FEBRUARY 2010

Cathy Smith Bowers Appointed N.C. Poet Laureate

Gov. Beverly E. Perdue recently appointed Cathy Smith Bowers of Tryon as the new state poet laureate.

"Like all good writing, Smith Bowers' poetry comes from deep in her soul. She's a woman who experienced love and loss at an early age. She's turned her journey of healing into an art form," says Mary B. Regan, executive director of the N.C. Arts Council.

"Smith Bowers has a substantial body of work and is well-known nationally for books such as Traveling in Time of Danger and A Book of Minutes," says Philip Gerard, the head of the poet laureate selection committee and chair of the department of creative writing at UNC Wilmington. "Her work has appeared in some of the finest national periodicals, including The Georgia Review and The Atlantic Monthly. She also has deep ties to North Carolina as a poet and teacher. We knew she would be a wonderful and energetic ambassador for not just the literary arts but all arts, and that she would bring as much honor to the position of poet laureate as she would receive from it."

Smith Bowers' powerful poems about family and loss have also appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review and The Kenyon Review.

"I think the state has an amazing number of poets," Smith Bowers said. "I feel honored to be among those names and representing all the poets of North Carolina. But I also want to represent people who love language, like my parents—people who are changed by words. Poetry moves us in a profound and positive way. I am hoping this will be an opportunity for me to keep everyone in touch—poet and word lovers alike."

The 60-year-old S.C. native teaches in UNC Asheville's Great Smokies Writing Program and in the M.F.A. program at Queens University of Charlotte. Smith Bowers received the university's 2002 J.B. Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Award given by the North Carolina Poetry Society in 2006 and 2007.

She is the author of four poetry collections including The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas, Texas Tech University Press, 1992, and The Candle I Hold Up To See You, Iris Press, 2009.

Smith Bowers received a bachelor's and master's degree in English from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. She went on to do graduate work in modern British poetry at Oxford University in England.

The poet laureate selection committee, comprised of distinguished members of the literary community in N.C., met in December to make recommendations for the position to the governor.

The committee members included: Gerald W. Barrax, 2009 winner of the North Carolina Award for literature, poet, and retired professor of English at NC State University; Fred Chappell, a former state poet laureate and retired professor of English at UNC Greensboro; Debbie McGill, former literature director at the N.C. Arts Council; Dannye Romine Powell, poet and former book editor for The Charlotte Observer; Mark Smith-Soto, professor of romance languages (Spanish) at UNC Greensboro and associate editor of International Poetry Review; and Ed Southern, author and executive director of the North Carolina Writers' Network.

The public nomination process yielded 46 candidates, 34 of whom chose to be considered for the post.

Smith Bowers will be installed as the new poet laureate during a ceremony scheduled Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 4:30 p.m. at the State Capitol. The ceremony is open to the public.

Smith Bowers succeeds Kathryn Stripling Byer, the state's poet laureate from 2005 to 2009.

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Organization Grant Deadline March 1

Have you started preparing your grant application yet? The deadline for nonprofit organizations across North Carolina to request grant funds from the N.C. Arts Council is Monday, March 1, 2010, for all applications except an artist residency category new this year.

Applicants should call the appropriate Arts Council staff member before submitting an application. This should happen early in your planning so that we can help make your application as competitive as possible.

Full grants information »

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Spots Available for Arts Co-op in Our State

The Arts Council will continue its co-operative advertising program with Our State magazine this spring with full-page ads scheduled in the March, April, May and June issues.

Cost for each ad is $415. This includes a color photo and a 25-word description about your event or activity. Feel free to pass along this opportunity to your subgrantees. Spots are still available for May and June.

If interested, please contact our account representative at Our State magazine directly:

Elizabeth Shurte, Accounts Executive
(800) 948-1409; (336) 286-0600, ext. 173
eshurte@ourstate.com

We look forward to working with you in the months ahead to promote the arts industry.

If we can be of assistance, please contact Rebecca Moore, senior program director for marketing, at (919) 807-6530 or e-mail rebecca.moore@ncdcr.gov.

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Upcoming Industry Meetings

March 9-10, Hickory
March 16-17, Raleigh
Arts Accessibility Workshops

April 12–13, Washington, D.C.
National Arts Advocacy Day

May 18–19, Raleigh
North Carolina ARTS DAY

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New on the Web

Celebrate Black History Month with NC Arts Everyday
Throughout Black History Month, the N.C. Arts Council is highlighting opportunities to experience and celebrate North Carolina's African-American legacy in jazz, blues, gospel and spoken word performances, stage plays and dances, museum exhibitions and lectures. Visit www.ncartseveryday.org/blackhistorymonth.

Creative Workforce Profiles
Learn more about creative North Carolinians whose work puts a face on new creative industry study findings. See the profiles »

Profiles on the Web
We are updating ncarts.org with profiles of artists and arts organizations all the time. Learn more about Pocosin Arts.

