A year ago, The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County brought to Fayetteville what was said to be the city’s first-ever aerial drone light show.
Two hundred drones 400 feet in the air provided the grand finale of the “Holidays on Hay … A Season of Light” festival that The Arts Council held downtown the day after Thanksgiving. The drones formed animated characters in the sky to tell a holiday story.
This year’s downtown festivities won’t feature an aerial light show.
After operating post-Thanksgiving festivals in downtown Fayetteville for more than 20 years, The Arts Council has pulled back from the holiday event business.
The Arts Council has adjusted its focus, and has a new strategic plan for how it expends its resources, said Bob Pinson, the president and CEO of The Arts Council.
“We want to have a deeper, more impactful, reach into our community, rather than just an eight-hour event,” Pinson said. “We want to get out there and into deeper ways and more meaningful ways, and more longer-lasting ways, rather than just an event.”
Although The Arts Council has stepped aside, the long-running “A Dickens Holiday” is continuing throughout downtown with its 24th presentation the Friday after Thanksgiving. A Dickens Holiday is run by the Downtown Alliance merchants’ association.
Holiday season drama last year
The Arts Council was a part of A Dickens Holiday for most of that festival’s run since it started in 2000. A Dickens Holiday is a Victorian-era-themed event based on the novel “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Participants put on period costumes, take part in Christmas caroling and a candle-lighting ceremony, and watch performers and singers, among other holiday activities.
In August 2022, The Arts Council left fans of A Dickens Holiday dismayed and angry when it announced that it was replacing that event with Holidays on Hay.
At the time, Pinson said The Arts Council was attempting to hold an event that would be more inclusive and welcoming to all Fayetteville residents than A Dickens Holiday was perceived to be. The Arts Council’s move came at a time when many public and private institutions reviewed their approach to inclusion and made efforts to end discriminatory practices. These followed conversations around racism and racial justice after the 2020 murder of Black American George Floyd by a police officer.
The program change by The Arts Council was met with controversy. At the time, founders of A Dickens Holiday and others who enjoyed the annual tradition were angered, and said the event was open to all.
In early September 2022, less than three months before the event, the Downtown Alliance announced it would hold A Dickens Holiday downtown on the day after Thanksgiving at the same time as Holidays on Hay.
This year, the Downtown Alliance and the Fayetteville History Museum are presenting A Dickens Holiday.
Arts Council to focus more on supporting artists
With its new strategic plan, Pinson said, The Arts Council is concentrating more on supporting the arts community and arts programs.
“What that plan really takes us into is not so much getting into producing sorts of things in the community, but more into more capacity-building (in) the arts and cultural industry, with the various organizations that we have,” he said.
This involves arts education, grant-making and community outreach, he said. The council is also focusing on “capacity building” to help support arts organizations accomplish their missions.
As an example of the refocus, Pinson said The Arts Council in 2019 issued $5,700 in “mini-grants” for artists. In the past, grant programs traditionally operated on an annual basis, so if an artist missed a deadline, he or she would have to wait until the following year to apply.
Now, Pinson said, the mini-grants program has a budget of $150,000 and artists can apply for grants quarterly.
International Folk Festival to continue
The Arts Council’s other big annual event has been the International Folk Festival, which runs in September in downtown Fayetteville. This festival, which has been running for 45 years, will continue under The Arts Council, Pinson said.
The Arts Council works with participants year-round on arts programs, he said. One of these, he said, is the Still Here, Still Native: A Native American Art Exhibit that is on display this month in The Arts Center, The Arts Council’s building on Hay Street downtown.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
