generated $3.1 billion in annual sales and supported more than 34,000 jobs (source: Arts AVL). Following the storm, there were widespread impacts, from the destruction of studios and galleries to disruptions in operations (such as access to supplies or loss of artwork ), and a decline in tourism and foot traffic.

In addition to providing funding through the North Carolina Arts Council to support recovery activities, National Endowment for the Artsour agency’s staff also worked with our federal partners to help catalogue damages, outline recovery needs, and develop short and long-term recovery goals for the creative sector.

This visit to Western North Carolina was an opportunity to further explore and spread awareness about the impact of natural disasters on the arts sector as well as how the arts can be incorporated into recovery and revitalization efforts, strengthening local economies, and supporting the health and well-being of impacted individuals and communities.  The Arts Endowment will continue to add new resources for arts organizations on its website at arts.gov/ReadinessAndRecovery. 

Marshall, North Carolina

Marshall, North Carolina, is an area identified by the federal Natural and Cultural Resources Recovery Support Function as one of the hardest hit towns in all of Western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene. The council’s visit to Marshall explored the significant impact of the flooding, as well as how the town is rebuilding in ways to bolster their role as a hub of arts and culture activity in the area.   

On a ten-acre island in the French Broad River, Marshall High Studios is home to 26 artist studios. A former school, the building was under water for 30 hours from Hurricane Helene. Volunteers, including the studio artists and residents, worked to restore and rebuild. Today, all of the artist studios are reopened. 

At Zadie’s Market in Marshall, 2013 National Heritage Fellow Sheila Kay Adams and her niece Donna Ray Norton—7th & 8th generation ballad singers—talked about the tradition of ballad singing in Western North Carolina and shared some of the songs they perform at a monthly ballad swap held at the Old Marshall Jail. Following Hurricane Helene, they traveled to perform and help bring attention to the ongoing needs and rebuilding efforts in Western North Carolina. 

Madison County Arts Council is a hub for much of arts/culture activity in Madison and surrounding counties. The arts council’s building took on more than six feet of water during Hurricane Helene and had to relocate its programming. As part of their rebuilding, they upgraded their space by adding an elevator and wheelchair lift among other improvements to be able to better serve their community. 

National Council on the Arts Public Meeting—Asheville, NC

At the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville, the National Endowment for the Arts held its National Council on the Arts Public Meeting. It has been a priority of Chairman Carter to bring the council to places around the country.  “I believe it is critically important for us to get out of the meeting room and spend time in the communities to see art in action—to witness first-hand how the investment in art is an investment in our communities and in this case how art can help a community and its people recovery from disaster.”  

Mayor of Asheville Esther Manheimer shared the importance of the arts to the region and her own life: “I have appreciated so much what role the arts has played in my life, and I know for many of you the arts is woven into your lives as well. The arts are not just a part of Asheville and Western North Carolina's identity. They are a key part of our economy and a critical part of our recovery, supporting small businesses, artists, and the vitality of this region. They also play a vital role in helping people reconnect, process, and heal in the aftermath of trauma. And I know art was very important for us in our recovery from Helene and remains so today.” 

Eleanor Billington, who leads the Arts Endowment’s disaster readiness and response work, led a discussion about the importance of partnerships, both before and after disasters occur. Joining her was Vicki Vitiello, deputy director of the North Carolina Arts Council, Katie Cornell, executive director of the local arts agency ArtsAVL, and Jamie Karolich, artist and program director for Craft Your Commerce, a program of Mountain BizWorks. To close the conversation, Billington asked the panelists for a takeaway on the working in disaster recovery in the arts sector. "The collaboration and the connectivity was crucial for us to stay on the same page," said Karolich, "And make sure that we were a united front serving our creative community and not a fractured ecosystem." 

Following this panel, students from two local elementary schools took to the stage, along with artists in residence Adama Dembele and Melissa McKinney, demonstrating LEAF Global Arts' Schools and Streets program. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Schools and Streets program provides artist residencies in schools, in after-school programs, and workshops within the community. Hurricane Helene forced the cancellation of LEAF’s Fall Festival in 2024. Part of LEAF’s work today is to explore the critical role of arts, nature, and traditions in restoring balance and fostering recovery in times of hardship, such as in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

While the first panel conversation spoke in depth about the economic impact of disasters, the last conversation spoke about the emotional toll that can be experienced following a disaster. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces program seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. Following Hurricane Helene, the NEA explored how Creative Forces could support programming to promote healing and reduce stress for veterans affected by the storm. Working with the Veterans Healing Farm in Mills River, North Carolina, Creative Forces supported Clay & Camaraderie, which began as a couple of six-week pottery workshops. Al Yeck, executive director of the Veterans Healing Farm shared what one veteran told him about his experience with the program: "What this veteran told me is they will go in to the pottery studio and the workshop is two hours and he says it goes by in five minutes because his mind is involved with the clay and it's not thinking about time. It's not thinking about what happened, what could happen. It's thinking about the clay." 

To end the meeting, LEAF Global Arts returned to the stage with students from both schools singing and dancing, bringing the Arts Endowment's visit to North Carolina to a celebratory close.