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ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA

UNC Wilmington Accepted in National Education Program

UNC Wilmington's Office of Cultural Arts has been accepted into the Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The Partners in Education program is designed to assist arts organizations throughout the nation to develop and/or expand educational partnerships with their local school systems.

The program is based on the belief that educating teachers is an essential component of any effort designed to increase the artistic literacy of young people.

UNC Wilmington is the first partner team chosen from eastern North Carolina, says Linda Bamford, arts in education director for the N.C. Arts Council. Bamford is not surprised UNC Wilmington was chosen because it has demonstrated a real history with successfully working with schools through residencies and cARTwheels.

Last month, UNC Wilmington sponsored a one-week residency with Degas Quartet at College Park Elementary in New Hanover County with a $5,000 Arts in Education grant from the N.C. Arts Council.

The string quartet worked with a core group of 27 fourth and fifth graders for one hour each day. The quartet also introduced all fourth and fifth graders to string music with a special one-time program.

The core students made their own cellos out of foam, fishing lines and mailing tubes. The one-week residency culminated with a performance of Bela Bartok's Romanian folk music played by the core students and the quartet to a crowd of 1,000 students.

"After the performance, one of the boys in the class informed the quartet that he has decided to play the viola in band next year and more than half of the students said they were now interested in playing a string instrument," says Courtney Reilly, assistant director of cultural arts at UNC Wilmington. "No doubt, the quartet's charisma, professionalism and talent had an impact on these kids."

Bamford believes that this kind of residency helped UNC Wilmington become a Kennedy Center Partner. UNC Wilmington and New Hanover County Schools have been active participants in cARTwheels, an educational performing arts touring program that ensures N.C. elementary school students experience professionally-staged opera, dance, theater and music performances. Two of their professors, Nancy King and Brenda Wheat, have been involved in facilitating teacher workshops for cARTwheels performances.

There are now two N.C.-based partner teams: UNC Wilmington and United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.

Reilly says that the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program will help them formalize their relationship with New Hanover County Schools and open up an even larger network of presenters and resources.

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Cameron Art Museum Announces Architectural Follies Winners

The Cameron Art Museum selected three winners for its Architectural Follies competition: Matt Bua, a Brooklyn-based artist; Toby R. Keeton, intern architect with Michael Ross Kersting Architecture of Wilmington; and Daniel N. Harding and the Community Research and Design Center, School of Architecture, Clemson University.

The structures will remain on view for six months. This project was organized in conjunction with the museum's exhibition GWATHMEY SIEGEL: Inspiration and Transformation.

Author Gwyn Headley wrote in Architectural Follies in America he considers follies to be "…structures that are not ordinary buildings but are edifices that transcend the banal, the commonplace, the simply utilitarian…Architectural follies transcend barriers of style, time, taste, and nationality. They spring from those most human of emotions: vanity, pride, passion, and obsession."

This project received support from the N.C. Arts Council.

Visit the museum's Web site »
Read an article about the Follies in the Star News »

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Full Frame Hires New Leader

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival hired Deirdre Haj as its new executive director.

Haj has a long and distinguished career in film and communications including her work as a documentary producer and consultant on a variety of film projects. Haj was the producer of the award-winning documentary Scene Smoking. She was also the producer of Brushes with Life, a documentary exploring art and mental illness. Prior to her career in film, she was a successful theater and film actor.

Visit the festival's Web site »
Read the press release »

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United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro Sets Fundraising Goal

The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro kicked off their annual fundraising campaign last month to raise $1.43 million for the arts in Greensboro.

Greensboro sculptor Jim Gallucci told the crowd how a $400 grant from the United Arts Council provided necessary funds to build a trailer to transport his work. Gallucci returned the gift with interest in the form of a check for $624 so that another artist could receive support to propel their career forward.

"Art works for education, to improve test scores and comprehension. Art works for our economy to create jobs and revenue. Art works for our lives, helping us to communicate and improve our quality of life," said United Arts Council Interim President Altina Layman. "The work of the United Arts Council is essential to the vitality of our city."

The United Arts Council campaign will run through June 30, 2010.

Visit the United Arts Council's Web site »

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Byer's Blog Named One of the Best

Outgoing state poet laureate Kay Byer's personal blog Here, Where I Am was named one of the "30 Awesome Poetry Blogs You Aren't Reading Yet" by Online College and Universities. Byer writes about poetry and features many of the state's writers on her popular Web site.

See the full list of blogs »
Visit Kay's blog »

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Center for Documentary Studies Exhibitions Open

Two exhibitions featuring the photographs of Cedric Chatterley are on display at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.

Chatterley is a documentary photographer who lives in South Dakota but does much of his work in North Carolina. He's made invaluable contributions to the documentation of folklife in N.C. through his work with N.C. Arts Council, N.C. Folklife Institute and individual folklorists.

