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Yadkin Arts Council urges county to renew operating support after 16 years
Summary
John Willingham of the Yadkin Arts Council told the Board the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center has hosted more than half a million participants since opening in 2010 and asked the county to consider renewing operating support next year; the council provides about $30,000 in annual programming to local schools.
John Willingham, representing the Yadkin Arts Council and the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center, asked the Yadkin County Board of Commissioners on March 2 to consider renewing county financial support for the nonprofit’s programs.
Willingham said the Cultural Arts Center, which opened in 2010 after the organization privately raised about $5 million for construction, has hosted more than 500,000 participants or program attendees since it opened and that roughly 20 percent of attendees come from outside Yadkin County. “We are not in business to make money; we are in business to serve the people,” he said.
Willingham told commissioners the Arts Council provides roughly $30,000 a year in programming to the Yadkin County School System, citing a recent Page-to-Stage program that brought nearly 900 students to the center and included book purchases for classrooms and libraries. He asked the Board to consider a funding commitment for the coming fiscal year to help sustain those programs.
The Board did not take action on a funding commitment at the March 2 meeting. County officials said formal budget decisions would be made during the FY2027 budgeting process and that any support would be considered along with other priorities and available funds.
A next procedural step would be to request staff include a funding option in the FY2027 proposed budget for the Board’s consideration; the transcript does not specify any dollar figure proposed by the county.
