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.