In preparation for this year’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disabilities (LEAD) Conference, we spoke with Jamie Katz Court, the Arts Council’s accessibility coordinator, and Eileen Bagnall, the executive director of Arts Access Inc, about what this year’s LEAD cohort can expect from the conference, what accessibility in the arts means, and why i…

**This episode is presented in both Spanish and English, as spoken directly by Cornelio Campos**In our final episode before the North Carolina Heritage Award ceremony, we speak with painter and muralist Cornelio Campos. Born in Cheran, in the highlands of Michoacan, Mexico, Cornelio grew up surrounded by the traditions of his indigenous Purépecha h…

**This episode is presented with translated voiceovers**In our final episode before the North Carolina Heritage Award ceremony, we speak with painter and muralist Cornelio Campos. Born in Cheran, in the highlands of Michoacan, Mexico, Cornelio grew up surrounded by the traditions of his indigenous Purépecha heritage. After years of migrant labor in…

Born in Ararat, Virginia, and residing in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Richard Bowman has lived his life on both sides of the state line. Richard was inspired to teach himself the fiddle the first time he heard Tommy Jarrell playing on the Merry Go Round, a long-running old-time music program on Mount Airy’s famed radio station, WPAQ. Fifty years la…

In this episode, we head West to the Qualla Boundary, the land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, where Luther “Butch” Goings and Lydia Louise Goings share a life of dedication to craft and culture.Butch was a student of the renowned carver Amanda Crowe, who received the North Carolina Heritage Award in the year 2000. Louise was taught by her…

This week we go to Bakersville, up in Mitchell County, where Rhonda Gouge has been teaching music since the 1970s. Steeped in the faith and traditions of the Toe River Valley, Rhonda’s life’s work has been to give the gift of music back to her community, her congregation, and the students who come from miles around to learn from her.Get more inform…

In this episode, we head to Wendell, NC, just east of Raleigh, where Neal Thomas has been making white oak baskets for more than half a century.Neal and his brothers learned to make traditional white oak baskets from a man in Johnston County named Herman Holder, but today he is one of very few basket makers left who still harvests his own wood from…

In episode one of this mini-series, Folklife Director Zoe Van Buren speaks with two former folklife directors for the North Carolina Arts Council, Wayne Martin and Sally Peterson, about the history of the Heritage Awards and why it’s so important to celebrate the culture that comes from the people of North Carolina.Get more information about the Ma…

As we wrap up this season, we introduce you to Piedmont Opera and Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center--- two arts organizations that had contrasting experiences during the pandemic. One was forced to shut down almost completely because of its location and the vulnerable aging population it serves, while the other was the only opera company in NC to…

What do ArtsTogether in Raleigh and DREAMs center for arts education in Wilmington have in common? Besides being amazing safe spaces where young people can thrive, the two arts organizations are committed to serving disadvantaged communities. In this episode, we speak with Nikki Turner, dance instructor and preschool teacher at Arts Together, and L…

Beyond the material struggles artists and arts organizations have faced over the last two years, there was also an ever-present and less explored existential struggle. Being an artist, specifically a teaching artist, isn’t just a career. It’s an identity. And when you can’t do the job that makes you who you are anymore, well, who are you?In this ep…

In 2019, Laura Way became the president and CEO of ArtsGreensboro, one of our state’s local arts councils, and immediately began implementing changes. North Carolina has one of the most highly developed networks of local arts councils in the country. For over half a century, we have provided funding and technical assistance to encourage arts organi…

Hailing from New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz, husband and wife duo Lonnie and Ocie Davis relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina after the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina dislocated them. With no intentions of starting an arts non-profit, when they arrived in Charlotte, the two Jazz musicians saw an opportunity to curate a thriving Jazz …

During the pandemic, performance venues and organizations were stuck on hold, hoping for a sign of normalcy that would allow for live audiences and actors on stage once again. In March of 2020, like many theaters across the United States, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) was forced to stop all production. Due to social distancing requirements …

Did you know that on average, a dancer's performance career tends to end around the age of 35? Dancers' retirement comes for a multitude of reasons: physical injuries, a slowing down of the body, the decision to have children, or just a desire to try something new in their 20s or 30s after the intense dedication given since early childhood--and a p…

Arts Across NC Podcast is back with a new season! Join us as we look back on the pandemic and its impact on North Carolina’s arts sector over the last two years. With the help of artists, arts organizations, and arts leaders from all across North Carolina, we are telling the stories of mental struggles, canceled performances, and difficult decision…

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Full of Riches takes listeners into the world of Seagrove, N.C. where TAPS students are taught the region’s celebrated pottery tradition by master artist and N.C. Heritage Award recipient Sid Luck. The North Carolina Arts Council created TAPS, a statewide network of after school programs, in response to community requests for traditional arts educa…

Children and parents learn together at the Haliwa-Saponi Traditional Arts Program for Students (TAPS). Gathering families and intergenerational groups for tribal culture and tradition classes is important in a rural place like Hollister, N.C. where the program is based. We learn why in this new episode of Arts Across NC.The North Carolina Arts Coun…

Call and Response chronicles the origin story of TAPS, the Traditional Arts Program for Students. The North Carolina Arts Council created TAPS, a statewide network of after school programs, in response to community requests for traditional arts education taught locally, knee-to-knee, and across generations. TAPS is an intergenerational story. It's …

Lauchlin Shaw was a Harnett County-based fiddler whose family was a part of the 18th and 19th century wave of Scottish immigration to North Carolina. “His great-grandfather had come from the Isle of Jura off Scotland’s coast up through the Cape Fear River Valley,” says Wayne Martin. “That’s a really important story for North Carolina that we don’t …