Olive Branch documents nearly three decades of Mark Fisher's life, a project that began when Fisher approached Chatterley as a graduate student in photography in Cairo, Ill., and invited him to photograph "everything in my house that's broken."

Reciprocity features the stunningly beautiful cameras that Chatterley builds, sometimes with friends and fellow artists, from found objects and cast-off materials.

The work is on view through Friday, May 21 at the Center for Documentary Studies.

Read more about the exhibitions on the Center's Web site »

The center's Jazz Loft Project exhibition opens this month in New York City. Two hundred never-before-displayed vintage black-and-white prints and several hours of rarely heard audio recordings by photographer W. Eugene Smith are featured in the center's Jazz Loft Project exhibition.

Smith spent eight years documenting the jazz musicians, artists and underground characters who inhabited the scene at 821 Sixth Avenue in New York.

Sam Stephenson and Courtney Reid-Eaton of the Center for Documentary Studies curated the project. The exhibition will be on display from Wednesday, Feb. 17, through Saturday, May 22, in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. The exhibition will travel to the Chicago Cultural Center, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, among other venues.

Read more about the Jazz Loft Project »

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ARTIST NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Artists Wanted for Fine Arts and Crafts Showcase

Artists who wish to exhibit in downtown Brevard's 38th annual Fine Arts and Crafts Showcase on Saturday, July 3, may apply for a booth space through the Transylvania Community Arts Council until Thursday, May 20.

Each year the Fine Arts and Crafts Showcase features up to 50 regional artists and crafters who are juried into the show based on their excellent original art and craftwork.

The event will take place in conjunction with Heart of Brevard's Fourth of July Celebration and Transylvania Region AACA Classic Car Show in downtown Brevard.

These three-festivals-in-one attract about 15,000 people annually with music, arts, crafts, food, children's activities and more.

Application fee for the showcase is $20. Booth fee is $90. Exhibitors are responsible for furnishing their own booths and their own set-up. Applicants will be notified of jury decisions and receive important event information by Tuesday, June 1. For more information, contact Tammy Hopkins at the Transylvania Community Arts Council, (828) 884-2787 or tcarts@citcom.net.

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American Dance Festival Auditions Potential Students for Scholarships

The American Dance Festival will begin a 14-city tour this month to audition potential students for tuition scholarships for the 2010 ADF Six Week School.

The ADF school will occur in tandem with the ADF's 77th season, scheduled June 10 through July 24 in Durham. Applications for the ADF school are currently available online at www.americandancefestival.org.

Tuition scholarships are offered to promising students who have a high level of technical ability and creative potential and who have experience in either performing or choreographing.

The awards are based on both ability and financial need. Last year about 46 percent of ADF school students were offered tuition scholarships. Award amounts range from $200 to $1,925 (full tuition). The scholarship does not cover room/board fees and living expenses during the six week school.

Students unable to attend an audition may submit a DVD containing two minutes of technique and a one-and-a-half minute solo along with their application package. The postmarked deadline for DVD submission is Friday, March 19.

The North Carolina audition is Sunday, April 11, in Durham.

Visit the festival's Web site »

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Veronica Noechel Poetry Chapbook Published

Gone, a 40-page poetry chapbook collection by Raleigh poet Veronica Noechel, is now available. Her writing is widely published. She was the recipient of the Kelty Award for Outstanding Local Animal Activism, grants and fellowships from the N.C. Arts Council, The Culture and Animals Foundation and Vermont Studio Center. The chapbook sells for $10.

Read more »

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ACROSS THE NATION

Arts Sector Input Requested for a Nonprofit Survey

Nonprofit Finance Fund advocates for an effective and durable social sector and is conducting its annual nationwide survey to understand more about the sector's specific, real-time financial challenges.

According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Nonprofit Finance Fund is especially interested in the responses of arts organizations this year to better represent this sector.

Take the 2010 survey »

Please complete the survey by Monday, Feb. 22. Nonprofit Finance Fund will analyze this information, then provide the results to government, foundations, lending institutions, media and umbrella organizations in aggregated form. Nonprofit Finance Fund will send aggregated survey results to any nonprofit respondents who choose to give their contact information. The findings, and the comparison to last year's findings, will help focus on the most critical areas of need in the sector, both now and for the medium- to long-term.

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ARTS IN THE NEWS

N.C. Artist Profiled in Dance Magazine

Check out the January 2010 issue of Dance Magazine for several North Carolina artists.

Robert Weiss, artistic director for Carolina Ballet, was interviewed for the article Are We Overdosing on Balanchine? He was one of 12 leaders in the dance field asked about the alleged overload of George Balanchine's work on stage.

In a story about the International Association of Blacks in Dance, former N.C. Arts Council board member and founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble Chuck Davis was mentioned as someone who had been influential in helping black dancers.

N.C. Dance Theatre President and Artistic Director Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Associate Artistic Director and master teacher Patricia McBride were featured in the story From Studio to Stage: Why Students Flock to Chautauqua.

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