“Mayor. Pat. I want you to be my secretary of cultural resources.”
That’s how Sec. Susan Kluttz was asked to lead the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources by Gov. Pat McCrory more than year ago, and in a speech to the Salisbury Rotary Club earlier this month, the Secretary emphasized how her 14-year term as mayor of that city inspires her work today.
Among the many lessons she learned in Salisbury, Sec. Kluttz cited the importance of assembling a good team around her and the difference face-to-face communication—even with detractors—can make. She also noted how her years in Salisbury gave her concrete examples of the importance the arts, libraries, museums and historic preservation was to economic development, beyond being just “fluff.” She specifically mentioned using the arts for gang prevention activities, partnering with Rowan County Library to promote reading and leveraging historic preservation tax credits to spur millions of dollars in development and revitalization downtown.
Though the year has been a whirlwind, she still gets up excited to come to work for the people of North Carolina each day.
“What an extraordinary year this has been,” she said in her speech. “And what a wonderful opportunity I have had to work for a governor I respect and admire and believe in ... to take the message from Salisbury that arts, libraries and historic preservation translate into making the state an even better place, just like it has in Salisbury.”