2003-11-14

North Carolina was one of the few states to increase its 2003-4 arts funding (by $377,000). With a state economy stuck in reverse, says Byron Woods in the Independent Weekly (10/22/03), the arts were in for "the yearly ritual of death by a thousand cuts." But advocates petitioned and legislators came through. "A long tradition of state support for the arts fundamentally influenced the outcome," says Woods. Since 1940, N.C. started the first state symphony, state art museum, state school of the arts, department of cultural affairs and urban arts program. "So we weren't trying to convince legislators about something that they hadn't experienced in their own childhood, in public schools and across the state," Secretary of Cultural Resources Lisbeth Evans says.