From murals to dance and DJ Spooky, how the Carolinas spent $84M in NEA funds
Over the past 27 years, arts and culture groups across the Carolinas have turned to puppets, pottery and poetry while spending nearly $84 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
But the future of those funds are in doubt, as President Donald Trump is again threatening to kill the agency. At least four groups in the Charlotte region were told last week they were losing their NEA grants totaling nearly $100,000 part of a national clawback effort for federal funds.
As arts and cultural groups wrestle with what this means for them, we wanted to take a look at some of the uses over the years in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Since the 1998 fiscal year, the NEA provided 1,407 grants in the Carolinas worth nearly $84 million, an Observer analysis of federal data found. Here are some of the highlights:
▪ In the Charlotte region on both sides of the border, 207 grants totaled just over $5 million since 1998. Individual grants ranged in size from $2,450 for Winthrop University to $150,000 for the Mint Museum as part of COVID aid to help arts groups survive.
▪ The median grant in the Charlotte region was $15,000.
▪ Three groups had over 20 grants since 1998: Charlotte Ballet had 23, totaling $342,500; Mint Museum had 20, totaling $652,000; and the McColl Center also had 20 grants, toiling $565,000. Those three groups also had the most grant money awarded in the Charlotte region since 1998. The Mint’s total ranked ninth of all 377 groups in the Carolinas.
▪ Overall for the Carolinas, the biggest single grant for either state came during the first year of COVID in 2020, with $1.9 million to the NC Arts Council and nearly $1.7 million to the SC Arts Commission. Other highlights from across North and South Carolina include:
▪ Outside of the state art commissions, the individual groups with the most NEA grant money were the American Dance Festival of Durham, $2 million, Spoleto Festival of Charleston, $1.2 million and UNC Chapel Hill, $1.1 million.
Here are some NEA grants in Charlotte and Rock Hill region
An eclectic list of projects over the years for the Charlotte and Rock Hill region included:
▪ Alliance for American Quilts in Morganton, $20,000 in 2023 to support research, documentation and care of quilts.
▪ The Allegro Foundation of Charlotte, $12,000 in 2007, to support dance classes targeted for children in CMS with physical and learning disabilities.
▪ Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture, $40,000 in 2014, to support the fourth phase of a digital plan for the John Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art.
▪ Catawba Indian Nation of Rock Hill, $50,000 to support the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project.
▪ Davidson College professor Jack Jung (NEA fellowship), $25,000 last year to support the translation from Korean to English of the multi-genre collection “Thus Spoke n’t” by South Korean author Kim Hyesoon.
▪ Lancaster County (SC) Educational Foundation, $30,000 in 2007 to support a Catawba Indian pottery exhibit
▪ McColl Center, $25,000 in 2015 to support residencies serving Chicano artists.
▪ Obey Foundation of Charlotte, $20,000 in 2017, to support the Drums 4 Life program, where incarcerated youth get instruction in West African drumming techniques and drum construction.
▪ UNC Charlotte, $26,792 in 2020, to support an exploratory study examining how individuals and organizations in Charlotte conceptualize the social impact of the arts.
▪ Waterworks Visual Art Center of Salisbury, a $28,000 grant in 2003 to support a public art memorial to honor African American history at the site of the Freedman’s Cemetery. Deeded to serve as a burial ground for African Americans in 1770, over the last century, portions of the cemetery were violated, bodies disinterred and all markers removed.
▪ Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, a $35,000 grant in 2023 to support the production of “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, adapted by Paige Hernandez. It’s a play that address the ways kids cultivate resilience and courage.
Old-time music, a life of Christ mural and the ‘Yoga Play’
Other grants across the Carolinas also were an eclectic mix. They included:
▪ Central Baptist Church of Charleston, $15,000 in 2003 for restoration work of a mural depicting the life of Christ.
▪ Florence Downtown Development Corp. of S.C., $5,246 in 2022 to support creating a mural celebrating the work of Black Florentines.
▪ Carolina Theatre of Durham, $10,000 in 2023 to support performances and films for pre-K to 12th grade students, such as a Latin music concert and a puppet show from Paperhand.
▪ East Carolina University in Greenville, $9,993 in 2004 for supporting the Tar River Poetry literary journal.
▪ Old-Time Music Group of Carrboro, $15,000 in 2015 for researching renewed interest in old-time music originating in the South.
▪ UNC Chapel Hill, $15,000 in 2022 to support Playmakers Repertory Production of “Yoga Play” by Dipika Guha, a comedy about the commodification of spirituality.
▪ African-American Dance Ensemble in Durham, $50,000 in 2002 to support a series of community residencies.
▪ Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Salem, $25,000 in 2004 to support the performing arts series New Voices/New Visions Live! featuring the Alloy Orchestra and Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky.
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This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 5:50 AM.
