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The National Arts Program logo
UA awards local artists cash grant awards in support of professional development initiatives. Of the over $49,000 in... More...
Kresge Foundation
UA learned in November that it has been awarded a $65,000 Capacity Building grant from the Kresge... More...
Poet Laureate logo icon
Highly acclaimed Durham County novelist Zelda Lockhart has been selected as the region’s 2010 Piedmont Laureate. More...
The National Arts Program logo
The exhibition, featuring artwork by City of Raleigh and Wake County employees More...
 
NC Creative Economy
NC Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Linda A. Carlisle has unveiled the findings of new research that shows that the Creative Industry in NC... More...
 
Mount Vernon Middle School
Writer Howard Craft will guide students from Mt. Vernon Middle School in a week-long... More...
 
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? plate
UAC and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Comm. are now accepting nominations for their annual BSAA... More...
 
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? plate
Project Education: Edutopia, a partnership between WRAL-TV and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, has uncovered an elementary school where an arts-based cirriculumn is raising test scores. click here for more information in a new browser window More...
 
United Arts Council Exhibit
Exhibition Opportunities in Wake County
United Arts of Raleigh and Wake County sponsors exhibitions in the Wake County Commissioners Office in downtown Raleigh and at Wake Medical Center on New Bern Ave. If you are interested in exhibiting your two-dimensional work in either location in 2010, please send inquiries to Jennifer McIntyre at jmcintyre@unitedarts.org or 839-1498, ext 301.
Current Exhibits
Marcy Lansman   Jenn Parrigin   Nona Short
These companies are getting involved. More...
 
For more news and opportunities, please visit our News section. More...
Introduction
United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake CountyUnited Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, based in Raleigh, NC, was incorporated in 1990. Our vision is one of a community that values the arts, and we work toward building better communities through support and advocacy of the arts. The United Arts Council is a united arts fund, offering grants in support of arts programming to organizations, schools, communities and individual artists. United Arts also provides services to the community such as advocacy, resource development, professional/leadership development and special projects. The grants, programs and services of United Arts reach over 1.5 million people annually in Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Holly Springs, Knightdale, Morrisville, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon, NC. Of these, 39% are youth; 21%, seniors; 64%, white; 16%, African-American; 9%, Asian/Pacific; 9%, Latino; and 2%, other.
 
United Arts provides grants in support of arts programming presented in the NC Museum of Art, NC Museum of History, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Marbles Kids Museum, Visual Art Exchange, Artspace, K-12 school auditoriums, WakeMed, City of Raleigh Arts Commission (National Art Exhibition), major venues such as the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh, smaller venues such as the Garner Historic Auditorium, Holly Springs Cultural Center, Raleigh Little Theatre, Meredith College and Peace College auditoriums, Cary’s Bond Park Amphitheatre and Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency Park, other municipal parks and senior centers.
 
Types of art represented among grant recipients include: vocal and choral music, orchestral, symphonic and chamber music, bluegrass and traditional music, theatre and youth theatre, opera, modern dance, festivals, visual art, mime, puppetry, jazz music, ballet, quilting, storytelling, street painting, murals, origami, cultural/ethnic dance and music, writing, public art, printmaking, bookmaking, pottery, wire art, video sculpture, photography, film, and computer-generated art. Additionally, United Arts supports the work of Arts Access and Triangle Reading Radio Service that brings the arts closer to those with disabilities.
First Piedmont Laureate:
Jaki Shelton Green
Poem for December 2009:
 
i know the grandmother one
had hands
 
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always in bowls
folding, pinching, rolling the dough
making the bread
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always under water
sifting rice
blueing clothes
starching lives
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always in the earth
planting seeds
removing weeds
growing knives
burying sons
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always under
the cloth
pushing it along
helping it birth into
skirt
dress
curtains to lock out
night
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always inside
the hair
parting
plaiting
twisting it into rainbows
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always inside
pockets
holding the knots
counting the twisted veins
holding onto herself
lest her hands disappear
into sky
i know the grandmother one had hands
but they were always inside the clouds
poking holes for the
rain to fall.
 
 
by Jaki Shelton Green
 
 
 
Jaki Shelton Green's reflections on serving as the first Piedmont Laureate
 
 
As the first appointed NC Piedmont Laureate, I have come to cherish all the sound advice that has been offered to me over the years relative to what it takes to bring professional achievement as a writer within reach. The words of dancer, Twyla Tharp helped to guide me in my capacity as Laureate. “In order to be creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative”.
 
I am very grateful for this opportunity which has allowed me to meet the diversity of readers, writers, and lovers of the literary arts across our region. As Piedmont Laureate, many public audiences embraced my poetry, stories and craftsmanship. It was an honor for me to hear the “stories of their stories”, inspirations, and great ideas about creativity and poetry. These experiences have challenged me to understand the framework of preparation, accessibility, and the necessary skills needed to continue to facilitate artistic processes that engage, inspire, and connect.
 
I was fortunate to participate in several formal and informal dialogues with Piedmont poets who are pushing the boundaries within the literary community. Hopefully, my suggestions for creating, exploring, and expanding these shared conversations amongst poets will manifest into more innovative facilitations of support for established poets, emerging poets and non-traditional writers and audiences.
 
During my tenure as Piedmont Laureate, I lost my eldest daughter to cancer in June 2009. My grief has not allowed me to execute several projects, explorations, and community based programs that I initially proposed but I bravely continue to serve as best I can in the spirit of my courageous daughter, Imani, who always encouraged me to “keep moving”.
 
My family and I are sincerely grateful and will always cherish the compassionate support of the Raleigh Arts Commission, the Durham Arts Council, United Arts Council of Raleigh, and the Orange County Arts Commission. These Laureate sponsors, as well as my many colleagues in arts and humanities organizations, human service affiliates, political activists, local governments, private citizens, and my dear literary friends offered much consolation and continue to render endearing, heartfelt acts of kindnesses.
 
I have been honored by this opportunity to serve as the 2009 Piedmont Laureate. This new experience has deepened my appreciation for the outstanding and sometimes unheard poetry of the Piedmont. My mission as a writer has always been to help amplify the stories, the truths, on paper...to help transform humanity one poem, one verse at a time.
 
It is my hope that my personal mission significantly influenced and demonstrated the mission of the Laureate in my efforts to promote awareness and heightened appreciation for excellence in the literary arts throughout the Piedmont region.
 
Much peace and gratitude,
 
  Jaki Shelton Green
 
 
 
Reprinted with permission from Jaki Shelton Green
From “breath of the song” poetry collection
Jaki Shelton Green
Photograph by Andrea Selch
Breath of the Song available at Carolina Wren Press
Breath of the Song
available at Carolina Wren Press