The NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund, organized by the North Carolina Arts Foundation, is providing assistance to artists and art organizations affected by Hurricane Helene.
Katie Murray is the director at the Orange County Arts Commission and has been promoting the NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund for the past 2 weeks.
“A lot of artists live out there [western North Carolina] because they're serious about trying to make a living through their art,” she said. “And Asheville has a lot of the spaces in place to enable them to do that. So, it's about supporting our community, but it's also strengthening our artists' communities wherever we are.”
Murray said that the commission raised money for local artists affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and has programs to help artists in the area specifically when disaster strikes. Regardless, supporting other communities in the state is just one way to continue promoting North Carolina arts, part of the Commission’s objective.
Executive Director of the NC Arts Foundation, Wayne Martin, said that the organization hopes to give 100% of their money raised directly to nonprofit art organizations and artists in the impacted areas. They hope to allow these people to use the funds to get their businesses back on their feet and do what they believe to be best for the art community as a whole.
Martin said that the foundation’s mission is to create public and private partnerships for arts education programs to increase the amount of people benefitting.
For the Relief Fund specifically, Martin said that the NC Arts Foundation has worked to partner with companies such as Arts North Carolina, a statewide advocacy group for the arts to push out information on this fund to people within the organizations, in North Carolina and beyond.
“It's quite dire from looking at the reports,” he said. “We can't communicate. They have no water, they have limited power. They have spotty cell phone service.”
Jessica Sands, executive director of Dare Arts in the Outer Banks, said that the studio has worked to promote the Relief Fund by having fundraisers and donating 100% of the money raised. The studio’s mission, she said, is to support arts and artists throughout the state.
