Welcome to Lifestyle, the new home of arts coverage at The Daily Tar Heel

The Daily Tar Heel’s coverage of the arts is a bit like a story – it’s gone through various versions, passed into several hands and has an intricate plot. It's a story that is full of details about our paper and its history in our community.

It’s been Diversions, covering the arts in Chapel Hill in print editions and even hosting events in the early 2010s. 

It’s been Swerve, an online-focused platform in the late 2010s that covered topics of interest to our readers.

It’s been the Arts & Culture desk, which was incorporated into City & State and University coverage three years ago.

Starting in the 2023-24 academic year, it will become Lifestyle, returning the arts to its own section once again. But the Lifestyle desk is focused on more than arts coverage — we’ll be writing about life. 

Lifestyle’s coverage will be centered on the community, both on and off campus. 

The section will cover film, fashion, music, food and drink, literature and visual and performing arts in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We will feature and include the creative spaces and people all around us.

We will report on the trends and interests of local readership, connecting larger cultural movements and ideas to UNC and Orange County.

We want to hear what readers are thinking and feeling, and we will reflect those diverse perspectives through columns and articles.

Reporters will get involved in the community by attending events, galleries, performances and readings. They’ll talk to local creators and businesses and highlight the impact of campus and Triangle-based creativity on our area.

The Lifestyle section aims to reflect and uplift the everyday life of our readership, exploring the details that make their experiences unique and meaningful.

A large part of this goal is ensuring that our content is inclusive, culturally sensitive and promotes equity and justice. 

Featuring and uplifting the experiences of people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals and disabled members of the community is a necessity for our coverage, and we will seek such voices for all of our stories.

Our world is better because of these communities and my own understanding of the world has been enriched by their perspectives and art. 

We are entering a new season of arts and culture coverage at The DTH, and I couldn’t be more excited and honored to be this desk’s editor for the 2023-24 school year.

I have been dreaming of doing arts reporting full-time since I joined the paper’s staff as a City & State writer in the spring of my first year.

As a reporter and editor since then, I have covered both City and University news at The DTH — affordable housing, affirmative action, state elections and student life.

But as someone who loves and participates in the arts, I’ve attended concerts and festivals and book readings and art shows and launch parties. I page through student publications to find my friends’ work and constantly stop to take photos of brightly-colored posters on Franklin Street’s crowded telephone poles.

I’ve learned more about what it means to be a writer and a lover of art from the community that I found living in Chapel Hill, and it is my sincerest hope that Lifestyle pays back the favor.

In order to do so, we want your input. Fill out this survey to let us know what coverage you’d like to see. 

We take your feedback seriously and want Lifestyle to be the best service to our readers that it can be.

The Lifestyle section is guaranteed to evolve into a better version of a larger story as the year goes on. As we begin our work, I am excited to see how the ideas we have about life in Chapel Hill and Carrboro expand.

@eliza_benbow

@dailytarheel | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

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