Seventeen Buncombe County Artists Receive 2024-25 Artist Support Grant
$38,000+ awarded to local artists for projects across disciplines
January 22, 2025 | ArtsAVL is excited to announce that 17 Buncombe County residents are recipients of the 2024-25 Artist Support Grant. Buncombe County grantees received $38,696 for projects in disciplines including literary arts, music, fiber arts, acting, glasswork, and more. Twenty-two grantees in total were awarded up to $3,000 each across six counties designated as Region 17 by the North Carolina Arts Council: Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Rutherford, Polk, and Transylvania.
Awarded to artists across the State of North Carolina, the Artist Support Grant supports the professional and artistic development of emerging, midcareer, and established artists. Awards may fund the completion and presentation of new work (including time to create), career promotion, training, and travel. Region 17 had a total of $44,000 to award.
Writer Ashley Capps will use her award to allow a month of uninterrupted time to work on her second book of poems, a deathwork book, and to take a death doula training that will crucially inform it.
Rocky Collin (Raquel Willand) will produce a portion of her debut album, “Shameover,” a 9-track concept album exploring self-esteem and relationships. Grant funds would cover the cost of production for creating the instrumentation, recording vocals, mixing, and mastering three songs.
Glass artist Michael Hatch will build a small electric glass kiln/furnace. Specifically the funds will be used to buy materials and pay a metal fabricator to make the frame and outer shell of the furnace, decreasing the environmental impact of his studio.
Haley Jelinek will purchase a full set of electroplated diamond grinding discs for a Flat Lapidary Grinder to accompany a piece of essential equipment that she currently owns; allowing her to complete all glass projects in her own studio.
Catherine Kaleel will apply her grant to painting materials, including paint, polytab, primer, gel, and varnish. Using the Polytab method allows her to create murals in her studio, shielded from weather and location constraints.
Jazz vocalist Meschiya Lake will produce her genre shifting debut solo album in collaboration with all local artists.
Interdisciplinary artist Constance Lombardo will use her award to produce a comic-style zine about her experience as a woman over 50 navigating the world of online dating. As an author/illustrator typically publishing children’s books, Lombardo said, “It’s exciting to branch out into a new genre. I love how zines occupy a kind of outsider status in the publishing world. They’re raw and fresh, and I hope to contribute meaningfully with Please Be Small: Adventures in Online Dating. And I’m very grateful for the Artist Support Grant for helping me do so!”
Jasmin Pittman (Morrell) will build a website that compiles her work as writer, curator, and mentor, and serves as a platform for her workshops. She shared, “I’m grateful and honored to be awarded an artist support grant to build a website that will serve as my online home. My writing work centers themes of identity, race, spirituality, and belonging in the U.S. American South and yet, I don’t have my own digital, welcoming ‘front porch,’ so to speak. Having my own website will be a wonderful next step in my career!”
Bilingual storyteller Carolina Quiroga will participate in the “Creative Facilitator Training,” an interactive certification program offered at Story Parlor. It is designed to empower individuals to create and facilitate unique experiences rooted in the intersection of the creative process, personal stories, and the human condition.
Juan Diego Reyes will produce a Living Archive, blending photography and participatory media, in collaboration with the Kame?ntsa?-Inga people of the Colombian Amazon. The grant funds will be allocated for travel expenses, including airfare to Colombia, local transportation within the country to project sites, as well as lodging and food during the project production phase.
Writer Alysia Sawchyn will complete research and travel for her forthcoming book, I Have This Thing for Flowers. Her book was recently acquired by Flatiron Press for publication in 2026.
Musician Joel Sullivan (aka Secret Agent 23 Skidoo) will record and release an album of funk and hip-hop for kids based on therapeutic concepts that help them heal from trauma and gain confidence. Grant funds will help fund project finishing, including vocal recording, mixing, and mastering.
Jude Stuecker, an artist specializing in surface design, will purchase a table-top LED exposure light box for making silk screens that are 20×24 inches. This will enable her to make professional-quality silk screens that are more reliable and larger than her current process allows.
Young adult novelist A. A. Vacharat will develop a cohesive and sustainable artist brand that effectively bridges her current art-focused identity with the serious, literary tone of her upcoming novel releasing in summer 2025. This brand project will help connect with the right audiences, drive pre-order sales, find avenues for thought leadership, and position her for future opportunities as a writer and artist.
Performing artist Jeremy Alexander McDonald Villarreal will develop his autobiographical piece, “Ethnically Ambiguous”, into a full one man show to be workshopped further and then produced for its own theatrical run in 2025. “I am incredibly grateful for the award,” shared Villarreal. “The grant will be the main funding towards turning the 45-minute, one-man show I wrote last year, into a full length production this year, and possibly tour in the future. This award provides me the opportunity to continue writing and developing my story.”
Musician Virtuous will create a music video project for one of her newest singles to help promote my album, allowing her to grow her audience. Funding will be put toward the shoot itself, including the videographer team, and promotion.
Weaver Emelie Weber Wade will purchase a sectional warp beam and related accessories to increase productivity, reduce physical labor, and reduce cost of final products. With this upgrade, she will be able to expand her creative output, making her work more sustainable and profitable over time.
ArtsAVL congratulates the 17 artists awarded in Buncombe County, and the 22 artists awarded in total across Region 17. Find more information about upcoming grants at artsavl.org/grants.