Arts Across NC

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to spotlight the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. In this episode, we take a trip to Pitt County to spend time with Alice Vines, who reminisces about The Glorifying Vines Sisters, one of North Carolina’s longest-established quartet-style gospel groups. The four original Vines Sisters—Alice, Dorothy, Mattie, and Audrey—came from a large family with deep roots in Pitt County and sprawling artistic talent. Alice, the group’s manager, carries on her family’s legacy, often accompanied by Audrey and younger family members. Alice Vines’s influence reaches beyond the Vines Sisters, as she has become a major voice in eastern North Carolina’s gospel scene, a spiritual leader through her own church, and an active organizer of gospel programs. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, a state agency.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to spotlight the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. In this episode, we head to the far western end of North Carolina to the community of Brasstown, to chat with Helen Gibson, who grew up among the storied Brasstown Carvers at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Helen began carving at age 11 under the teaching of her mother, Dot McClure, and Murrial “Murray” Martin, the Folk School’s craft teacher, to whom the early growth of the Brasstown Carvers one hundred years ago can be credited. Best known for her detailed nativity scene carvings, she has been the Folk School’s resident carver since 1990, a mentor to apprentice carvers, and a teacher at home and through the Tri-County Community College. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, a state agency.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to spotlight the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. In this episode, we visit Robeson County, where the culture keepers and artisans Herman Oxendine and his late wife, Loretta, spent their adult lives teaching and encouraging the revival of traditional Lumbee arts and knowledge. We speak with Herman and hear about his hand-built, coiled and traditionally fired pottery and his other artworks which honor traditional Lumbee craftsmanship. He also tells us about Loretta’s renowned pine needle baskets, which she learned to make at the age of eight by watching her older sister and her mother. Loretta was a leader in the revival of pine needle basketmaking among members of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, a state agency.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to spotlight the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. In this episode, we visit Winston-Salem to meet Gaurang Doshi, a North Indian classical musician. He passes along the teachings of his guru to the next generation of musicians through private lessons in sarod, sitar and tabla, as well as through an Indian ensemble class he helped to establish at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the first such class in the state. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, a state agency.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to spotlight the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. In this episode, we head to the Round Peak community of Surry County, where Chester McMillian has been playing and teaching guitar alongside the musical legends of that region. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, a state agency.

Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Awards have honored artists statewide for their contributions to the cultural lives of their communities. The Folklife program of the North Carolina Arts Council is pleased to announce the five artists/groups who will be presented with the 2025 awards on June 7, at a public ceremony in Raleigh. The honorees for 2025 are: Round Peak Guitarist, Chester McMillian; Lumbee traditional artisans, Herman and Loretta Oxendine; North Indian classical musician, Gaurang Doshi; Brasstown Woodcarver, Helen Gibson; and Gospel Quartet, The Glorifying Vines Sisters. For tickets and more information, visit pinecone.org. Introduction music performed by Etta Baker. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council.

In preparation for this year’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disabilities (LEAD) Conference, we spoke with Jamie Katz Court, the Arts Council’s accessibility coordinator, and Eileen Bagnall, the executive director of Arts Access Inc, about what this year’s LEAD cohort can expect from the conference, what accessibility in the arts means, and why it’s so important in achieving our agency’s goal of arts for all. The Kennedy Center will make some of the LEAD sessions on August 27–29 available online. All sessions will take place on Zoom and will have ASL interpretation and human captioners. Get more information and register at the following link: https://web.cvent.com/event/b9934ccc-de45-4f41-9e34-b96eade5bd06/websitePage:cd7c9ef1-8949-4eb8-a621-8ded00ca6828. Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

**This episode is presented in both Spanish and English, as spoken directly by Cornelio Campos** In our final episode before the North Carolina Heritage Award ceremony, we speak with painter and muralist Cornelio Campos. Born in Cheran, in the highlands of Michoacan, Mexico, Cornelio grew up surrounded by the traditions of his indigenous Purépecha heritage. After years of migrant labor in the United States, Cornelio settled in Durham and gained recognition as a visual storyteller for North Carolinians with immigration experiences of their own. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

**This episode is presented with translated voiceovers** In our final episode before the North Carolina Heritage Award ceremony, we speak with painter and muralist Cornelio Campos. Born in Cheran, in the highlands of Michoacan, Mexico, Cornelio grew up surrounded by the traditions of his indigenous Purépecha heritage. After years of migrant labor in the United States, Cornelio settled in Durham and gained recognition as a visual storyteller for North Carolinians with immigration experiences of their own. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

Born in Ararat, Virginia, and residing in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Richard Bowman has lived his life on both sides of the state line. Richard was inspired to teach himself the fiddle the first time he heard Tommy Jarrell playing on the Merry Go Round, a long-running old-time music program on Mount Airy’s famed radio station, WPAQ. Fifty years later, he is one of the region’s most beloved fiddlers at dances and conventions, carrying on the tunes he learned from just beyond his front door. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

In this episode, we head West to the Qualla Boundary, the land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, where Luther “Butch” Goings and Lydia Louise Goings share a life of dedication to craft and culture. Butch was a student of the renowned carver Amanda Crowe, who received the North Carolina Heritage Award in the year 2000. Louise was taught by her mother, the white oak basketmaker Emma Taylor, who was among the first to receive the award in 1989. Today the couple are known for their mastery and teaching of Cherokee carving and basket making traditions, and for their steady, humble, commitment to service in their community. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

This week we go to Bakersville, up in Mitchell County, where Rhonda Gouge has been teaching music since the 1970s. Steeped in the faith and traditions of the Toe River Valley, Rhonda’s life’s work has been to give the gift of music back to her community, her congregation, and the students who come from miles around to learn from her. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

