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Jack Le Sueur Moves on to His Next Gig: Retirement
Jack Le Sueur had all the right ingredients for hiring 35 years ago. He was a young man with a bachelor's in English from Duke University, spent six months performing as a folk singer and guitarist in Washington, D.C., and served as a Navy officer for four years.
North Carolina Arts Council Executive Director Mary B. Regan had also observed him as one of the first community arts administration summer interns and thought Jack's unassuming nature with his love of music and literature made him the perfect community leader for the Arts Council in 1974, when she hired him full time.
Jack was charged with going out into the field to help local leaders start arts councils in their small and medium-sized communities before there was a national model. "He was an early leader in the community arts council movement. He was so committed to the work and respectful of what people were trying to do in the field," Regan recalls.
Le Sueur retired in December from the Arts Council, where he spent the bulk of his career working with community development. While his title changed several times during his tenure, he was the man responsible for a lot of local arts councils development throughout North Carolina.
Lee Carol Giduz, executive director of the Caldwell Arts Council and a N.C. Arts Council board member, remembers thinking when she started in 1994, "I don't know how to do this job. My predecessor said, 'Just call Jack Le Sueur.' Jack walked me through it. He was real helpful about how to work with the board and how to run an arts council. He was a person I could call when I had a question. He was incredibly understanding, supportive and encouraging," says Giduz.
Jane Lonon, executive director of the Ashe County Arts Council, recalls meeting Jack. "My first encounter with Jack was at a potluck dinner at the home of a board member in Ashe County in 1982. These were the infancy days of our arts council. We were small, all volunteer and in a very rural county. But we had dreams and ideas. Jack had come up for a visit to check things out. Jack listened, Jack encouraged and Jack understood. Jack bridged the gap between us and the bureaucracy. He walked us through the grant process and he helped connect us with others."
And many of the people who worked with Jack remember him for his guitar playing. He wrote wonderful songs including Administrator's Blues often sung at N.C. Arts Council's farewell parties and special occasions. During national conferences, Jack was known for gathering musicians together for late night jam sessions that would draw large crowds.
"We will miss Jack Le Sueur," Lonon said. "We'll miss his Administrator's Blues song, his guitar pickin', his love of music and the arts, and his wonderful, quiet, cynical sense of humor. We'll miss his caring. The impact that he made and the legacy that he left with us in the local arts council arena will last a long time."
The last three years of Jack's tenure at the Arts Council were spent as the audience development coordinator. A part of his job was to work on ArtsMarket, a showcase of exceptional performances by dancers, singers and musicians that matched the artists with potential job opportunities.
Regan says the position was a natural fit for Jack. "He's a great song writer and a fabulous musician. His retirement will be a renaissance, a second act."
So now, Jack, we will all sing the blues. We will miss you.
Lincoln Center Institute Approach to Aesthetic Learning Comes to NC
Arts educators, teaching artists and administrators: get ready for an exciting August workshop that will explore aesthetic education methodology and philosophy.
The North Carolina Arts Council and the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts will host the Lincoln Center Institute International Educator workshop at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem Aug. 2-6, 2010.
Art professionals will learn how to plan a curriculum that uses art as a gateway to imaginative learning and higher thinking skills.
Registration Still Open for Emerging Issues Forum on Creativity
Creativity and innovation are on the menu at the 25th Emerging Issues Forum next month at the Raleigh Convention Center. Featured speakers for the two-day event include best-selling author and innovation expert Daniel Pink and community leader Bill Strickland, whose dynamic arts programming inspires change in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Other presenters include The News & Observer Tar Heel of the Year and Durham architect Phil Freelon and his wife, jazz vocalist Nneena Freelon.
NC State University's Institute for Emerging Issues sponsors the forum scheduled for Feb. 8–9, 2010. Registration is $225 for government agencies and nonprofit organizations and $350 for individuals.
The annual forum convenes leaders from business, nonprofit organizations, government and higher education to discuss some of the biggest issues facing North Carolina's future growth and prosperity. N.C. Arts Council Executive Director Mary B. Regan was a member of one of this year's working groups, defining key issues facing our state. Twenty-five years ago, the Emerging Issues Forum started by exploring the topic of innovation. This year, the forum comes full circle as it challenges participants to enhance creative thinking and embrace new ideas.
