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Celebrating Black History Month
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The North Carolina Arts Council recognizes and honors the work of African American artists and arts organizations that shape our state’s culture. With Black History Month and the 2023–2024 grant application season coinciding, we celebrate some of the Black-led organizations that have received a grant from us recently. If you have a story you’d like us to share, please reach out to us.
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Grant application deadline is March 1
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The deadline for applications for the 2023–2024 grant cycle is March 1, 2023. Ahead of this deadline, North Carolina Arts Council program staff will host another week of virtual office hours, starting Monday, February 20. This is a great opportunity to get answers to your questions about your grant application. You can find the schedule for the week and register for a time to speak with a member of our staff on the Grant Application Resources & Assistance page of our website.
Important staff update: As of February 10, Theater and Literature Director Jeff Aguiar has left the Arts Council to serve as PlayMakers Repertory Company's Director of Engagement and Education. We wish Jeff all the best in his new creative endeavor!
If you have any questions about your grant application or award in these program areas, please direct them to Senior Program Director Dara Silver at dara.silver@ncdcr.gov. |
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LEAD Scholarship Grant Cohort Update
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Last year, the Arts Council awarded scholarships for the staff of 25 North Carolina arts organizations to attend the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference, in August. Since then, scholarship recipients have created a learning cohort and have met regularly to discuss strategies and share improvements they have made to ensure accessible arts experiences for all. We spotlight four of the organizations that participated in the cohort program on the Arts Across NC blog.
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A+ Schools of North Carolina welcomes three new schools who will enter the network following a five-day institute this summer. The addition of School of the Arts for Boys Academy (SABA), in Chatham County, N.C., and Martinez Elementary and Columbia Elementary, both in Colorado Springs, CO, will bring the number of A+ schools in North Carolina and across the nation to 79.
Are you interested in having your school join the nation’s longest-running and most successful arts-based whole-school transformation model? A+ Schools of North Carolina will host two informational meetings: on Tuesday, March 28, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., in Kannapolis, and on Thursday, March 30, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., in Raleigh. The deadline to register for one of these sessions is Monday, March 20.
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Folklife internship and apprenticeship opportunities
The Folklife and Arts Administration internship provides intensive, directed training and experience with the N.C. Arts Council's Folklife program and its statewide networks. This year the internship will take place for three months between May and September, in Raleigh. Applications are due on March 5.
The North Carolina In These Mountains Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship program supports 12-month apprenticeships in the folk and traditional arts of the many cultural communities within North Carolina’s Appalachian Regional Commission counties. Applications are due on April 2.
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- Longtime A+ Fellow Mimi Herman released a new novel, The Kudzu Queen, on January 10. It was featured in Deep South Magazine’s Fall/Winter Reading List and has been reviewed by fellow North Carolinians Jaki Shelton Green (N.C. Poet Laureate) and writer/humorist David Sedaris, among others. In addition to her time spent working with A+ Schools, Mimi was the 2017 Piedmont Laureate, is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and ran Poetry Out Loud for the N.C. Arts Council for several years. Congratulations, Mimi!
- Governor Roy Cooper and Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson unveiled North Carolina’s newest cultural trail, the Moonshine and Motorsports Trail, at an event at Rockingham Speedway on February 2. This new cultural trail was created as part of DNCR’s 2023 Year of the Trail initiative.
- Dasan Ahanu was appointed Piedmont Laureate in January. He is the second Black poet named to that post; the first was Jaki Shelton Green, in 2009. Jaki has been the state poet laureate since 2018. The Piedmont Laureate program is co-sponsored by the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, Durham Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission, and United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County.
- Rhiannon Giddens, multi-time Grammy Award winner, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and featured artist in the North Carolina Arts Council's 50 for 50 and Come Hear NC campaigns, brings her debut opera 'Omar' to Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill on February 25 and 26.
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