In this episode, we head to Wendell, NC, just east of Raleigh, where Neal Thomas has been making white oak baskets for more than half a century. Neal and his brothers learned to make traditional white oak baskets from a man in Johnston County named Herman Holder, but today he is one of very few basket makers left who still harvests his own wood from trees and prepares each splint by hand. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

In episode one of this mini-series, Folklife Director Zoe Van Buren speaks with two former folklife directors for the North Carolina Arts Council, Wayne Martin and Sally Peterson, about the history of the Heritage Awards and why it’s so important to celebrate the culture that comes from the people of North Carolina. Get more information about the May 31 award ceremony here: https://pinecone.org/event/2023-north-carolina-heritage-awards/ Be sure to like and subscribe to Arts Across NC wherever you get your podcasts!

As we wrap up this season, we introduce you to Piedmont Opera and Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center--- two arts organizations that had contrasting experiences during the pandemic. One was forced to shut down almost completely because of its location and the vulnerable aging population it serves, while the other was the only opera company in NC to produce during the state-mandated lockdown. Fast forward to today, both organizations are thriving. Their calendars are filled and most importantly, they are serving their communities. If there is one thing we’ve learned over the past two years, it’s that “post-pandemic” is a term that doesn’t quite accurately capture our global reality. We also know that we’ve been navigating and adjusting to a new normal. Vitality, fellowship, and healing are the qualities the arts spark, and they are what has helped North Carolina rebuild and emerge resiliently from the pandemic! Here in North Carolina, the arts are Back!

What do ArtsTogether in Raleigh and DREAMs center for arts education in Wilmington have in common? Besides being amazing safe spaces where young people can thrive, the two arts organizations are committed to serving disadvantaged communities. In this episode, we speak with Nikki Turner, dance instructor and preschool teacher at Arts Together, and Liz Wells, program director at DREAMs center for arts education. The experiences of Nikki, Liz, and their respective arts organizations reveal the importance of taking a practical approach when engaging traditionally underserved populations. Arts Together and Dreams center for the arts are genuinely committed to their communities and demonstrate that the arts are an essential component to revitalizing, building, and empowering a community. Arts Together's Website: https://www.artstogether.org/ DREAMs Center for the Arts' Wesbite: https://givetodreams.org/

Beyond the material struggles artists and arts organizations have faced over the last two years, there was also an ever-present and less explored existential struggle. Being an artist, specifically a teaching artist, isn’t just a career. It’s an identity. And when you can’t do the job that makes you who you are anymore, well, who are you? In this episode of Arts Across NC we talked with two teaching artists – Alfredo Hurtado, an Army veteran, actor, and professional dancer with Black Box Dance Theatre in Raleigh, and Lakeetha Blakeney a theatre educator and writer from Concord, North Carolina. Alfredo and Lakeetha both spent time reflecting on what a personal loss they felt when their creative avenues were shut off suddenly, how the virtual alternatives didn’t quite fill in for that missing piece, and the joy and fulfillment they have felt as we cautiously return to a sense of normalcy. You can learn more about Lakeetha Blakeney’s work at KeethaB.org. Alfredo Hurtado is a founding member of Black Box Dance Theatre, a modern dance company that uses dance as “a catalyst for meaningful human interactions, powerful storytelling, and transformative art-making”. Learn more about their work at BlackBoxDanceTheatre.org. This June, Alfredo will perform in Raleigh Little Theatre’s presentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, In The Heights.

In 2019, Laura Way became the president and CEO of ArtsGreensboro, one of our state’s local arts councils, and immediately began implementing changes. North Carolina has one of the most highly developed networks of local arts councils in the country. For over half a century, we have provided funding and technical assistance to encourage arts organizations to deliver multiple ways to broaden, deepen and diversify participation in the arts in local communities. The larger local arts councils in the state are grant-makers, providing Grassroots Arts Funds along with additional sources of funding to support and strengthen arts activities in their counties. Laura’s previous experience as Executive Director of GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art, a funded partner of ArtsGreensboro, gave her a unique outsider perspective. She was well aware of the inequities in grant funding and was committed to implementing change. Her commitment to DEAI work began earlier in her career, but during the pandemic, Laura and her staff took that commitment to a new level by redistributing grant funds with the goal of addressing structural inequities and increasing philanthropic overall support for BIPOC artists and arts organizations.

Hailing from New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz, husband and wife duo Lonnie and Ocie Davis relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina after the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina dislocated them. With no intentions of starting an arts non-profit, when they arrived in Charlotte, the two Jazz musicians saw an opportunity to curate a thriving Jazz community, thus, in 2010, JazzArts Charlotte was born. In this episode, we learn how the pandemic expanded the organization's audience and enhanced their technical and digital skills. Audio Credit: JazzArts Charlotte is BACK [mini-documentary] via YouTube

During the pandemic, performance venues and organizations were stuck on hold, hoping for a sign of normalcy that would allow for live audiences and actors on stage once again. In March of 2020, like many theaters across the United States, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) was forced to stop all production. Due to social distancing requirements and closure of venues, curtailing not only public performances but also rehearsals, the theatre was forced to end production on their performance of “GRIMMZ,” a hip-hop fairytale. However, over the following year and a half, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s decision to pivot to digital production led to a surprising Drama League Awards nomination, proving their ability to imagine new ways to engage with the idea of live-ness and community through a digital landscape. In this episode, we speak with artistic director Adam Burke, professional actors Isabel Gonzalez and Isa Long, and community programs manager, Mary Katherine Smith.