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.
The new Artist Residency Level I grant is offered to schools, nonprofit arts and community organizations or partnership teams consisting of at least one school and one arts group. The deadline for this application is April 1, 2010. This grant provides support for a five-day, school-based residency led by a designated professional visual, literary or performing artist or group. This is a streamlined grant application to encourage first-time applicants and organizations with little or no experience in hosting school-based artist residencies to apply.
N.C. Arts Council Partners to Offer Arts Accessibility Workshops
The North Carolina Arts Council and Arts Access Inc. are offering workshops to arts organizations across North Carolina to strengthen understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act and to learn strategies for compliance.
North Carolina arts employees including executive directors, program managers, box office staff and facility managers are invited to attend one or both days of the Arts Accessibility and Inclusion workshops. Join us in Hickory March 9 and 10, 2010, at the United Arts Council of Catawba County or in Raleigh March 16 and 17, 2010, at the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.
Arts Access is also conducting a statewide survey of needs and excellence related to arts for people with disabilities. Please take the survey and help support the arts for people with disabilities in North Carolina. There are two versions of the survey, one for people with disabilities and family members and one for art teachers and provider agency staff. The Survey can be completed through April 1.
Do you have the correct e-mail address for the Arts Council? As of Dec. 31, 2009, e-mails with the ncmail.net suffix will no longer be forwarded to N.C. Arts Council staff. Please use our new suffix: ncdcr.gov.
The Poetry Out Loud semi-finals and finals will be held Saturday, March 5, 2010, at the North Carolina Museum of History. David zumBrunnen, a North Carolina-based professional dramatist, will serve as the master of ceremonies. The free event is open to the public. The first semi-final round will begin at 9 a.m. with one or two additional semi-final rounds held during the day. The finals begin at 7 p.m. and a reception honoring the finalists and winners will immediately follow the competition. Entertainment will be provided by Michael Beadle, award-winning performance poet and writer from western North Carolina.
The North Carolina champion will go on to Washington, D.C., to compete for a $20,000 college scholarship Sunday, April 25 through Tuesday, April 27, 2010. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have partnered with arts agencies in each state to support the expansion of Poetry Out Loud this year.
Local Arts Councils Encouraged to Sign Up for DCP Webinar
Two webinars are scheduled for Designated County Partners who will be submitting a DCP full grant application on March 1.
The Arts in Communities program staff will present the webinars for local arts councils on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon and Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Even though there are no significant changes to the guidelines and grant forms, DCPs will benefit from participation in the webinar. Local arts councils who participated in the webinar last year submitted stronger grant applications and received higher ratings than those that did not participate.
Information about registration and how to prepare for the webinar will be available next week. Contact Janie Wilson at janie.wilson@ncdcr.gov for more information.
Creative Workforce Profiles
Learn more about creative North Carolinians whose work puts a face on new creative industry study findings. See the profiles »
Meet the New Piedmont Laureate
Novelist Zelda Lockhart discusses her work and reads from her newest work, Fifth Born II, in several videos on our YouTube channel. Watch the videos »
Durham County Novelist Selected as the 2010 Piedmont Laureate
Durham County novelist Zelda Lockhart was selected as the 2010 Piedmont Laureate. She is the author of two novels, Fifth Born, a 2002 Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and Cold Running Creek, which won a 2008 Honor Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
In June 2010, Ms. Lockhart's third novel, Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, will be published. Her other works of fiction, poetry and essays can be found in anthologies, journals and magazines.
She received her bachelor's in English from Norfolk State University, a master's in English from Old Dominion University and a certificate in writing, directing and editing film from the New York Film Academy.
Lockhart will receive an honorarium of $7,000 and serve as laureate for one year. She will present public readings and workshops, participate at select public functions and create at least one original activity to expand appreciation of literature. Her schedule of activities will be posted at the Piedmont Laureate Web site.
The Piedmont Laureate program is dedicated to building a literary bridge for residents to come together and celebrate the art of writing. Co-sponsored by the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, Alamance County Arts Council, Durham Arts Council, Johnston County Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission, and United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, the program's key goal is to "promote awareness and heighten appreciation for excellence in the literary arts throughout the Piedmont region."
