Arts Culture Catawba outlines calendar, health initiative and phased funding request to Hickory council
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Summary
Ingrid Keller, executive director of Arts Culture Catawba, told the council the group has a signed MOU with the city for a centralized Catawba365 events calendar, plans a May public launch, an arts-and-health pilot to address social isolation, an Arts Education Summit on March 16, and a phased request to raise per‑capita municipal support toward $1.25.
Ingrid Keller, executive director of Arts Culture Catawba, updated Hickory City Council on countywide cultural planning and new initiatives that the agency says support local livability and workforce attraction.
Keller said Arts Culture Catawba serves as the local arts agency for Catawba County and the cultural partner for Hickory and that the organization’s role has expanded beyond grant-making to planning, coordination and organizational capacity building. She described a new centralized events calendar, Catawba365, developed with local partners and a signed memorandum of understanding with the City of Hickory to feed municipal calendar data into the system; staff aim for a public launch on May 26.
Keller highlighted a new arts-and-health initiative in partnership with Catawba County Public Health to use arts participation as a tool to address social isolation in neighborhoods identified in the county’s health assessment. She also announced an inaugural Arts Education Summit on March 16 with representation from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, a plan to expand small theater arts grants for teachers and a slate of professional-development workshops for cultural organizations.
Keller framed the fiscal request as a phased increase in municipal per-capita support (moving toward $1.25 per resident in some municipalities) tied to an expanded scope of work and to make support predictable. "Stable, predictable support will allow us to plan responsibly, and continue aligning our work with what the city goals are," Keller said. She invited council questions and thanked the city for a long-standing partnership.
Council members asked about per-capita rates in other municipalities and the mechanics of the MOU; Keller said some municipalities already contribute $1.25 per capita while Hickory and Catawba County historically contributed $1.00 per capita, and that a phased approach was recommended to reach parity.
Keller’s presentation included survey findings from a county cultural plan and examples of local cultural organizations that have emerged since the plan was originally adopted.
