The 2023 North Carolina Arts Council Heritage Award recipients are muralist Cornelio Campos, white-oak basket maker Neal Thomas, Southern gospel and bluegrass musician Rhonda Gouge, champion old-time fiddler Richard Bowman, and Cherokee white-oak basket maker Louise Goings and her husband, the carver Butch Goings. Recipients are nominated by their communities and selected through a panel process.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists across the state for their contributions to the cultural life of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council has announced that six artists will receive a Heritage Award on May 31, 2023, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. Details and tickets are available on the Heritage Award event page.

“North Carolina’s traditional arts continue to reflect a unique sense of place and lived experiences of our diverse people,” Governor Cooper said. “I congratulate the 2023 recipients of the Heritage Award for their individual artistic accomplishments and for their commitments to the cultural life of our communities small and large, rural and urban.”

Hispanic Heritage Month is a national celebration that runs from September 15–October 15 and honors the history, culture, and influences of past generations that came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The North Carolina Arts Council is committed to uplifting and supporting the inclusion of North Carolina's diverse Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx communities and their equitable access to resources. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we shone a spotlight on the talented Hispanic/Latinx artists who help to make our state’s arts community dynamic. Meet Afro-Latino Artist José Manuel Cruz, and Meet Hip Hop And Breakdance Instructor José Velasquez.         

The North Carolina Arts Council mourns the loss of its former executive director, Halsey Miller North, who died at age 75, on September 17 in Media, Pa. He was the first person in the United States to receive an MBA in Performing Arts Management and became an early advocate of employing the arts to strengthen community economic development and cultural equity. For more than 40 years, Halsey helped nonprofit theaters, performing arts centers, arts councils, and museums across the country with fundraising feasibility studies, capital and endowment campaigns, annual operating campaigns, strategic planning, board development and retreats, cultural planning, business plans, and workshops on fundraising, board development, and planning. He served as executive director of the North Carolina Arts Council from 1974–1976.

Halsey was also the executive director of the Charlotte Arts & Science Council and the Cultural Council Foundation, in New York City. He was the director of corporate contributions at Philip Morris Companies.
Over the years, Halsey was honored with many awards for the performing arts highlighting his outstanding service, creative thinking, and leadership. He was particularly gratified that his efforts contributed to the restoration and strengthening of more than 57 historic theaters, 28 performing arts centers, 53 community arts organizations, and more than 40 arts service organizations. He and his wife, Alice, raised hundreds of millions of dollars in ways that made each organization more creative, capable, and sustainable.

Our state poet laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, continues her focus on youth programming in efforts to support both literacy and civic engagement across North Carolina through poetry and the literary arts. As part of these efforts, Ms. Green has partnered with Kelly Jones, the arts education coordinator for Columbus County Schools, to develop a pilot program to install young poet laureates at Columbus County’s four high schools. In March 2022, four youth poet laureates were appointed: Leah Dew, Abigail McPherson, Allyena Roberts, and Justin Wellons.

Students interested in being named to the post participated in several poetry workshops that Green led, submitted their applications, and received cocurricular and extracurricular support from teachers and staff at their respective schools.

To celebrate the new Columbus County high school poet laureates, First Lady Kristin Cooper hosted a small reception at the Executive Mansion on October 11. Governor Cooper and Fred Joiner, the poet laureate of Carrboro, attended. The students read selected poems and were presented with a small gift basket and a letter of recognition from the first lady and governor. “The arts and humanities are an important part of our lives every day—they connect cultures, promote well-being, address inequities, and make North Carolinians stronger in many ways. I want to encourage you to continue writing and reading, as mastering those two skills will allow you to follow any career path your heart desires,” the first lady said while honoring the students. This event commemorates the significance of the first poet laureate-initiated effort to create high school poet laureateships across the state. The event was sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Foundation.

• November 1: Application deadline extended for the South Arts Southern Prize/State Fellowships
   
• November 1: Nomination deadline for Yamaha “40 Under 40” recognition
   
• November 3–4: Creative Placemaking Summit, in Chapel Hill
   
• November 7–8: N.C. Presenters Fall Spotlight Conference, in Greensboro
   
• November 12–13: Tenth annual Outer Banks veterans writer’s workshop
   
• November 18–20: N.C. Writers’ Network Conference, in Wilmington