A new Asheville-Buncombe Arts Recovery Framework calls for treating the arts as essential economic and community infrastructure as the region rebuilds from Tropical Storm Helene. The plan, the result of studies commissioned by ArtsAVL, says the storm exposed existing weaknesses, including fragmented funding, business support, public-art programs and cultural planning. Its 26 recommendations cover seven areas, including arts districts, public art, cultural facilities, creative industries and affordable live-and-work space.
Priorities include preserving creative workspace, expanding funding and business assistance for artists, strengthening the music and craft industries, and incorporating arts into public infrastructure and economic-development planning. The framework lays out a phased timeline: short-term actions over one to two years, expanding and formalizing programs and partnerships within three to five years, and integrating arts more broadly into planning and economic-development systems over six to 10 years or longer. No single organization is charged with carrying out the plan.
Pictured: Asheville Symphony Orchestra