Martin Tucker

You won't find it in that dusty Road Atlas. MapQuest won't pull it up. And Google won't zoom in on it from space. But it's real and we're in the center of it. It's the City of the Arts. For those who might equate it with the Easter Bunny, let's take a closer look. A good place to start is the National Black Theatre Festival, which is opening August 3rd. Originally called the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, it was founded in 1979 by Larry Leon Hamlin. Dr. Maya Angelou was the festival's first chairperson and the first year the NBTF produced 30 performances by 17 of the nation's best black theatre companies. Today the biennial festival produces dozens of performances across the city, provides workshops and seminars, attracts esteemed actors and actresses and brings over 65,000 people to Winston-Salem.

Since 1963, Winston-Salem has been home to Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., a guild founded by craft artists and collectors to honor "the work of the hand". Carrying on a tradition of meticulous crafts that began with the Moravian settlers of Salem, PCI today represents nearly 400 of the southeast's most talented artists in mediums ranging from handmade garments and jewelry to ceramics and photography. A panel of their peers juries every member in. PCI also gives back to the community by offering workshops and artist panel discussions and the work in their Arts District gallery ranks in quality with any gallery in the nation.

Speaking of the Arts District, the area of downtown Winston-Salem encompassing Trade and Liberty Streets and the intersecting cross streets offers a wealth of one of a kind artwork. In1985, artists and craftsmen began renovating the old brick buildings in the area into a cluster of vibrant studios and galleries. The Downtown Arts District Association was formed in 1998 by artists and shop owners who wanted to create an "arts community". Today DADA represents the artists and business owners, provides a community center for events and gallery showings and manages the first Friday Gallery Hop, which brings in hundreds of area art enthusiasts to shop the galleries, listen to music and dine at the various restaurants.

Sounding like the city of the arts yet? Twin City Stage (formerly The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem) was formed in 1935. Dorothy Knox, who presided over the first committee meeting, stated "a need of organized dramatics for Winston-Salem with the aim of building a permanent organization to present the best in Dramatic Art for the citizenry". Currently, Twin City Stage presents six main stage shows a season - four plays and two musicals. In addition, it offers outreach and education programs to students K-12 and adults. Everyone who sees a production swears they just saw a Broadway show and the list of plays and musicals performed over the years is truly a brilliant collection of drama and musical theatre.

Another theatre company with deep artistic roots in Winston-Salem is the Theatre Alliance. The mission of the Theatre Alliance, now in it's 26th season, is to "inspire, transform and unite the people of the Triad through a broad range of unique, diverse and unconventional theatrical experiences". And they deliver. If you haven't seen a Theatre Alliance production, you've probably heard about one. Their unique list of past and future shows balances out the theatrical offerings in the city and their new performance space is proof that "unconventional theatre" is alive and well.

RiverRun International Film Festival, founded in 1998 and held in Winston-Salem since 2003, is quickly becoming one of the foremost independent film showcases in the nation. The festival is held each spring and hosts a wide variety of short films, documentaries and full-length features in addition to panel discussions, retrospectives and the selection of and award to a prominent actor or filmmaker for their lifetime accomplishments in the industry. Every spring the city comes alive with sold-out presentations of new films and classics.

The list of visual and performing arts organizations is too long to present in detail and so are the artists who make Winston-Salem their home. They teach and create at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art, exhibit at Associated Artists and other galleries and perform in area clubs, restaurants and street festivals. They write and produce and paint and sculpt. They partner with the local school system, which provides art-in-education grants to professional artists. Winston-Salem has the Piedmont Opera (30 years old), Piedmont Wind Symphony, Arts-Based Elementary School, Children's Theatre, Winston-Salem Symphony (63rd season), Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, and the list just goes on and on… You can literally go out every night of the week and see or do something different.

How about the University of North Carolina School of the Arts - does that ring a bell? Young men and women are studying in the heart of Winston-Salem and going on to design, compose, perform and create all over the world! UNCSA was founded in 1963 as a conservatory of the performing arts by then-North Carolina governor Terry Sanford and was the first public arts conservatory in the nation. Today it continues to train and produce successful visual and performing artists who are also now beginning to return to the city and share their experiences and talent. A film school and film archives has been added that rivals any in the world. And UNCSA performs in the Stevens Center, thus preserving one of the city's performing and visual arts treasures.

And finally last, but far from least, is what's going on behind the scenes. The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County was established in 1949 and was the first locally established arts council in the United States. Today it funds and supports numerous individual artists and organizations and breaths life into the city of the arts. It sponsors arts-related events and provides educational opportunities for children and adults to learn more about art and what makes the community culturally rich. The men and women who make up the board of directors have a strong vision and mission of creating an environment in which the arts flourish and enrich the quality of all our lives. The crowning artistic jewel is now under way with funding by the Arts Council. The historic Sawtooth building is being renovated and expanded and will feature a black box theatre, public galleries and educational spaces for the citizens of Winston-Salem and the surrounding area. The new complex will be called the Downtown Center for the Arts and will instantly become the hub in the city of the arts.

For decades, artists and supporters of the arts have made Winston-Salem one of the most vibrant arts communities in the nation. The list above is just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens who weren't mentioned who also contribute to this tapestry that we call the city of the arts. And to top it off new artists, galleries, companies and supporters seem to appear every week. We don't aspire to be the city of the arts - we own it. So the next time someone asks what makes Winston-Salem the City of the Arts, simply ask them, "How long do you have?"