Guess Which City

Here's a job advertisement just received from public art advocates in a North Carolina town looking to build on its cultural advantages. Take a guess: where in North Carolina might such an effort exist?

"X" seeks an entrepreneurial and visionary leader for the position of Executive Director. In fulfillment of its mission to “promote, inspire, encourage and support visual arts for uplifting the human spirit in the community,” "X" commissions public art, organizes exhibitions of public art, presents educational art programs, and supports community arts events with investments of artistic, financial and volunteer resources.

The Executive Director will provide vision for the fulfillment of our organization’s artistic mission. In collaboration with our Board, the Executive Director will identify and prioritize opportunities for new art commissions and programs; identify and recruit artists to participate in competitive selection processes; recruit financial and human resources; and implement commissions and programs. Experience in the management of public art projects; recruitment and organization of volunteers; and fund-raising through grants, contracts, and personal solicitations are required.

The Executive Director will work with the our Board to develop and implement a strategic plan that will address the opportunities and challenges of a community experiencing dynamic growth, one that values its history while welcoming national acclaim as one of the best places to live in the United States. The Executive Director will develop creative partnerships throughout the community – with the town government, private corporations, schools, and non-governmental agencies – to engage personal participation and financial investment in the visual arts.

Now one might think that such an endeavor would be happening in a town many call a "city of the arts," a town that hosts the flagship arts educational institution in the state's university system, a town that boasts the newest member of the state's art museums and another facility hosting a premier collection of American art. The fact that same town has a thriving downtown arts district with galleries, lofts, shops, and restaurants - and is home to the first local arts council in America - would have you nodding affirmatively that that surely sounds like something a town like that would be doing.

But that's not happening in my town, Winston-Salem, the fourth-largest in the state. Instead look to Cary, which a generation ago was a 10,000-person one-stoplight bump on the back-road trip from my dorm in Chapel Hill to see friends in Raleigh. Cary is the fastest-growing suburb in the state, so fast in fact (over 120,000 now, half a Winston) that not too long from now folks may talk about flying into Raleigh-Cary, not just Raleigh-Durham. Befitting a town that sees its best days as both now and in the future, Cary - with a public art plan and the help of Cary Visual Art, Inc., the group in search of a Director in this ad - is intentionally planning beauty and inspiration as part of its rapid growth and ongoing community re-imagining.

In Raleigh-Cary, each community, Raleigh and Cary, has an organization and a plan to accept, site, acquire, and maintain public art. In Winston-Salem, neither Winston nor Salem do. What we are left with here is the "-". Would that we could fill in this blank.