The United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County awarded $20,000 to 15 local artists for professional development initiatives for 2010. Grant amounts range from $1,000 to $1,500 for writers, visual artists and filmmakers residing in Wake, Johnston, Franklin and Warren counties.
The following local artists received grants: dramatist Jerome Davis; playwright Kelly Doyle; poet Jo Barbara Taylor; musician Suzanne Rousso; musician Mark Scearce; potter Timothy Ayers; visual artist Lauren Kennedy; visual artist Janet Link; painter Cynthia Morefield; photographer Shawn Rocco; visual artist Ann Roth; visual artist Ian Sands; photographer Sterling Stevens; visual artist Lisa Stroud; and visual artist Mia Yoon. All recipients are from Wake County.
Regional Artist Project Grants are funded by the N.C. Arts Council. The grant is awarded through a regional consortium of local arts councils throughout the state.
"One of the great pleasures of opening the Bechtler is that we get to introduce the North Carolina audience as well as the nation at large to an extraordinary collection of mid-20th century modernism, principally European but also American and British, from a private collection that's never really been seen in an institutional setting before," says John Boyer, president and CEO, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.
The Penland School of Crafts has received a challenge grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. The Foundation will match first-time donors up to $75,000. Donations help pay for studios, teachers, tools and electricity among other costs of the Penland experience. Penland's fees for tuition, room and board cover less than half the annual expense for classes, outreach programs and services to artists. Visit Penland's Web site at www.penland.org for more information.
The Arts of the Albemarle hired Ray Meiggs as its new executive director last month.
"Ray's experience with nonprofit boards is impressive," says Joe Peel, chairman of the Arts of the Albemarle search committee. "We're confident he will bring his insight and best practices from his experiences with other successful nonprofits."
Meiggs brings to the Arts of the Albemarle a wide range of experience. In the past, he's held positions in sales and marketing, most recently serving as vice president of sales and marketing for Global Protein Products. He has served on numerous boards including chairman of the United States Potato Board.
"We are thrilled to welcome Ray aboard," Peel stated. "We had a lot of impressive candidates. It was a hard decision, but we were very impressed with Ray's education and past experience, as well as his love for both the area and the arts."
"Elizabeth City has so many natural assets—a rich cultural heritage, a rich arts community, unparalleled natural beauty—Arts of the Albemarle can maximize these to become an arts destination," Meiggs says.
Keowee Chamber Music celebrates its 10th season this summer with its annual festival, scheduled June 8–21.
"In ten years, we have achieved artistic quality, diverse programming and deep community connections," says Kate Steinbeck, the artistic director.
Keowee is recognized across N.C. for their work including imaginative festival programming, a Keowee for Kids program and being selected as a cARTwheels presenter. Keowee's outreach program includes bringing live music to homeless shelters.
The Asheville Art Museum Collectors' Circle voted to acquire Leaf Hands by Susan Weil, a five panel blueprint and collage, during their sixth annual selection dinner last month.
The Collectors' Circle is dedicated to increasing their own knowledge about art and collecting, while also growing the museum's permanent collection through annual purchases.
Weil's 2007 work recalls her earlier experiments with blueprint paper created during her time at Black Mountain College with her former husband Robert Rauschenberg.
Other works acquired include a color woodblock print, Lanterns, 1908, by Bertha Lum; a woodcarving by Virgil Ledford, Bear, 2008, featured in the museum's exhibition Cherokee Carvers: Tradition Renewed; and a vintage photographic print, Wall Street, New York, 1936, by Margaret Bourke-White, one of America's most important photographers from the first half of the 20th century.
Richard Ritter: 40 Years in Glass, a retrospective of work by a master glassblower, will be on exhibit Jan. 24 through March 13 at the Fine Art Museum on the campus of Western Carolina University.
Ritter, a Detroit native, was an illustrator and then metalworker when he committed himself to working with glass. That was in 1968, in the midst of the U.S. studio glass movement growth. Ritter has studied and worked at the Penland School of Crafts. In 1980, he and his wife, Jan, settled in Bakersville, near the school.
