The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced today that Jeff Bell has been named as the next director of the North Carolina Arts Council. Bell currently serves as executive director of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum in Wilson and Arts Innovation coordinator for the city of Wilson. Bell brings more than two decades of arts experience to the role, including leadership positions at 21c Museum Hotel in Durham, CAM Raleigh, and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Nominations are open for the North Carolina Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor for traditional artists, until May 2. A program of the N.C. Arts Council, the Heritage Award honors active traditional artists, recognizes artistic excellence in a traditional art, celebrates contributions to communities, and promotes North Carolina’s cultural heritage.

Artists who are recognized within their communities as keepers of North Carolina’s living traditions may be nominated for the award. Anyone can nominate a traditional artist or group of artists for a N.C. Heritage Award.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its first round of recommended awards for the fiscal year 2022, totaling nearly $33.2 million, on Jan. 11. Of that amount, $540,000 was awarded to 28 North Carolina grant recipients from arts organizations, universities, theater companies, discipline-specific festivals, and museums.

In its continued effort to support the arts sector through the pandemic, the North Carolina Arts Council distributed $7.9 million in grant funds to arts organizations and artists across the state in FY21-22. The source of these funds was a combination of state, federal, and private dollars. The Arts Council awarded 378 grants in 12 categories.