New Faces of Tradition: Documenting North Carolina’s Young Artists

Young creatives around North Carolina are making their mark on our state’s longstanding—and its newest—cultural traditions. Meet the rising generation of Piedmont-area artists and arts entrepreneurs in this collection of documentary portraits resulting from a collaboration between the North Carolina Arts Council, Duke Arts, and the Rubenstein Arts Center.

In 2016, the N.C. Arts Council’s Folklife Program began surveying artists under the age of forty whose work comes from deep cultural roots and community connections. Through conversations and questions posed to artists across the state, the Folklife Program sought to 1) gain a better understanding of how its programs can best support millennial traditional artists and 2) publish a directory of this transformative talent. A key finding revealed that many of these creatives do not have high-quality photography to use for promotion. This spring, student photographers from Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill and volunteer professionals helped solve this problem. This special exhibition debuts these collaborative portraits.