The Center for Craft is reactivating the Craft Futures Fund grant program for emergency relief so that we may direct essential resources to support and care for the artists and community of Western North Carolina (WNC) in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
The first round of relief funding for $500 grants to artists is now closed. Please check back for details on the second round of recovery funding that will launch soon.
Photo Credit: David Huff Creative
Grant goals
Swiftly and efficiently provide emergency financial relief to regional craftspeople impacted by Hurricane Helene
Work collaboratively with local artists, arts organizations, and our wider craft community to ensure funds are stewarded efficiently where they are needed the most
Lead with care and revitalize the place we call home
Craft Futures Fund - WNC Emergency Relief offered one-time, unrestricted $500 grants to a broad range of individual craft artists, makers, creative manufacturers, or culture bearers working primarily in ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, metals, or wood.
This application is now closed.
Applicants must be:
Applicants cannot be:
For this grant, the Center for Craft understands craft to include work primarily in ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, metals, and wood.
This is a one-time, unrestricted grant. There are no reporting requirements. Grantees should put the funds toward their area of greatest need.
To protect the privacy of those selected for emergency relief during these sensitive times, the Center for Craft will not publish a list of grant recipients. We plan to share statistics representing how these funds were distributed and may share unattributed quotes pulled from applications.
Center for Craft staff will review applications for eligibility. Two separate staff members will review each application. Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis and are subject to approval and available funds. Eligibility requirements are listed below.
If we receive more applications than available funding, applications will be selected randomly. All applications that are not drawn will automatically be entered into the next round of review or drawing.
There are three ways to apply for these emergency relief funds:
ONLINE IN FORMSTACK:
Applicants may apply using Formstack. Once you submit your application, you will not be able to access your form again. Applicants will receive a confirmation email once the application form has been successfully submitted.
PHONE:
If you are unable to access a computer or reliable internet connection at this time, you are welcome to call the Center for Craft at 828-785-1357, and our staff will assist you over the phone in completing an application. If we do not answer at the time of your call, please leave a message, and your call will be returned as soon as possible.
IN-PERSON:
If you prefer to complete a paper form or talk to a Center for Craft staff member in person, we will have in-person application hours on Wednesdays from 10 am - 2 pm. Please note that the Center for Craft currently does not have running water and will be open only for grant application support during this time. The Center for Craft is located at 67 Broadway Street, Asheville, NC 28801. All downtown Asheville street parking and City of Asheville parking garages are free through November 1, 2024.
DEADLINE:
Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis from October 15 - November 12, 2024. We will re-evaluate based on need and funding availability.
NOTIFICATION:
Recipients will be notified of funding at the e-mail address listed on the application form. Please be sure that it is a valid account that you check regularly. If you are unable to check your email at this time and prefer a phone call or text, please indicate this on your application.
Relief funds will be distributed weekly.
SAMPLE APPLICATION
Cover Sheet
Application Questions
1. Please provide three sentences about your craft-based art practice.
2. Please provide your website address, social media handle, or professional resume.
If you are unable to provide one of the above, please call the Center for Craft for guidance (828)785-1357.
3. Which of the following have you experienced as a result of Hurricane Helene? (Select all that apply)some text
4. Is there anything else you would like to share about your needs during the relief and recovery process that may guide us in directing resources and attention over the coming months? (Optional)
Demographic Survey
Please note that the demographic survey data will only be used anonymously. Your participation in this survey helps us and our local and national funders understand who the Center for Craft is reaching so that we can continue to develop equitable and accessible programming. Completion of this survey will in no way affect your application. We require all applicants to complete this form; however, you may answer each question with the “ I prefer not to answer” option.
Are these relief funds only for craft artists?
We realize that the funding needed to rebuild the arts community in Western North Carolina is significant and that the efforts of the Craft Futures Fund will only begin to cover the loss that has occurred to our region. While this fund is only for craft-based visual artists (for example, people working in ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, metals, textiles, wood), other opportunities can be found at ArtsAVL.
Can collectives or craft organizations apply?
Phase 1 of the Craft Futures Fund - WNC Emergency Relief will focus on individuals. Each impacted individual from collectives or organizations is encouraged to apply separately. Phase 2 of the Craft Futures Fund - WNC Recovery will include both individuals and organizations. Individuals who are part of a collective or organization may apply for both a $500 Craft Futures Fund - WNC Emergency Relief grant and a $5,000 Craft Futures Fund - WNC Recovery grant.
If I am awarded, will I have to pay taxes on my award?
