We first thought about ourselves in terms of economic development, but that quickly became community development. Civic change comes about from working with people's culture. Funding an Idea HandMade in America grew out of a 20-year strategic plan developed in 1994. Anderson, then with the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, was one of several principals whose ideas gave it shape. The area's craft community was undervalued, she says, and artists and business leaders initially eyed each other with mutual suspicion.
Economic considerations are important, of course.
HandMade's guidebook on the area's arts and crafts attractions. They also found that they were too small to hire professional planners or to participate in the North Carolina Main Street Program. In response, Anderson sought and secured support from the Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund and later from ARC for what would become the Rural Small Town Revitalization Project. The idea is cooperation, not competition. Almost half of the town's 800 households replied to a long opinion survey.