What arts activities have you attended, participated in, or supported in the last year? (check all that apply) Is there anything else you would like to share about your recent arts activities? (optional)

Music, Theatre, Visual Arts
One of the reasons I choose to continue to call Asheville home is our arts scene. It’s what gives Asheville not just character but soul. One of the great joys of emerging out of Covid is the return of our great arts culture, but sustaining an arts scene of our caliber requires investment.

BACKGROUND | The City currently supports the arts through facilities like Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (more about this below), programming through the Parks & Recreation Department, grants like the Event Support Grant (in partnership with ArtsAVL), and the Public Art Program. However, all of these services are failing to reach their full potential due to funding shortages for things like maintenance, operations, and staffing,

Asheville does have a 1% for the arts policy that provides some support for public art from qualifying Capital Improvement Projects (CIP)– this does not generate a lot of funding. However, it is also common for cities to have additional dedicated funding streams for arts and culture like a Food and Beverage Tax. For example, Wake County currently has a countywide 1% Prepared Food and Beverage tax which supports arts, culture, sports and convention facilities in Wake County. Similar local taxes are also in place in Dare, Cumberland, and Mecklenburg Counties, as well as in the Town of Hillsborough.

Would you support a local food and beverage tax to provide additional funding for the City’s arts and cultural services? Is there anything else you would like to share about City arts funding?

Undecided
I am an advocate for more public funding of the arts. The arts are both about quality of life as well as community and economic development. Asheville has one of the largest populations of professional artists in the country outside of the big cities. It is important that the city supports the arts and most importantly, our artist neighbors.

Our need to support our artist neighbors ,as well as the arts, causes me to pause about committing to a one percent food and beverage sales tax for the arts. It would be irresponsible of me at this time without a full review of the city’s current budget and a better understanding for how the city will support other large priorities such as affordable housing. I think it is an idea very much worth exploring. I would not, however, favor any changes to sales taxes that are not county-wide. It would be unfair to businesses within Asheville or the other municipalities if the total cost for customers varied depending where they were eating or drinking in Buncombe County. “

BACKGROUND | A report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that Asheville is more expensive than 98% of other North Carolina cities, and rents have risen 41.7% since 2020, making it the most expensive place to rent in the state. In fact, a recent Asheville Citizen Times article showed that fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Asheville has risen 78% since 2019. Meanwhile, the hourly wage has not risen to meet the living wage, reported by Just Economics as $22.10/hour in Buncombe County. This is having a devastating impact on the local creative community, forcing more arts professionals to move their residences and businesses outside of Asheville and even Buncombe County.

Affordability was identified as a problem back when rents 40-80% cheaper. The 2018 Arts Market Study showed the majority of artists (86%) and arts organizations (78%) identifying a need for affordable artist housing and/or studio space– 424 responded that they considered leaving Asheville due to cost of living. The report also identified the City’s “Ice House” property on Riverside Drive in the River Arts District as an ideal location for multiple use live/work development for artists.

ArtsAVL is currently conducting a Creative Spaces study that builds on this previous report from 2018, with the final report expected out in May 2024. Learn more at artsavl.org/spaces.

Would you support an initiative to create affordable artist housing and/or studio space in the River Arts District? Is there anything else you would like to share about City support for affordable artist live/work spaces?

Strongly Agree
Because our city is not prepared to serve as the builder or manager of housing, I am inclined to propose that the city serve as the owner of affordable properties and partner with skilled developers and property managers for construction and operations of affordable artist housing and studio space.

BACKGROUND | On July 5, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium closed its doors due to a massive failure of the HVAC system. In the short-term, that failure immediately resulted in scheduled shows being shifted to the ExploreAsheville.com Arena or other locations. In the longer-term, this current closure of Thomas Wolfe, even if it reopens in a limited capacity, is estimated to result in a loss of over $20 million for Asheville businesses.

At a work session on September 26th, Asheville City Council directed staff to explore two potential paths forward—both major redesigns of the historic space. Staff is expected to come back to Council with more fleshed out recommendations for renovation in early 2024.

You can find more information about the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium issue here.

