Attention:
Download Job Description for Wilmington Arts Council Executive Director position.
Application deadline is Friday, March 2, 2012
CREATING AN ARTS COUNCIL FOR WILMINGTON & NEW HANOVER COUNTY
In November 2008, representatives of arts organizations in Wilmington invited the North Carolina Arts Council to lead an effort to create a new local arts council. Although it is one of the ten most populous counties in the state, New Hanover County is the only one without an arts council. The Arts Council of the Lower Cape Fear, which served the county for 30 years, closed its doors in 2002.
A Steering Committee of local arts and community leaders was appointed to guide a research and discovery phase, which consisted of in-depth interviews with artists, arts leaders, and civic and business leaders, and an online public survey. More than 250 people participated in the process through interviews, an online survey or informal meetings.
The Steering Committee and N.C. Arts Council staff have completed a series of reports which summarize and analyze the information collected during the research process and proposes a sustainable structure and course of action to create a new arts council. The report, Recommendations for Forming an Arts Council in Wilmington and New Hanover County, also contains downloadable links to all of the interviews and historical research, and all of the responses to the public survey. We hope you will read the report and see as we have that this is a time of great awareness and optimism about the value of the arts to the citizens of Wilmington and New Hanover County, and that there is overwhelming support for the creation of a local arts council.
Cultural Assets Slide Show
No other North Carolina city can boast a longer or richer history of arts and cultural development than Wilmington. The city is home to two of the state’s oldest arts institutions, Thalian Association and Thalian Hall, as well as 150 arts organizations and 3,000 creative industry workers. The slide show below highlights a few of Wilmington’s numerous cultural assets.
Here’s a link to Artful Wilmington, a spotlight we created for our Web site to promote cultural tourism.
We encourage your comments and suggestions. Please contact Leigh Ann Wilder, Regional Coordinator for Eastern North Carolina, N.C. Arts Council.
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Creative Economy in Wilmington
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Of North Carolina’s ten largest cities, Wilmington is the only one without an arts council.
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The Creative Industry in North Carolina accounts for nearly 300,000 jobs or more than 5.5% of the state’s workforce.
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New Hanover County has 4% of North Carolina’s creative industry establishments and direct jobs, a high percentage compared to other counties.
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Counties with higher proportions of workers in arts-related occupations are more likely to retain current residents and attract new ones
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In 2008, nearly 6% of all employment in New Hanover County was in the Creative Industries Sector including artists, musicians, filmmakers, architects, designers, writers, etc.
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Wilmington currently ranks 8th in tourism expenditures in North Carolina. The presence of creative workers is the single most important factor associated with the amount that visitors to an area will spend.
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