Dear Friends of the Arts,
Thank you for your continued support of the arts and your help furthering CVNC’s mission to preserve local arts advocacy, critique, and arts literacy through journalism. We’d like to tell you what CVNC has been up to over the last 12 months, so you can see the direct impact that your support makes, both for our organization and the ones we serve.
NAME CHANGE
CVNC, formerly the Classical Voice of North Carolina, has changed our name to the Cultural Voice of North Carolina. CVNC remains committed to covering the fine arts across the state, but this change reflects the desire to fully embrace all of the unique cultural arts experiences present in the state. Never fear – we will continue fully cover our historically loved classical art forms! But North Carolina has so much more to offer and is unique in having excellent representation of incredible artists and presenters across the artistic board, from opera to bluegrass, art exhibition to intersectional arts collective.
2022 COVERAGE BY ART FORM
This calendar year to date, CVNC has published over 300 articles that range in scope from news announcements, preview articles and presenter features, with over 200 event and media reviews. Our reviews of local events and media covered:
- 3 films with North Carolina connections
- 7 visual art exhibitions/installations
- 7 folk and world music performances
- 18 dance performances encompassing ballet/modern/contemporary, and dance theatre
- 19 jazz and contemporary music concerts
- 21 audio recordings;
- 61 musicals, staged theater shows, and operas
- 100 orchestral, chamber, and choral performances
“Thank you so much for your support… You were tremendously helpful with getting the word out to our audiences. The arts community in North Carolina is so fortunate to have the resources that you all are providing at CVNC! CVNC’s work is incredibly vital to all of the artists in your area.” – Martie Perry, Heartland Baroque, Sep 23, 2022
2022 COVERAGE BY REGION
- Eastern (from Greenville east): 21
- Triangle area: 68
- Triad area: 79
- South-Central (greater Charlotte area): 36
- Western (from Statesville west): 28
- Media, Statewide, and/or Unassigned: 5
“I have been fortunate to be in many performances reviewed by CVNC authors throughout the years, with Piedmont Opera, the Winston-Salem Symphony, Music Carolina Summerfest and on and on! I have always valued the thoughtful and intelligent writing that CVNC puts into everything published, and am grateful for all that you do to support North Carolina artists! – Jodi Burns, Soprano, May 25, 2022
DIVERSITY
We placed a special emphasis this year on covering culturally significant and diverse events. We actively continue to seek out events that involve artists who are:
- Black
- Latinx
- Indigenous
- Peoples of color
- LGBTQ+
- Neurodivergent
- Disabled and/or require accommodations
We continually mean to improve our inclusion of art forms and offerings that represent artists and audiences from all NC’s heritages and traditions.
To that end, we have also been reevaluating the inclusivity and diversity of our leadership as well as our contracted writers. We hope to not only cover events from different cultural traditions, but for our writers to be able to communicate a variety of viewpoints. While we strive to hire professionals in their art forms as well as talented writers, journalists, and arts administrators, the nature of arts critique relies on personal opinions and cultural context. We want to share a range of experiences and relationships that celebrates the diversity of viewpoints and relationships with the NC arts landscape.
“Thank you for [the] lovely review and note. You all have given me so many wonderful notices over the years. CVNC is a priceless resource to the arts in NC.” – Mike Wiley, playwright, Mike Wiley Productions, 22 November 2021
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
We also believe in preserving and improving the tradition of arts journalism by training and nurturing upcoming writers and arts professionals. Last fall we fully embraced our internship program, hiring 14 students in both undergraduate and postgraduate studies from various backgrounds across the state. These students attended events of their choice both inside and outside of their areas of expertise, received mentoring from our subject editors, were paid for their writing, and now have their body of work published with us as a portfolio to propel them towards new pursuits of their choice. Some of these writers have progressed through the internship program and become a critical part of our regular calendar listings as reviewers.
Congratulations and thanks to all of the talented interns from this year!
