Handmade in America

ISSUE AREA: JOBS

City: Asheville, NC
Arts - Economic Development - Rural

Contact:
Becky Anderson
Director
Handmade in America
67 North Market Street, P.O. Box 2089
Asheville, NC 28802
(704) 252-0121
beckyanderson@handmadeinamerica.org

Date Published: October 2006

Handmade in America was created in 1993 through the initiative of some residents of Western North Carolina who were seeking solutions to economic development and renewal in the area that made use of local artistic expression. Realizing the strength and assets that lay in the craftsmen community of the area, they decided to invest their efforts into promoting the talents of their local citizens, rather than trying to recruit new investments and businesses to their area. Over six months, Handmade brought together more than three hundred and sixty citizens to participate in a regional planning process. Their focus was how to make Western North Carolina the center of handmade objects in the nation.

The result of their collaboration was a set of goals aimed at creating long-term regional growth through the handmade industry while at the same time defining Western North Carolina as a center of regional artistry. Each goal was supported by a number of action-oriented strategies to maintain rural quality of life, provide business and financial support for craftspeople, and reinforce a positive image of the region’s craft culture through public relations and education.

Handmade in America consists of craftspeople, community leaders, educators, and business people. The organization works on projects in collaboration with local governments, educational institutions, craft-related organizations, and community groups. Its goal is to use the cultural assets and heritage of residents in the area to build community.

One of its many programs includes the implementation of an Economic Survey of crafts in Western North Carolina with Appalachian State University. The publication of Handmade’s trail guidebook in the spring of 1996 represented the birth of a craft heritage trail system across twenty-one counties which was funded by federal, state, and private grants.

Handmade is developing a Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design with the University of North Carolina Board of Governors in order to incorporate crafts into the University’s curriculum and to serve as archival space for regional craft institutions. The organization is also developing a Crafts Registry with Haywood Community College and working with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Self-Help Credit Union to establish a Loan Fund. With the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, Handmade is helping art-focused schools integrate crafts into the fabric of their courses. With the help of a philanthropic grant, Handmade is serving as a facilitator in the revitalization of six small towns in Western North Carolina - Andrews, Bakersville, Chimney Rock, Mars Hill, Robbinsville and West Jefferson.

Handmade’s most recent undertaking is a partnership with Mountain Housing Opportunities, an Asheville-based Community Development Corporation to revitalize the West End/Clingman Avenue neighborhood in Asheville. West End/Clingman Avenue is one of Asheville’s oldest neighborhoods, and after experiencing a period of decline throughout the past century, it is now going through a renaissance of revitalization with the renovation of residences and the construction of new housing and buildings in the area.

Handmade’s goal in this project is to use the arts and cultural assets of the community to further improve the area and to use arts-based strategies to change the neighborhood’s identity. The strategies include creating an oral-history project on the area, initiating a neighborhood-wide festival, installing public arts displays in public places, and supporting the crafts industry in the neighborhood. Though Handmade has had much success in securing funding and in furthering its support and revitalization programs, it still faces obstacles. These roadblocks include the decentralized dispersal of craft artisans throughout the Western North Carolina Region, and the lack of suitable land for development of any kind.

Handmade in America received some initial funding in 1993 from a three-year organizational development grant from the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. It also receives funding from various public and private sources, including the North Carolina Community Development Initiative and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2004, Handmade in America was selected as one of 12 organizations nationwide to receive a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support its community transformation work in the West End/Clingman Avenue neighborhood.

Resources:

www.handmadeinamerica.org