Based on your knowledge of this issue and the information that is available, do you believe it is time for the City to finally address this issue by fully renovating or replacing Thomas Wolfe Auditorium? Is there anything else you would like to share about the renovation or replacement of Thomas Wolfe Auditorium?

Strongly Agree
The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium either needs to be fully renovated to become a modern performing arts venue or it needs to be replaced by a new performing arts venue in a different downtown location. We have gone past the point of a band-aid solution.

The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium is almost 100 years old. It was built in the 1930s as the city’s second auditorium in that location. When the arena was added in the 1970s, the city auditorium was encapsulated by the new building and renamed in honor of the famous Asheville author. Now, nearly a century later, the auditorium has outlived its usefulness. We don’t need an auditorium, we need a performing arts venue, and even if the HVAC were repaired it would still be a subpar venue.

Because the auditorium and arena are revenue generators there is a great opportunity to develop new business plans for both. If we built a new performing arts venue downtown on a different site what new purpose could the current space be used for? An expansion of the arena? A small conference center?

The city needs to move swiftly to address this issue, as it did recently with McCormick Field. Both assets are important to residents of the city, the county, and the region, as well as for the economic viability of downtown. 

BACKGROUND | A Business Improvement District (BID) is a specially designated area within a city or town where local property and business owners collaborate to enhance the economic and physical environment. BIDs are typically funded through a self-imposed tax or assessment on property owners within the district. The primary goal of a BID is to improve and promote the area, often through initiatives such as beautification, cleanliness, enhanced security, marketing, and events.

These districts are typically managed by a nonprofit organization or association (like the Asheville Downtown Association) that works closely with local government authorities and stakeholders. BIDs serve as engines for economic growth, helping local businesses thrive and contributing to the overall vitality and inclusivity of the neighborhood or downtown area they serve.

Downtown Asheville is the major arts and cultural hub for our region. Many arts organizations located in and/or presenting in downtown continue to be negatively impacted by safety and security issues facing our downtown. It is our hope that a BID could help address these challenges.

Based on your current understanding or prior knowledge of Business Improvement Districts, do you believe Downtown Asheville would benefit from the establishment of a BID? Is there anything else you would like to share about establishing a BID in Downtown Asheville?

Strongly Agree
As a downtown resident and downtown business owner, I support the BID. It is a well-tested tool for ensuring a safe, clean, and beautiful downtown. I’ve seen a BID in action in cities like Chattanooga, TN and Portland, MN, to great success. One of the key elements of a well-run business improvement district is having staff on the ground to address needs and develop relationships with the people who are our residents and our workers.

BACKGROUND | A cultural plan is a place-based planning process that generates a vision and action plan for strengthening and growing arts and culture assets. It provides an inventory of current assets, identifies maintenance and support needs, and highlights gaps and future opportunities for growth.

There has never been a cultural plan for Asheville or Buncombe County– even though we are widely known as a arts and cultural destination and our arts scene drives many people to want to live, work, and play in our community. As we hope you are seeing for the previous questions, our cultural community is being impacted by Asheville’s continued growth. It is important that we consider conducting some sort of cultural planning process to provide a roadmap to support this growth over time for the social and economic benefit of our community.

Would you support the creation of Asheville- Buncombe County’s first Cultural Plan to support the preservation of our cultural assets, and the equitable and sustainable growth of the creative sector? Is there anything else you would like to share about a Asheville-Buncombe cultural plan?

Undecided
As a city, we have so many plans and policies in place that we do not follow and that we do not update in a timely manner because we appear to not have enough staff time and overall time to dedicate to reviewing, re-engaging the public, making updates, adopting those updates, hiring enough staff to execute the plans, etc. Each plan requires hundreds if not thousands of hours from city employees, and countless hours from the public and stakeholder partners as people seek to engage, understand, and shape our community’s plans. I support the preservation of our cultural assets, and the equitable and sustainable growth of the creative sector, and similar to my response regarding the question gauging my current support for raising sales taxes, it would be irresponsible of me at this time to declare support for a new plan without a full review of the city’s current and multi-year plans, as well as a review of staffing for updating and actually implementing our current plans and policies.