WILMINGTON — Roughly 29 nonprofit agencies and 26 area artists will benefit from a $100,000 windfall allocated by the Arts Council of Wilmington/New Hanover County in its latest round of grants.
A presentation of the awarded money will be given at the art council’s Jingle & Mingle reception on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 6 p.m., at the Dreams Center for Arts Education, 901 Fanning St.
Nonprofits agencies are being covered by the North Carolina Arts Council’s Grassroots Arts Program, which provides funding to all 100 statewide counties for arts programming.
Individual artist grants are given to creators from New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, Bladen, and Columbus counties, and help fund professional development projects.
“By providing programming support and professional development, we invest in wide-ranging arts experiences for residents and cultural tourists to New Hanover County,” local arts council director Rhonda Bellamy said in a released statement.
Last year, a national study indicated in New Hanover County, the arts drive $75 million in economic impact. It showed around $19.3 million comes from spending by nonprofit organizations, with the financial boost supporting more than 1,200 jobs, $40.3 million in income to residents, $1.3 million in local tax revenue, $2 million in state taxes, and $8 million in federal taxes.
Below are the 2024 recipients of the nonprofit grants:
| Big Dawg Productions: $2,325 | The Playwright Project will develop a full-length unproduced play in SENC | |
| Black Arts Alliance, INC – The NC Black Film Festival: $4,000 | The 22nd North Carolina Black Film Festival | |
| Brooklyn Arts Music Academy: $2,500 | Supports the Music is Life! program | |
| Cape Fear Chorale: $1,200 | Fall 2024/Spring 2025 Concerts | |
| Cape Fear Cultural Association of India: $2,000 | Journey Through India’s Most Adored Festivals: Celebrating Colors, Culture and Tradition | |
| Carolina Beach Mural Project: $2,500 | Get on Board with CB100 | |
| Chamber Music Wilmington: $3,000 | Taking it to the Streets | |
| Children’s Museum of Wilmington: $3,000 | Wall Mural for the Children’s Museum of Wilmington | |
| Delta Foundation of the Cape Fear: $2,500 | A Celebration of African American Arts and Culture | |
| Forward Motion Dance Company: $2,500 | Arts in Motion | |
| Fried Fruit Art Space: $3,000 | UNCW’s off-campus Fried Fruit Art Space Exhibition Series | |
| Harrington Repertory Theatre: $1,000 | Production of “Shakers Revised” | |
| Mouths of Babes Theatre: $2,500 | Scotopia: A New Works Theatre Festival | |
| North Carolina Jazz Festival (NCJF): $4,000 | North Carolina Jazz Festival music workshops | |
| Opera House Theatre Company: $3,000 | Supports the Access Theatre Program | |
| Opera Wilmington: $3,000 | Production of “Tosca” | |
| Performance Club Theatre Company (PCTC): $2,500 | Summer Stock youth productions | |
| Port City Music Festival: $3,000 | 17th Annual Port City Music Festival 2025 | |
| Port City Playwrights Project: $1,200 | Production of Ten-Minute Miscellany | |
| Society for the Enjoyment of Art: $1,000 | Cape Fear Youth Art Education Program | |
| Techmoja Dance and Theatre Company: $2,500 | Production of “The Scottsboro Boys” | |
| Thalian Association Community Theatre: $4,017 | Youth Theatre is For Everyone | |
| Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Inc: $4,000 | Gaspard & Dancers at Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts | |
| The Dance Cooperative: $500 | Dance-a-lorus | |
| Turning the Wheel Productions, Inc.: $3,000 | Fall and Spring Programming | |
| University of North Carolina at Wilmington: $3,000 | Modern Warrior LIVE | |
| WHQR: $1,500 | Special Arts Programming during Black History Month | |
| Wilmington Jewish Film Festival: $3,000 | 11th Annual Wilmington Jewish Film Festival | |
| Wilmington Symphonic Winds: $4,000 | 2024-2025 Season (3 Concerts) | |
| Total: $75,242 |
Below are the 2024 recipients of the individual grants:
FILM/PODCAST
- Marybeth Bradbury, Pender — $1,000 for the production of “Real Deal Divas,” an innovative audio and video podcast series hosted by a writer and a painter
- Rayana Briggs, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase of camera and accessories and studio rental fees to expand Road to Representation consulting agency for the entertainment industry.
