Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Arts And Culture topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council approves contract for services with Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge
Summary
Greenville City Council voted 6–0 to renew a contract for services with the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge. The council heard a summary of last year’s programming, outreach projects and plans for festivals, public art and lighting initiatives.
The Greenville City Council voted unanimously June 9 to approve a contract for services with the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge, following a presentation by Executive Director Holly Garriott.
The contract matters to downtown businesses, schools and nonprofit arts organizations because the arts council coordinates public festivals, school arts programs and public-art installations that city staff and the council said draw visitors and support downtown economic activity.
Garriott outlined the council-funded organization’s deliverables and outreach over the past year and previewed initiatives for the coming year. She described ongoing programs that bring artists into hospitals and healthcare settings, the Artist Good Medicine program, and arts-in-schools efforts supported in part by grants from the North Carolina Arts Council. She noted the Youth Arts Festival drew “over 10,000 people” to the Town Common in the most recent season and said the event will be held Nov. 1 next year at South Central High School because of Town Common renovations. Garriott also described the inaugural Mosaic Multicultural Arts Festival (planned March 28), an expanded downtown Art Walk and a rotating Downey sculpture exhibition; she reported the downtown trolley served about 800 riders during the reported season.
Councilmember Blackburn made the motion to approve the contract and Councilmember Scully seconded it. The motion passed 6–0.
Garriott said the arts council will continue public-art work including wrapped traffic-control boxes and intersection murals once construction in those corridors is complete; she also highlighted a modular mural planned for the Carver Library and an Emerald Loop lighting plan that has already illuminated several downtown structures. The council discussed the art-sculpture competition timeline and asked staff to explore accelerating approvals so artists can more easily participate.
The council’s approval renews the contract for the next fiscal year and authorizes the city-manager-level actions needed to implement the deliverables described by the arts council.
