NC travels to DC for arts advocacy day

In North Carolina, art isn’t just a general education requirement that students take to graduate. It’s a representation of the passion and the culture of the state.

“The arts are incredibly strong and vibrant in this state, and they generate so many positive things for the state in the area of revenue, jobs, quality of life, pride of place,” said Sharon Moore, vice chair of Arts North Carolina, the state’s art advocacy program.

On March 23 and 24, Arts N.C. is joining hundreds of organizations and activists in Washington, D.C., to advocate for arts funding in an international day of lobbying: Arts Advocacy Day.

With Arts Advocacy Day, Arts N.C. is attempting to sustain funding for North Carolina arts programs and attain special grants from the federal government that can be dispersed on a state level.

“We’re hoping this year that (funding) stays the same or maybe even increases a little bit more,” said Terry Rhodes, dean of fine arts and humanities at UNC. “It’s not realistic to ask for big increases even though we’d like to see more increased funding.”

According to the North Carolina 2015 Arts Legislative Agenda, the board of directors of Arts N.C. is requesting $8.4 million in funding for the years 2015-17, which is down from the 2008-09 allocation of $11.5 million but up from 2013-14’s federal allocation of $7.2 million.

According to Moore, Arts N.C. only advocates for art funding in North Carolina but never receives any of the money. If the funding is received by the state from the federal government, she said the money must first go through the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources then through the N.C. Arts Council before it is distributed throughout the state.

“For us, it’s all about being able to make a difference in the state in which we live and to keep enhancing the quality of life here in our state and to celebrate the amazing work that’s being done,” Moore said.

Rhodes said certain art grants and initiatives could be more beneficial or successful at schools with more intensive art programs but also said the grants, like the arts, do have a place at UNC.

“(Last year), UNC received a grant from the U.S. State Department concerning hip-hop, and the music department is now using music for crisis intervention and working with cultural understanding,” Rhodes said. “That was over a million and a half dollar grant that came to UNC through having applied to this through the State Department for our arts program.”

Moore said she agrees it is important to reach out to college-aged youth like those at UNC because they are the ones who have the voice and the passion to turn to advocacy.

“We’re very interested in engaging the youth and the college students in the effort and getting them involved and teaching them the value of advocacy,” Moore said.

Kishan Rana, a freshman studio art minor, said he looks forward to the positive changes that could come from an increase in funding in North Carolina.

“We should invest in better equipment,” he said. “It would be nice to have supplies that everyone could use, too, but right now, we don’t really have that.”

According to Rhodes, UNC’s art program is primarily funded by state money, but the department of fine arts and humanities is hoping to attain special grants as a result of Arts Advocacy Day.

“It is critical that federal funding continues to help fund arts and humanities with some of the really important initiatives that are really critical to this country, its society, its culture, its living on as a vital, civilized country,” Rhodes said.

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