N.C. Arts Council | newsobserver.com projects

What does the Cultural Resources Secretary do?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on December 5, 2008 - 1:21pm.

Answer:

Leads cultural outreach and historical preservation programs around the state.

As head of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the governor-appointed secretary oversees the State Historic Preservation Office, the State Library, state museums of history and art and the State Archives.

Other divisions include the State Records Center, the Office of State Archeology, the Historical Publications Section, the N.C. Arts Council, the N.C. Symphony, seven state history museums and 27 historic sites.

It is one of 10 Cabinet-level positions in North Carolina.

The department typically has the smallest budget in the Cabinet. In 2007-08, its $82.1 million budget was $26 million less than the Department of Administration, the next smallest budget.

In 2008, the department of 706 employees. The secretary's salary was $117,142.

The Cultural Resources department was created in 1971 under the administration of Gov. Bob Scott, although its Offices of Archives and History dates to 1903.

North Carolina was the first state to raise an arts and culture department to Cabinet level. Six of the seven secretaries since the post was created have been women: Grace Rohrer, Sara Hodgkins, Patric Dorsey, Betty Ray McCain, Libba Evans and current Secretary Linda Carlisle.

Starting in May of 2008, Evans went on unpaid leave to attend to unspecified personal business and never returned. That led some legislators to suggest abolishing the department and putting some of its divisions under the responsibility of the Commerce secretary.

The department is outlined in general statutes under Article 2 of G.S. 143B.

Brief:

Leads cultural outreach and historical preservation programs around the state.

Daughtridge seeks $19m in state spending

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on May 29, 2008 - 2:02pm.

Rep. Bill Daughtridge is seeking nearly $19 million in state spending.

The Republican nominee for state treasurer has cosponsored six bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget.

Among the larger appropriations bills he is cosponsoring: $6 million for the Communities in Schools dropout prevention program, $5.6 million for the N.C. Museum of Art, $3.2 million for a biotechnology research campus at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, $2 million for the N.C. Arts Council and $2 million for a business incubator for homeland security and national defense.

He also cosponsored a bill for $100,000 to study the state Department of Public Instruction.

Daughtridge's Democratic opponent, state Sen. Janet Cowell, has sponsored and cosponsored bills seeking $76 million in appropriations.

Both Daughtridge and Cowell are cosponsors on the dropout prevention program, the N.C. Museum of Art projects and the N.C. Arts Council funding, which would total $13.7 million in spending.

Cowell seeks $76m in state spending

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on May 29, 2008 - 1:08pm.

Sen. Janet Cowell is seeking nearly $76 million in state spending.

The Democratic nominee for state treasurer has sponsored one bill and co-sponsored 24 bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget.

Cowell is the primary sponsor on a bill to give $2.1 million to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences for an environmental education facility at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.

Among the larger appropriations bills she is cosponsoring: $25 million for a school construction pilot program, $6 million for the Communities in Schools programs on dropout prevention, $5.8 million for the Center for Bioenergy Technologies, $5.6 million for the N.C. Museum of Art, $5.6 million for dropout prevention, $5 million for a strategic plan on biofuels, $5 million for public libraries.

Other large appropriations she is cosponsoring: $4 million for a statewide study on aging, $2 million for the N.C. Arts Council, $1.6 million for a pilot program on dropout prevention in Durham and Vance counties, $1.5 million for a pilot program on adult protective services, $1.4 million for water resource management, $1.2 million for teen pregnancy prevention and $1.2 million for Wake Tech Community College.

She is also cosponsoring bills less than $1 million: Support for caregivers of people with dementia, a statewide literacy program, Kids Voting, treatment of autistic children, services for the developmentally disabled, a legal mediation network, a youth golfing program and the African-American Heritage Commission.

In addition, she is cosponsoring a bill that would give state employees a 7 percent raise.

Update: Her Republican opponent, Rep. Bill Daughtridge, is seeking $19 million in spending.

Monument would honor black history

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on May 12, 2008 - 3:10pm.

Gov. Mike Easley's budget includes $1 million for a Freedom Monument.

The proposed monument in downtown Raleigh would honor the places where plantation slaves came together to learn. According to this account, it would be located next to the state Archives building across the street from the General Assembly.

A design team of multimedia artist Juan Logan, art historian Lyneise Williams and architect David Swanson, all of Chapel Hill, was selected by organizers in 2006.

Their design includes a serpentine wall depicting the Jim Crow era with a large crack symbolizing the Wilmington race riots, a "weeping wall" representing slavery and an auction block with well-worn footprints.

The monument project was started in 2002 by the Paul Green Foundation of Chapel Hill. The group plans to spend $2.5 million with private donations and public money.

Organizers say except for an anonymous black soldier in the N.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, blacks are not represented on the Capitol grounds.

The N.C. Freedom Monument Project's Web site says it has already received support from the N.C. Humanities Council, the N.C. Arts Council and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.