Ritter is known for his experimental techniques with "murrini"—segments with a patterned cross section, sliced from a glass rod—which he incorporates into his glass pieces. His current Floral Core Series features a central floral core between outer wings of glass or metal.
He's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. His work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Arts and Design, the White House permanent craft collection, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Ritter is also a N.C. Arts Council board member.
The WCU retrospective, first exhibited by the Toe River Arts Council, features more than 75 works in glass from 1969 to 2009. For more information, contact the Fine Art Museum at (828) 227-3591, or e-mail Director Martin DeWitt at mdewitt@wcu.edu.
Franklin writer Ben Brown and Asheville photographer Stewart Young documented the designing of the 2008 HandMade House at the Ramble as well the making of the local crafts that grace the home that incorporated the work of western North Carolina artists and craftspeople.
The HandMade House: An Experiment in Collaborative Design features nine of the artists at work in their studios, the construction of the house itself and a room-by-room tour of the finished interiors with the art in place.
The coffee table-style book of appealing art and architecture is meant to be a how-to book for using regional art to decorate your home. It amplifies the importance of local art as a design element and sustainability, says author Ben Brown. "It lessens the carbon footprint by tapping into local materials."
Brown and Young visited artists' studios, interviewing the artists and taking pictures as they created their wares for this historic home. Young, a former woodworker and sculptor, says he was able to bring his own experience to the project as he tried to capture the creative process of the artists.
The duo drove to Penland and other locations near Asheville, often in the backwoods, talking to craftspeople such as Black Mountain sculptor Julia C. Burr who created a door knocker for the home and Brasstown blacksmith Lynda Metcalfe, whose studio was an old chicken coop.
Young says with admiration, the artists and craftspeople involved in the project were "such genuine characters doing their thing with so much vitality." Plus, he loves the ultimate product: one-of-a-kind pieces that are not mass produced.
To get your copy of the book, available in hardback for $49.95 and softcover for $39.95, visit the Work of Craft Web site. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to HandMade in America.
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is holding its first poster contest for the 13th annual festival April 8–11 in downtown Durham.
One poster design will be chosen to be printed in a limited edition run to be sold at the festival. The winning designer will receive a special artist priority pass for the 2010 festival as well as hotel accommodations for the duration of the festival. The winning poster design will be chosen by a jury comprised of Full Frame staff and special jurors.
Deadline for entry is Monday, Feb. 15. The winner will be announced by the end of February. E-mail fullframeposter@gmail.com to receive a poster specifications package including logos, rules and tips.
For a list of artist opportunities, visit our Artist Opportunities archive or subscribe to receive this e-news directly by sending an e-mail to ncarts@ncdcr.gov with the subject "Subscribe to Artist Opportunities."
The deadline for the Southern Arts Federation Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is next Friday, Jan. 22. Applications are due by 5 p.m.
Southern Circuit is the nation's only regional tour of independent filmmakers, providing communities with an interactive way of experiencing independent film.
North Carolina is part of the nine state SAF region that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Host venues will receive six independent films and their filmmakers (one each month for September, October, November, February, March and April); filmmaker travel arrangements paid for and arranged by SAF; promotional materials provided by SAF as well as a grant to provide a $300 stipend to each visiting filmmaker.
If selected, some of the responsibilities of the venue include participating in the film selection process, including attendance at the film selection panel meeting in Atlanta (May 14–16, 2010); providing a screening venue, including projection equipment and a qualified projectionist; promoting Southern Circuit screenings to the local community and build program audiences; coordinating a Q&A session with the visiting filmmaker after each screening; organizing an interactive community event with the filmmaker (such as a reception) before or after each screening; paying a $5,000 touring fee; and providing a final report for the Southern Circuit grant and program.
N.C. Arts Council | MSC #4632,
Department of Cultural Resources,
Raleigh, NC 27699-4632
919.807.6500 |ncarts.org|ncarts@ncdcr.gov
The mission of the N.C. Arts Council is to make North Carolina a better state through the arts. The Arts Council is a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Linda A. Carlisle, Secretary; Beverly Eaves Perdue, Governor.
