Pioneering Program Marks 20th Anniversary by Anna Upchurch More than 20 years ago, a handful of North Carolina Arts Council staff gathered around a desk to brainstorm ways to get more money for the arts during the coming 1977 legislative session. At that same time out in the state, several local arts council directors were pushing for a more systematic avenue for getting state funds. The Grassroots Art Program was the result. Mary Regan, then the assistant director of the Council, community coordinators Jack Le Sueur and Fred Schultz, and Halsey North, the executive director, developed a strategy that led to passage in the 1977 legislative session of what became known affectionately as the "Whichard-Richard" bill after the two main sponsors – Senator Willis Whichard of Durham and Representative Richard Wright from Tabor City. By funding on a per capita basis to insure money for each county, linking money for the arts to community development and placing decision-making at the local level, the Grassroots Arts Program became one of the model programs for community arts development in the country. "We were pioneers in the country on local arts development," explains North, who is today a New York-based arts consultant. "We were working with community arts councils long before most of the other state arts agencies had community arts coordinators. Jack Le Sueur was one of the first in the country." "Geographically, North Carolina has very distinct population centers, with huge areas between that weren't being served. The arts council movement had been growing over the years, and we just accelerated it. All the major cities had arts councils. We made a conscious decision to build on that strength to expand coverage," says North. With Council support and the promise of state money to distribute, communities without arts councils quickly organized. "Arts councils just seemed to be a way to get arts to a broad base of people. It was not something imposed on a community; it grew out of the community. We were building for a longterm future, and we wanted to establish roots," North continues. "North Carolina has by far the strongest community-based arts movement in the country. There is also more self-sufficiency among the arts councils in North Carolina, because they had to match the state funds. In other states, the councils have not developed broader based support because those states had so much money to give away that they didn't require a match. In North Carolina, more fiscal and creative responsibility was developed early on," notes North. "And each arts council is different, depending on its community's needs." "We wanted to create a support mechanism, not a control mechanism," North concludes. "We wanted to support groups in developing programming that would have roots in the community." More Funding and Visibility Needed, Evaluation Concludes Anticipating the program's 20th anniversary, the council commissioned an evaluation of the Grassroots Arts Program in late 1996. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with local arts council leaders, subgrantees and Council staff, consultant Barbara Schaffer Bacon formulated 19 recommendations that build on the program's acknowledged strengths and recognize its ongoing philosophy to maintain a simple, flexible structure which can accommodate diverse needs among the state's counties. The recommendations cite a need for more funding and visibility for the program, as well as specific refinements in the program's administration. All recommendations involving revisions to Grassroots legislation or formal guidelines have been approved by the Council's Arts in Communities panel and board. Some of the key changes are a modification of the per-capita formula to provide a floor of funding for every county; a provision for more consistency statewide in Grassroots subgranting; changing the term "Local Distributing Agent" to "Designated County Partner;" conducting joint biannual planning between the Council and the Designated County Partners; and reestablishing and strengthening ties to county governments. "I think most people would agree that for 20 years the Grassroots Arts Program has been one of the Council's most successful offerings, and certainly its most far-reaching," says Le Sueur, now community programs administrator responsible for the program. "In coordination with our county partners, we look forward to implementing changes that promise to make the program even more effective in supporting arts organizations and programs in all 100 counties." [Home] [NCArts Journal]