News Release

Carolina Performing Arts wins Creative Campus Innovations Grant

CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Performing Arts program has been chosen as one of eight college and university performing arts presenters to receive a Creative Campus Innovations Grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The grant will enable Carolina Performing Arts to present “Criminal/Justice” – a year-long exploration of issues surrounding criminal justice and capital punishment in America and its impact on the citizens of North Carolina.

The project supports the university’s mission to integrate the arts into the fabric of campus life.

“The arts are an integral part of Carolina’s academic environment,” said Chancellor James Moeser. “We are grateful for the national recognition the Creative Campus Innovations Grant provides. Exploring key societal issues through the arts contributes to a strong intellectual climate on campus.”

The Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program challenges campus-based arts presenters to integrate their programming more organically within the academic environment, embedding creative practice and dialogue within curricular-based activities, and engaging faculty, students and higher education leaders in innovative ways. The programs funded by the grants will become the basis for a set of case studies to offer models that will be made broadly available to institutions of higher education.

“Colleges and universities have been leading patrons of the arts for more than 100 years, and despite their presence on campuses in many forms and dimensions, the arts are not recognized as a priority in the same ways that science, sports or foreign language teaching are,” stated Sandra Gibson, president and chief executive officer of Arts Presenters. “The Creative Campus Innovations Program provides an opportunity to fully integrate the performing arts into the life of the academy, higher education and the community.”

The $103,165 grant is part of $990,500 in grants funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to strengthen the performing arts on college campuses. The eight recipients were chosen from among more than 180 preliminary proposals. Thirty campuses were invited to submit full proposals.

In addition to Carolina, this year’s grant recipients are: Dartmouth College; Hostos Community College; the universities of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska; and Stanford and Wesleyan universities.

“We are very pleased with this grant award. Receiving this grant is a strong testament to the success our program has achieved in just two years,” said Emil Kang, Carolina’s executive director for the arts.

Through collaborations with faculty, students and staff in drama, music, communication studies, folklore, law, medicine, education, journalism and mass communication, philosophy, political science, psychiatry, religious studies, and social work, as well as the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, the Center for the Study of the American South, Wilson Library, the Campus Y, PlayMakers Repertory Company, and the Ackland Art Museum, the project will feature performances, photography, art exhibits, historical exhibits, a film series, a student debate, a lecture series and panel discussions. A website and brochure will be created for the project. These thematic programs are in addition to the 2007-08 Carolina Performing Arts series.

 “The death penalty haunts us with questions of individual responsibility, our collective capacity for dispensing justice, the distorting impact of race, class, and gender, and the mysteries of the human heart,” said Jack Boger, dean of the UNC School of Law. “Allowing [these] voices…to emerge through the arts should provoke a year of moral questioning and interdisciplinary dialogue…touching the mind and spirit of all who take part.”

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters) is the largest national service and advocacy organization for the performing arts, and is dedicated to bringing artists and audiences together through presenting and touring. With over 2,100 members worldwide, Arts Presenters is committed to increasing community participation, promoting global cultural exchange and fostering an environment for the performing arts to thrive.

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The foundation’s assets currently total approximately $1.8 billion. Of its grants totaling close to $473 million to date, the foundation has approved approximately $156 million to support nonprofit performing arts organizations throughout the United States.

Association of Performing Arts Presenters Web site: www.artspresenters.org

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Web site: www.ddcf.org
Carolina Performing Arts Web site: www.carolinaperformingarts.org
Carolina Performing Arts contact: Don Smith, (919) 843-3119, don_smith@unc.edu