This summer's dangerous flash floods in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, and other areas of the Northeast US have caused widespread and historic destruction. This project will provide craft artists with much-needed additional emergency relief grants of $3,000 to aid affected craft artists with immediate financial support to restore their careers, safeguard their studios, and provide relief during this crisis.
The northeast is home to an artisan-rich population. In Vermont alone, CERF+ is aware of over 200 craft artists who live in the counties hardest fit by the July floods. Many of these artists lack the formal support of traditional employment, such as paid leave. Emergencies destroy their artwork, studios, materials, tools, and can lead to cancellations of craft shows, exhibitions, other means of conducting their practice.
Insurance payouts and FEMA assistance can take time. CERF+ turns its $3,000 emergency relief grants around swiftly to provide crucial assistance that enables craft artists to begin moving forward after an emergency.
CERF+ has seen the impact of funding on artists' ability to resume their practice. Artists who received funding after Tropical Storm Irene in the northeast are thriving today in part due to funding from CERF+. "CERF+ came to my aid in the first days after my home and studio in Vermont were ruined by flooding from Tropical Storm Irene. They were amazing and I couldn't have put my studio back together without them." Jeremy Ayers, Potter, Waterbury, VT