Program Brings Together Many Facets of Arts Community

Through the Arts Carolina link on UNC's home page, you can instantaneously check the dates of that Lab! Theatre show that intrigued you or the time for Tift Merritt's performance at the Student Union.

Three years ago, no such comprehensive collator existed at UNC to bind together the various campus and community arts organizations. To search for theatrical or musical performances required minute scouring of newspaper ads. To learn about new exhibitions sometimes meant physical visits to the galleries.

And now the entire Chapel Hill arts palette rests a few keystrokes away.

"Arts Carolina has given a central portal to increased attention to what's going on on campus," said Andy Berner, director of communications at Ackland Art Museum.

According to Arts Carolina Director Amy Brannock, initial interest in a central arts publicity machine germinated from late Chancellor Michael Hooker's report on the University's intellectual climate. Parts of the report stressed non-traditional avenues of learning such as attending exhibitions, concerts and performances.

Former Vice Provost Tom Meyer then brought together campus "arts folks" to discuss their needs and challenges.

As they explored the arts as an integral part of UNC's community, they recalled renowned arts alumni such as Thomas Wolfe, Charles Kuralt and Doris Betts and determined that the arts at Chapel Hill deserved a visibility worthy of its predecessors.

Such a penetrating presence demanded increased collaboration among departments and the inclusion of town and state arts organizations. Once the newborn Arts Carolina had secured financial resources and office space, the university hired Brannock to wield the conductor's wand.

The three-year pilot program officially opened in January 2000.

As it began, Arts Carolina continued to operate largely through collaboration and cooperation across departments. Brannock said she does 50 percent of her work in meetings with professors and administrators.

"(Arts Carolina) put us in contact with other departments on campus and has given us an opportunity to collaborate," said Carrie Anne Spinelli, community relations coordinator at Morehead Planetarium.

Outside of the conference room, Arts Carolina fueled the campuswide collaboration on the Sept. 11 tribute wall in 2001.

"It was not something we could have anticipated in that we would fulfill that need in that way," Brannock said. "We didn't plan for it at all, but when it happened it just felt like the natural thing to do."

Brannock and company coordinated students from the Carolina Union Activities Board, the Campus Y and dramatic arts, among others, while assisting them in the conception, publicity, design, construction and execution of an artistic response.

More regularly, Arts Carolina encourages campus collaboration through its continued support of the Carolina Jazz Festival.

"I used the momentum of my office and the desire among departments to collaborate to make the event even bigger than it was originally planned," Brannock said. "I was the energy to bring people to the table to discuss what their role would be."

Brannock's energy cemented Arts Carolina's role as the central arts locator when she won an arts link on UNC's home page.

"The arts programs at UNC were very disjointed with no communication," she said. "The Web designers could eventually see that it was valuable to have Arts Carolina on the home page."

Dozens of campus, community, state and even national arts organizations are linked to the Arts Carolina Web site, http://www.artscarolina.org, from course departments to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dozens more events appear not only on the Web site but in Arts Carolina's biannual publication, the Arts Carolina Preview, and on the UNC campus calendar. Arts Carolina also maintains an arts infoline at 843-ARTS.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.