Aneesah Abdur-Razzaq, UNC Greensboro, Drama and Dance Studies
Tanner Benson, UNC Wilmington, Critical Film Studies
Josh Bottoms, UNC Greensboro, Clarinet Performance
Kelsey Carlisle, UNC School of the Arts, Piano Performance
Lakota Craft, UNC Pembroke, Mass Communications and Professional Writing
Abigail Elise Domorod, UNC Greensboro, Vocal Music and Musicology
Emmeline MacMillian, UNC Greensboro, Violin Performance
Michelle Medina, Catawba College, Musical Theatre and Music Education
Melanie Moseley, North Carolina Central University, Music – Instrumental Performance
Samantha Oleschuk, Appalachian State University, Art & Visual Culture and Art Management
Christian T. Roberts, Appalachian State University, Studio Art and English
Kristin Sands, Salem College, Alto Saxophone Performance
Danielle Schroeder, Montreat College, Piano Performance
Chloe White, UNC Greensboro, Jazz Studies: Saxophone Performance
“This review mean[s] so much to the students who worked SO HARD this semester and the exposure is a boost to the opera theater program.” – David Heid, Duke University Music, Nov 23, 2021
NEXT STEPS
COVID-19 illustrated the need for reliable, up-to-date technology. While our website has served us well and was ahead of its time for online arts journalism, we seek to become “THE” place for arts lovers to go, in a modern and user-friendly package. To that end, we are also embarking on a rebranding campaign to reflect the cultural shifts we are making towards greater modernity, inclusivity, and accessibility.
CVNC’s website update and rebranding project will cost $9432. This figure includes the time-consuming data migration of our archive of events from 2001, which to us is an absolute necessity.
Planned updates include:
Major cosmetic updates for a visually-driven, engaging site
Increased accessibility features like captioning, alt-text, and screen-reader compatibility
A user-friendly and comprehensive search function
Streamlined back-end editing to speed up publishing and editing times, and enable dynamic photos and videos
A new logo professionally designed by a local graphic artist, to be presented in a relaunch campaign over the course of 2023-2024
A complete archive of all of our articles since 2001 – we commit to retaining NC’s recorded arts history even as we continue to move forward!
WHERE YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS GO
Each published review costs CVNC $100 to produce, which goes directly pays both the critic and the editor. In addition to our 30 contracted writers across the state, we pay 3 editors and 3 administrative staff who work as efficiently as they can to keep overhead costs down. While there are many important events statewide every month, we need your support to reach as many as we can. There is a significant desire from presenters to be covered! State grants, advertising, and corporate support go a long way, but your individual contributions can help us grow to meet this demand.
HOW YOUR GIFT CAN HELP
A single $1000 donation can bring us 1/10 of the way to our goal for the website update. Become a Platinum-Level Donor that will be permanently listed on our website.
A monthly $100 contribution supports one review every month and qualifies you as a Gold-Level Donor that will be acknowledged annually on our website.
Any single donation $500-$999 will qualify you as a Silver-Level Donor that will be acknowledged annually on our website.
Any single donation of $499 and under will qualify you as a Bronze-Level Donor that will be acknowledged annually on our website.
Let us know if you’d like to donate “in honor of,” “in memory of,” or “in support of” a specific writer, arts organization, artist, person, or community – we can recognize your support on our acknowledgements page.
Can we count on you to help support strong arts journalism in North Carolina?
Make a contribution through PayPal: CVNC.ORG Website Upgrade
Send checks to:
Cultural Voice of North Carolina
9650 Strickland Road, Suite 103-353
Raleigh NC 27615
We will mail you a donation acknowledgement letter that includes our Tax ID number.
Thank you for your support!
CVNC STAFF
Andrea McKerlie Luke – Executive Director
Maggie Pate – Editor in Chief
Matthew Hager – Theatre Editor
Chelsea Huber – Music, Art, & Dance Editor
Tanner Benson – Calendar Editor
CVNC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Colin Campbell, Board Chair
Dr. Jim Waddelow, Board Vice-Chair
Irene Burke, Treasurer
Lawrence Bivins
Kelsey Carlisle
Elizabeth Thompson
Cultural Voice of North Carolina, Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization supported by the City of Raleigh based on recommendations of the Raleigh Arts Commission; The N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; and the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County. Major support also comes from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation; The Bill and Judy Watson Fund for the Arts of The Winston-Salem Foundation; Brenda Bruce Foundation; The Estate of Gabriella Falk; The Estate of William Walker; and The Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund of Renaissance Charitable Foundation. We thank all of our individual donors, cooperating presenters and in-kind partners, and you, our readers!