- Travis Corpening, Brunswick — $1,000 for the production of a short film/musical performance of an original piece titled “Black Fire: The Unfinished Story of a Port City”
- Rachel Lewis-Hilburn, Brunswick — $1,000 for the production of “Speaking of Trees,” a series of cinematic hikes in North Carolina forests
- Robin Robertson, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase of a camera to continue production of “Just Sayin’ Songs,” twelve videos/songs by Margaret Kerry, the first ‘Tinkerbell’ human model for Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan”
VISUAL ARTS
- Joseph Bounds, New Hanover — $1,000 for travel expenses to join in a wood firing in Dillsboro, NC
- Bradley Carter, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase of Pro-Panels, two wall bins, and a pro-panel table for use at art festivals.
- Carolyn Faulkner, New Hanover — $1,000 for the creation of eight to 12 large-scale acrylic paintings
- Shannon Gehen, New Hanover — $1,000 for the purchase of a new Skutt digital kiln
- Brian Jones, New Hanover — $1,000 for equipment and tools for the creation of intricate and detailed metal sculpture
- Sarah Marcus, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase a new tabletop kiln that will work for silver clay firing and also for kiln enameling
- Susan Polizzotto, Pender — $666.27 to purchase of materials and equipment to wet mount shodo, Japanese calligraphy
THEATER
- Carolyn Colby Millis, New Hanover — $1,000 for the creation of “Echoes of Time,” a series of mixed-media artworks that integrate historical photographs, personal stories, and modern visual techniques
- LJ Woodard, New Hanover — $1,000 to participate in the Broadway Teachers Workshop to support youth theatre education at the Performance Club Theater Company
- Terrill Williams, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase of a sewing machine, serger, and supplies to create costumes for theater productions
- Sara Sommers, New Hanover — $945 for Sara Sommers and Cathy Street to co-write an original musical, INK’D, about a tattoo parlor, its owner, and the unlikely collection of customers united in a larger story when trapped by a snowstorm
MUSIC
- Amanda Hoke, New Hanover — $1,000 for KinderFlute and Colour Flute Training, group class and studio materials, pedagogical resources creation, and personal website and Flute Examiner website update
- Jessica Landes, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase of amplification equipment for musical gigs
- Jack O’Connell, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase traditional equipment to establish the Cape Fear Highlanders, a bagpipe band
DANCE
- Wells Jackson. Brunswick — $1,000 for production of “ASPHYXIA,” a contemporary ballet work about men’s mental health to be presented at Cucalorus Film Festival
- Lesa Broadhead, New Hanover — $750 for choreography and costumes for “Visions and Revelations”
LITERARY
- Summer Hammond, New Hanover — $1,000 to fund a memoir titled “The Poison House” that explores severe and unusual chronic illness due to high levels of formaldehyde in her family’s trailer home.
- KaToya Fleming, Brunswick — $1,000 to purchase of a computer and website to promote published works, including “Finding Frank,” a bibliomemoir about author Frank Yerby
- Elizabeth Claire Nakamura, New Hanover — $1,000 for printing, promotion, and travel for“Fin-tastic Shark Tooth Coloring,” a children’s coloring/activity book and companion illustrated book
- Mary Christine Parks, New Hanover — $1,000 for editing services on a middle-grade fiction manuscript, “The Stars Above Glow Ethereal,” highlighting the decline of mental health in children and adolescents
- Kathy Sohar, New Hanover — $1,000 to purchase equipment to produce web-based puppetry content for both children and adults
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