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2025 Heritage Award honorees on stage performing at the award ceremony in front of a cheering crowd

2025 North Carolina Heritage Awards

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists across the state for their contributions to the cultural life of their communities. Five artists/groups were awarded on June 7 at a public ceremony in Raleigh.

Meet the 2025 Award Recipients

Emergency support resources for artists & arts organizations

Art Matters: News from the N.C. Arts Council

Check out the May 2025 edition of our Art Matters newsletter

Field notes fom the desk of Executive Director Jeff Bell, thenext generation of poetry is thriving in North Carolina, Portraits in resilience: Sarah Jones Decker, the North Carolina Heritage Awards through the years, and stars giving helping hands this summer.

5 participants of the A+ Summer Institute in Asheville take a photo with silly mustaches and hats in front of a A+ Schools of NC banner

Become an A+ School

A+ Schools will be accepting new schools into the A+ network in the summer of 2026. If your school is interested in joining the A+ network, please submit a Letter of Intent Form by 5 p.m. on May 30, 2025.

Celebrating N.C. Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green

Jaki Shelton Green is the first African American and third woman poet to be appointed as North Carolina Poet Laureate. As Jaki closes out her final year as our state’s poet-in-chief, we are celebrating her tenure in a short documentary, The People's Laureate: Jaki Shelton Green.

The airy gallery space at the arts council in New Bern, North Carolina

Local Arts Council Directory

More than 75 local arts councils support the 100 counties across our state to provide programs, services and funding to local organizations to strengthen the arts in their own communities.

What We Do: The Arts Council

The North Carolina Arts Council delivers resources to arts organizations and artists to support projects and programs of public value that revitalize downtowns, educate and empower North Carolina youths, and fuel a thriving non-profit creative sector that generates over $2 billion annually.