Internal Revenue Code section 139 provides that qualified disaster relief payments from any source are not taxable as income and are not subject to employment taxes or withholding.
The Center for Craft legally cannot provide tax advice. Please consult a tax expert for questions and clarifications.
What are the reporting requirements? Do I need to report on how I spend the money?
This is a one-time unrestricted grant. There are no reporting requirements. Grantees should put the funds toward their area of greatest immediate need.
How can I use the funds?
This is an unrestricted grant. Grantees should put the funds toward their area of greatest immediate need.
What if I used to live in WNC but am now displaced - am I still eligible?
Yes, you are still eligible. We recognize that many residents of Western North Carolina are currently displaced.
I just submitted my application, but I want to return to it and make an edit. Is this possible?
No, once your application is submitted you cannot return to the form or change any submitted information.
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I have a question that wasn’t answered. How can I reach the Center for Craft?
If you have any further questions, please contact grants@centerforcraft.org, or call 828-785-1357.
Nominating Partners
One of our guiding principles in designing the Craft Futures Fund - WNC Emergency Relief grants was to reduce barriers to funding. To that end, the Center for Craft partnered with regional organizations, studios, and collectives who nominated individuals within their networks for emergency relief. Thank you to our Nominating Partners!
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We are profoundly grateful for the overwhelming support from 229 contributors, who have graciously donated in excess of $359,000 to the fund, with a remarkable 84% being first-time donors to the Center for Craft.
And a heartfelt thank you to our six foundation partners for their substantial contributions totaling $825,000 to the fund, including the Windgate Foundation, The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, Craft Emergency Relief Fund, The Bresler Foundation, and Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
If you would like to help direct critical resources to the affected artists, please consider making a gift to the Craft Futures Fund.
Donate Now →
Process photo of assembly of Y-axis conveyor belt.
Rose Buttress
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$10,000
Rose Buttress is a self-trained machinist and programmer. Buttress’s research titled “FULL,” uses a novel design of fabric cutters to prefigure small batch garment fabrication efficiency with the goal of generating a new philosophy of inclusive design. Her research attempts to renegotiate the constraints on the industry through a methodology of developing new equipment that places the leading industrial mass production techniques and processes within small workspaces.
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Photo credit: Sean Carroll
Alexis Rosa Caldero
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$10,000
Alexis Rosa Caldero is a first generation Ecuadorian-American and Puerto Rican disentangling from the inherited experience of forced assimilation. Informed by experience with wood, education, and art direction, Caldero’s craft strives to evoke beauty, unearth story, and build connection. Their research, titled “Beyond Ergonomics: Furnishing Healing,” asks what studio furniture can learn from anti-racist, fat positive, body-centered activism. It proposes a hands-on analysis of how everyday furniture can play a role in one’s healing journey through somatic study and community building.
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Photo credit: Mary Kang
Dana Davenport
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$10,000
Dana Davenport is an interdisciplinary artist, who shifts between installation, sculpture, video, and performance. Within her practice, Davenport addresses the complexities that surround interminority racism as a foundation for envisioning her own and the collective futurity of Black and Asian peoples. Davenport's research titled “Dana's Beauty Supply: Research,” examines Black hair and hair care as a material that binds Black Americans and Korean Americans through the beauty supply industry, an industry that is overwhelmingly Korean-owned with a primarily Black customer base.
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Photo credit: Benjamin Weinberg
Emily Robison
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$10,000
Emily Robison is a textile artist whose work incorporates place and cultural experience. Building upon their work with byssus fiber, a textile fiber produced by clams and traditionally used throughout the Mediterranean, Robison will research 18th and 19th century published descriptions of byssus production and the feasibility of adapting these techniques to North American pen clams.
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Photographed by David Hunter Hale
Nastassja Swift
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$10,000
Nastassja Swift is a sculptural fiber artist, whose work exists figuratively in full or often fragmented forms that speak to geographical histories, womanhood, language and community. Swift’s needle felted portraits incorporate quilting, beading and other traditional and non-traditional materials morph into a form of storytelling that references the above themes. Swift’s research title “Hooded Figures: A History of Fashion and Power,”examines hoods across centuries, closely identifying the social and racial associations of the garment and how its symbolism has shifted over time. Using felting, quilting and beading, this research project will produce re-imagined images of Black subjects adorned in a hood.
Learn more67 Broadway St, Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 785-1357 | info@centerforcraft.org
Gallery Hours: Tues–Sat, 10–6 get more info
Gallery Hours: Closed — Reopening Fall 2019
