In order to explore the meaning, experience, and perception of art-making in hurricane-impacted communities, a regional, qualitative research study was conducted through a series of interviews with a diverse sample of community members from the Northwest Florida and Coastal Alabama area. This study explores the role of visual arts in post-hurricane recovery, looking specifically at community identity and the landscape of post-hurricane arts engagement.
This 20-minute presentation will present the findings of this research, with an emphasis on sharing the voices of those impacted by hurricanes in the area. Providing space and opportunity where disaster-impacted people can speak about their experiences is vitally important in supporting long-term recovery. The stories and experiences shared can include non-verbal or visual expression, as found in the creative arts. Engagement with the arts is shaped by, and supported by, the community members who comprise an area. This engagement can be particularly beneficial during repeated hurricane impacts, long recovery times, and compounding disaster events.
Participants were asked a series of both closed and open-ended interview questions relating to their role and connection to hurricane-impacted areas, the effect of the storm on their community, and their specific compounding circumstances in recovery. Questions also explored post-hurricane material culture and the participant’s connection to art-making, including social arts, professional arts, and virtual arts engagement. The participants of this research project found value in each area of arts engagement, even if it was not an area they typically engaged in. They identified several benefits regarding the use of arts in recovery: the capacity for self-expression, the ability to give voice to the voiceless or vulnerable, the ability to create beauty (which in turn may increase industry, joy, and wellbeing), the ability to create spaces for healing, as well as promoting empathy and understanding for the experience of hurricane impacts.
Overall, the arts can help to humanize the experience of hurricanes by acknowledging not only the disaster- impacted person with the context of their social and community identity, but also by centering their voices in recovery, so that stakeholders and policymakers can know not only about the immediate recovery needs, but the long term needs as well, helping to fund programs that provide dignity and empathy to the post-hurricane experience.
