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What’s Right About . Worth Carolina
THE ARTS
Just about anywhere in North Car¬
olina you can hear ii. Banjos on back
(torches. Violins in a collec live hum.
You can see il. loo. on an museum
walls and in classrooms clun ked with col¬
ored paper and paints. You can leel it on
a sculpture, and sometimes even smell it
as a potter turns her clay.
Art is everywhere in North Carolina.
*'l don’t think there’s anywhere in the
state that the arts don't ever reach." says
Mary Regan, executive director of the
North Carolina Arts Council.
’’It’s in every nook and cranny." adds
Betty McCain, secretary of the North Car¬
olina Department of Cultural Resources.
And it’s the heart and soul of the state.
For decades, the state known for its
tobacco and textiles has been fertile soil
for writers, dancers, musicians and other
ai lists called to express themselves. Today.
North Carolina stands out as a place
where traditional craftsmen and women
like Scagrovr potter Nell fade Graves
work alongside contemporaiy artists such
as glassmasicr Billy Bernstein and film¬
maker Sam ( Irogg. A rare blend of public
and private support, too. fosters a healthy
landscape in North Carolina where the
arts continue to grow.
“We have a very strong artist comnnini-
iv in the state that is just growing by leaps
and bounds." Regan says. “I think there* is
a real basic acceptance in all si/es of our
towns that the arts are important, and that
the arts make lire community a beltei
place."
More than 10,000 artists, in fact, live in
North Carolina, the 1990 United States
Census says. Others, like* Andy Griffith.
Doc Watson. Aretha Franklin and Charles
Kuralt, call il home. Almost every countv
has a local arts council, and more than
2.000 arts organizations and peri’orming
groups thrive.
The State of the Arts." as some call
North Carolina, deserves a standing ova¬
tion for the variety and diversity of its
artists. It gets a big hand. too. for its excel¬
lence in arts administration and arts edu¬
cation, rays Ed Dickey, state and regional
program director for the National Endow¬
ment for the Arts in Washington. D.C.
Much of die arts' success in the present
stems from its past.
"Every state has its own heritage and
rich traditions, but I think North Caroli¬
na stands out as much as any." Dickey says.
In 1790. William Cole started a small
pottery business near Asheboro. A centu¬
ry’ later, mountain folk crafted baskets
from native timbers and pieced quilts to
keep them warm. Near Currituck at the
northeastern tip of the state*, men who
knew the sounds and how to wield a knife
carved decoys of waterfowl flocking to the
coast.
Today, such traditions remain.
At the I lolly 1 (ill shop in Seagrove. Nell
( ’ole Graves, 8*1. swirls mud-gray clay on a
potter’s wheel as she has for 78 years. A
fifth-generation potter and daughter of
J.B. Cole. Graves passes on the tradition
to younger potters at the shop.
"I just love it." she rays. “My dad taught
me how. so that’s what I wanted to do."
Few people still make a fan vase like
Graves, or a graceful Rebecca pitcher with
its long, high handle. But she wouldn't tell
you so. “I don't want to be bragging.” she
says.
Guitarist Jerry Brown and the Shady
Grove Band of Chapel Mill make blue-
grass their mission, traveling the globe to
share the music of mountains from the
1940s. They pick out tunes made famous
by I .ester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and Bill
Monroe, and write a few of their own like
A rare blend of public
and private support has
made North Carolina a
shining example for
what the arts can mean
to a state.
By Sarah Friday
“Golden Highway” and “Crucl-Hcaricd
Wind."
They play to teach. Brown says, sound¬
ing off three-part harmonies, switching
leads and improvising on the melodics so
often heard in old-time bluegrass. "But."
Brown adds, “we enjoy playing this music,
number one.”
Many more gifted artists across the state
build on our rich cultural heritage — as
in the Qualla Arts &- Crafts Mutual in
Cherokee and the* John C. Campliell Folk
School in Brasstown.
"North Carolina has a rich folk art tra¬
dition that, in the last 13 to 20 years, we
have tried to focus on and encourage."
Regan says.
Watermark, a craft co-op in Camden
County, trains about 730 artists in folk
crafts to help foster the Albemarle Sound
region's economy. And a new project,
called HandMadc in America, will give
artists in a 16-county area near Asheville a
similar boost.
"Our whole focus is based on the
premise that we can make western North
Carolina the* center of handmade objects
in the United States." says project coordi¬
nator Becky Anderson. Already, the re¬
gion boasts the fourth-largest con¬
centration of craftspeople in the United
States, behind New York, San Francisco
The Statr/Januaiy 1995
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