Etta Baker is one of North Carolina’s most famous Piedmont blues guitarist. Born in Caldwell County, she started learning guitar from her father when she was three. Her masterful, emotive pickin’ first appeared in 1956 on the album Instrumental Music from the Southern Appalachians, but it took 35 years before her next recording and first solo recor…

One hundred years ago famed folk-song collectors Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles visited North Carolina and documented hundreds of ballads and folk songs that had their roots in the British Isles. The epicenter of our state's ballad singing tradition is Madison County, NC. In the second installment of Director's Cut, a special mini-season of Arts Acr…

In celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music, we're back with a new music themed season of Arts Across NC called "Director's Cut." Over the next four episodes, NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency.…

Arvil Freeman likes to say, "I can teach you to play, but how good you’ll be depends on you."He’s talking about fiddling. Arvil Freeman is one of western North Carolina’s most respected fiddlers and fiddle instructors, and he’ll receive the North Carolina Heritage Award on May 23 for his life-long devotion to the region’s traditional music. His lon…

Dick Knight is a professional musician, retired school teacher, and 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient. He's is one of several excellent soul, R&B and funk musicians with deep ties to eastern North Carolina, but his Kinston story is an unlikely one. In this episode of Arts Across NC, we get the scoop on how Kinston led this music-loving G…

Asha Bala is a passionate advocate, instructor, and performer of Bharata Natyam, an ancient South Indian classical dance, that communicates ancient Hindu spiritual stories through intricate hand gestures, facial expressions, and footwork. She first encountered the dance as a young child in Mumbai in the 1950s during an era of national cultural revi…

In this episode, we meet Tony Williamson, a 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient and mandolin virtuoso, whose musical journey has taken him all over. It’s carried him to stages around the world where he’s played with bluegrass greats like Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, and Ricky Skaggs. It’s transported him into a hospital room where he was told he…

Sawmilling is heritage for Glenn Bolick, a potter, musician, storyteller from Caldwell County. Glenn is a fifth-generation sawmill man, and in this bonus episode, he performs "Sawmill Man," one of his signature songs. Glenn and his wife Lula Bolick will be honored at the 2018 North Carolina Heritage Awards Ceremony on May 23 in downtown Raleigh. Ti…

In this special season of Arts Across NC, we meet the 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipients who will be celebrated at a performance and ceremony on May 23, 2018 in Raleigh, NC. These artists are being honored for deepening awareness of the stories, music, and artistry that encompass and define North Carolina's diverse cultural traditions. G…

M.C. Taylor and Phil Cook are two anchors of Durham's indie music community. Phil is known for making music with his band Megafaun and The Guitarheels and for playing in M.C.'s American folk band Hiss Golden Messenger, an outfit widely praised for its genre-blending soul-searching music. In this episode, they reflect on how collaboration, community…

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Creativity is at the heart of the Freelon family. In an intimate conversation, Phil Freelon, best known for leading the design team of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and his son Pierce Freelon, Durham-based hip-hop artist and professor, open up about how the arts define their family. Catch the full interview at www.nca…

Vollis Simpson may be North Carolina's most famous self-taught artist. His massive, whimsical whirligigs have attracted curious travelers to eastern North Carolina for decades, and they now anchor the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in historic downtown Wilson. In this episode, we explore how the park came to be, and why it's now a national model for…

North Carolina's Statewide Arts Celebration has officially begun. Arts organizations in all 100 counties have dedicated arts events to the North Carolina Arts Council's 50th Anniversary. The 175+ concerts, exhibits, performances, festivals, and classes that make up the celebration showcase the many ways North Carolinians participate in the arts and…

North Carolina is known for its traditional arts, and they are thriving in the hands of millennial artists. This weekend, the diversity and vibrancy of our state's evolving cultural heritage will be celebrated in the NC Folklife Area of the National Folk Festival in Greensboro, NC. In this episode, Sally Peterson, the Folklife Director at the North…

David Sedaris moved from Binghamton, NY to Raleigh, NC right before he started the third grade, and one of the first words he learned here was Yankee. Adjusting to life in North Carolina wasn't easy, but David found his place in the arts. In an exclusive interview for the North Carolina Arts Council's 50 for 50 Project, best-selling author David Se…

Forty years ago, the American Dance Festival moved to Durham, NC. Every summer since, one of America’s most important dance institutions has attracted choreographers, dancers and audiences from all over the world to the heart of North Carolina for a six week-long modern dance festival. The North Carolina Arts Council was an avid supporter of ADF fr…

Artists matter in North Carolina. As creators, interpreters and educators, they play an instrumental role in the vitality of our state. In 1980, the North Carolina Arts Council solidified the State's commitment to artists by creating the Artist Fellowship Program. Since then, the N.C. Arts Council has awarded over $5 million to hundreds of artists …

Raleigh native Charles R. “Chuck” Davis, who became one of the world’s foremost teachers and choreographers of African dance, is being remembered across North Carolina and the country today for his artistry, his contributions to American dance and his ability to use art to promote peace and healing.A distinguished teacher, choreographer, and ambass…

Founded in 1967, the North Carolina Arts Council grew out of the national statewide arts movement. In the first podcast episode of Arts Across NC, North Carolina Arts Council Executive Director Wayne Martin joins host Sandra Davidson to talk about the council’s early vision, his personal connection to the arts and what’s in store for the North Caro…