Artists

Just so you know, while much recovery effort must be directed to homes and infrastructure and lives, the Arts Community as a whole works a recovery effort for this disaster, just as was done to recovery the creative industries from Covid shutdowns, in a very organized manner.
All Art Council directors in the western counties have worked collaboratively for decades, and in this time of crisis are meeting weekly, to help each other, and our meetings include North Carolina Art Council senior staff (including the state's Executive Director) and other officials such as the Director of the advocacy group ArtsNC. Top level arts leaders have already met with groups of funding agency leaders who are devoted to helping the Arts Communities of western NC recover and reestablish themselves. The western area Art Councils are already sharing resources to assist those of our colleagues who have been most impacted. We all know that The Arts are seriously important, both for quality of life and literally for the economy of our Appalachian towns and rural residents.
WNC Arts members (western NC Art Council directors), all know each other. We know who has power or water or mud in their gallery or who works right now in spite of having lost their own home.
The Arts will recover. Both the organizations and the individual working artists. The North Carolina Arts Council and 23 Art Council leaders in the western counties will make sure of that.