Members of the National Council on the Arts came to Asheville this week to talk about the importance of the arts in Hurricane Helene recovery.
The visit comes as federal funding for the arts is in a precarious position under President Donald Trump.
Wednesday’s meeting at Asheville’s Wortham Center was led by Mary Anne Carter, who chairs the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts. She said it’s important for the council to travel outside of Washington, D.C., for its meetings, which take place about three times a year.
“We need to witness firsthand how the investment in arts is an investment in the communities, and in this case, how art can help a community and its people recover from disaster,” Carter said.
She added that while there is still “a long, long road to recovery,” members of the council “have been inspired by the resilience, the community and the dedication that we have seen in the last three days” during their visit to Asheville and Marshall.
The National Council on the Arts advises the National Endowment for the Arts, which provides funding to arts programs nationwide.
Leaders from local and state organizations emphasized at Wednesday’s meeting how important the arts were in strengthening the economy and supporting the well-being of communities after Helene.
Katie Cornell, executive director of ArtsAVL, noted that the arts sector in western North Carolina created $3.1 billion in economic output and 34,000 jobs in 2024.
“We’re small but mighty. And we need to be able to tell that story,” Cornell said. She added that ArtsAVL was able to use the data it had gathered on the creative industry’s economic impact to secure $6.2 million for artists and arts businesses after Helene.
Vicki Vitiello, deputy director of the North Carolina Arts Council, said that western North Carolina’s wide range of cultural assets is “very much worth protecting.” Many of the region’s arts organizations, she noted, were already underfunded before Helene since grant money “tends to follow population size and budget size of an organization.”
“Because of that underinvestment, many of our arts organizations have not been able to build up reserves and therefore were operating in a fragile state even before the storm hit,” Vitiello said.
President Trump has named disaster recovery as one of his top priorities for NEA grantmaking. But at the same time, he’s called for eliminating the NEA entirely.
While Congress has rebuffed that request, hundreds of arts organizations across the country have still seen their grants terminated over the past year. The Trump administration has said those programs don’t align with its priorities.
Also speaking at Wednesday’s event was Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), who is facing a House Ethics Committee investigation for alleged inappropriate conduct toward two female staffers.
Neither Edwards nor the National Council on the Arts mentioned the inquiry during the event. Meanwhile, Edwards’s Democratic opponent, farmer Jamie Ager, is holding a rally in Asheville Thursday night.
