Council renews contract for Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge; council highlights arts programs

The City Council approved a contract for services with the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge on a 6-0 vote, renewing the city's support for the nonprofit's programs in Greenville.

Holly Garriott, executive director of the arts council, presented a summary of the organization's activities over the past year and previewed deliverables for the next year. She said the council’s budget has grown from $20,000 at its founding to more than $1 million, driven largely by grant funding and program activity.

Garriott highlighted outreach programs that the arts council runs or supports: an artist-in-residence program that visits regional health facilities, arts-in-schools programming funded in part by North Carolina Arts Council grants, the youth arts festival (10,000 attendees last year; next festival planned for Nov. 1 at South Central High School because of Town Common renovations), and the Mosaic Multicultural Arts Festival scheduled for March 28. She also described rotating and permanent public-art projects, a trolley-supported downtown arts walk, and an Emerald Loop lighting plan that has lit several downtown structures.

Council members praised the arts council's work. Council Member Blackburn moved approval; the motion passed unanimously. The contract renewal authorizes the arts council to continue programs that the city said generate cultural and economic activity downtown such as art events, youth programs and public installations.

Garriott and council members discussed program logistics including sculpture exhibition timelines and a planned request for proposals to wrap traffic-control boxes with artwork and expand visible public art downtown.