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NEA panel in Asheville spotlights arts-led recovery after Hurricane Helene; partners cite $6.2 million deployed and local programs for artists and veterans
Summary
NEA staff and state and local partners described how long-standing county-level arts networks, rapid technical assistance and NEA-supported pilots such as Creative Forces helped communities recover after Hurricane Helene; partners said about $6.2 million has been mobilized for artists and arts businesses in the region.
A panel organized by the National Endowment for the Arts at its Asheville meeting examined how preexisting arts networks and partnerships supported recovery after Hurricane Helene and described direct support delivered to artists, arts businesses and veterans. Eleanor Billington, NEA civic partnerships manager and disaster-readiness portfolio lead, moderated the panel and urged 'let local lead' in recovery planning.
Vicky Vitiello, deputy director of the North Carolina Arts Council, described the state’s Grassroots Arts Program (created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1977) as a decades-old, county-level funding infrastructure that helped deliver rapid support and coordination across Western North Carolina. Vitiello said Western North Carolina spans roughly 26–28 counties and estimated a regional population in the vicinity of 900,000, noting that much of the arts sector in the region is composed of small organizations and individual artists with limited reserves prior to the storm.
Katie Cornell, executive director of ArtsAVL, stressed the importance of creative-economy data for advocacy and recovery planning. Cornell cited figures the panel used to justify aid: roughly $3.1 billion in economic impact across Western North Carolina’s 28 counties and approximately 34,000 arts-sector jobs in the state. She told the council that partners "have been able to secure $6,200,000 to get in the hands of artists and arts businesses across the region since the storm," and she added that continuous surveying and occupation-level data (BEA satellite accounts) help tell the creative-economy story.
Jamie Karalik of Mountain Biz Works described free, rapid technical assistance deployed to help artists apply for grants and pivot to e-commerce, and said Mountain Biz Works supplied grant-writing and relocation support plus pro bono mental-health resources for artists displaced or traumatized by the storm.
Speakers also discussed veterans-focused arts work. Sarah Kass, senior military medical advisor at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation (Creative Forces partner), and Al Yek, executive director of the Veterans Healing Farm, described a pilot adapting arts-therapy approaches for disaster-impacted populations and veterans. Yek outlined the farm’s family-based agri-therapy offerings, workshops and events, and reported operational outputs including donated produce and community-facing workshops.
Panelists closed by stressing collaboration, data, local leadership and long-term commitment as keys to resilient recovery work. NEA staff said they will publish case studies and toolkits on arts.gov to share lessons with other jurisdictions.
