Mark Your Calendars!

Winter Class Registration Opens Tomorrow at 10am.

Clay Studio Update

We are well on our way to getting the space ready for clay classes and do expect to begin clay classes in January, but we will be delaying the start of clay class registration until December 17.

Lillianna Hoffman – DAC Arts Education Coordinator

Lillianna (She/Her) is a bilingual raku artist from Pittsboro, North Carolina. She recently graduated summa cum laude from Long Island University Global College, a four-year interdisciplinary program with international study for three years. She has lived, worked, and studied in over 10 countries but spent most of her time abroad in Costa Rica, where she became fluent in Spanish. Lillianna’s undergraduate academic focus was on the role of community-based arts in movements for Indigenous self-determination. Through this focus she has worked with community arts organizations across the globe, including the Cooperativa San-Guai in Costa Rica, Kii Tai Education & Culture in Aotearoa, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina, and Seventh Native American Generation Magazine in Pomo Country, California. In her professional work, Lillianna has taught ceramics classes to all ages. She believes that arts education can provide therapeutic and social justice purposes on both personal and communal levels. Lillianna’s personal interest in the arts crosses many disciplines, but centers around pottery. She collects and processes her own clay, and is extremely knowledgeable about alternative firings such as wood firing, pit firing, and raku.

Veronika Payne – DAC Public Art Assistant

Veronika (She/Her) is a Fine Arts student at Durham Technical Community College who has a passion for all things arts. She was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, and raised in Durham, North Carolina. She was previously a part of a non-profit known as Partners for Youth Opportunity, now known as Durham Children’s Initiative. She Graduated in 2017 from the School for the Creative Studies in Durham. During the summer of that same year, she was an intern for Triangle Land Conservancy. During her time there she helped photograph multiple land conservations as well as helping with administrative work and event advertising.  In 2018 Veronika sold her first painting, “American Black Boy'', through a Durham Arts Council gallery exhibition curated by the Nasher Museum Teen Council.  In summer of 2019, she collaborated with a group of local artists to paint a mural for the City of Durham that is located at Westover Park. She plans to obtain her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and travel abroad. Some of her hobbies include Painting, Drawing, Sculpting, Fashion Design, Cosmetology, and Photography. She is most excited about embarking on her new endeavor as the DAC Public Art Assistant in collaboration with the Durham SmART Program.

Aubrey Wellfare – Director of Creative Arts in Public/Private Schools & Community Partnerships. 

Aubrey (She/Her) comes to Durham Arts Council and Durham after 5 years with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, a program of Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, based in Vienna, VA. Her work there involved coordinating classroom residencies with teaching artists, professional development workshops, and family engagement events for early childhood educators and communities across the state of Virginia. She looks forward to connecting with the people and arts community of Durham as she transitions into her new role as CAPS Director. Aubrey is a native Oklahoman with a passion for creating engaging arts education opportunities for all communities. Her interest in the arts stems from playing the piano and viola from a young age and extended to arts management as a young adult. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Business from Oklahoma City University. In 2014, she moved to the Washington, DC metro area to pursue a Master of Arts in Arts Management at American University. During her time there, she worked with arts organizations to support young and emerging professional artists such as Strathmore, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the Katzen Arts Center at American University.

Heather Bell is the 2022 Piedmont Laureate!

Durham Arts Council is pleased to announce that Heather Bell Adams, a Raleigh-based fiction writer, has been selected as the region's 2022 Piedmont Laureate. During 2022, Bell Adams will appear at virtual and in-person programming, including workshops, reading programs and speaking engagements throughout Durham, Orange and Wake counties. The Durham County Library co-sponsors Piedmont Laureate programs with the Durham Arts Council in Durham.

Bell Adams’ novels, Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017) and The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books 2020) appear on reading lists for Deep South Magazine, Writer’s Bone, The Big Other, and Buzz Feed. Winner of an IPPY gold medal, Next Generation Book Award, Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Award, Carrie McCray Literary Award, and James Still Fiction Prize, Heather’s fiction and literary scholarship are featured in The Thomas Wolfe Review, Atticus Review, Pembroke Magazine, The Petigru Review, Broad River Review, and other journals. A lifelong North Carolinian, Heather frequently speaks at literary conferences and leads writing workshops.

Don't miss the latest blog post by our 2021 Piedmont Laureate, Kelly Starling Lyon.

North Star Church of the Arts is hiring!

Part time (20 hours per week) as the Executive Director. Transition to full time anticipated. 

The Public Art Committee (PAC) is accepting new member applications for two vacancies, with membership terms ending on 6/30/2023 and 6/30/2024.

New Member Applications are due Friday, December 3, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

The City of Durham's Cultural and Public Art Program (the “City”) and Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR) are seeking artists or artist teams with experience in creating public art that fosters a unique sense of place based on community-informed designs for the New Athletic Park on Hoover Road to support a welcoming user-experience.  The selected artist or artist team will have a total public art project budget of $50,000, including artist fees, artist-design, community engagement, fabrication, and documentation of the artwork on site.

Deadline: Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 11:59 PM EST 

Request For Qualifications Document is located here.

Have you been postponing an event since 2019?? Book at DAC today!

It's time to start planning your next event with Durham Arts Council!  We are excited to help you plan a safe and exciting return to our facility!

Contact fmarin@durhamarts.org for rental information and availability.

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About the Durham Arts Council

The Durham Arts Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and local arts agency dedicated to supporting the arts in Durham and the entire Triangle Region in North Carolina and has served the community since 1954. Each year DAC serves over 400,000 visitors and program participants, over 2,000 artists, and more than 300 arts and cultural organizations through classes, artist residencies, exhibits, festivals, grants programs, technical support, creative economy initiatives, arts advocacy, and information services.

Durham Arts Council, Inc. is a catalyst in the cultural development of Durham - it leads, inspires, and promotes excellence in and access to the creation, experience, and active support of the arts for all the people of our community. For more information call 919.560.ARTS(2787) or visit our website at www.durhamarts.org.

You Shop. They Give.

Want to help make a difference while you shop in the Amazon app, at no extra cost to you? Simply follow the instructions below to select "Durham Arts Council Inc" as your charity and activate AmazonSmile in the app. They'll donate a portion of your eligible mobile app purchases to us.

How it works:
1. Open the Amazon app on your phone
2. Select the main menu (=) & tap on "AmazonSmile" within Programs & Features
3. Select "Durham Arts Council Inc" as your charity
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate AmazonSmile in the mobile app