Presenting, Promoting and Inspiring Creativity in Our Community

The Cabarrus Arts Council was founded in 1980 in response to the North Carolina Arts Council’s plan to establish a local arts council in every county. In 1982, the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners selected the arts council to serve as its Designated County Partner, receiving and distributing Grassroots funding from the state and the state arts council.Today, the arts council programs and operates the Davis Theatre and The Galleries, conducts one of North Carolina’s largest art-in-education programs for both the Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City school systems, supports arts organizations and artists through grants and workshops, and serves as a catalyst and consultant for public and corporate art.

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Founded in 1799, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, is the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. PEM provides thought-provoking experiences of the arts, humanities and sciences to celebrate the creative achievements and potential of people across time, place and culture. By connecting people through inquiry, empathy and dialogue, PEM encourages an understanding of our shared humanity and fosters a sense of belonging in a complex, ever-changing world. We build, steward and share our superlative collection, which includes African, American, Asian Export, Chinese, contemporary, Japanese, Korean, maritime, Native American, Oceanic and South Asian art, as well as architecture, fashion and textiles, photography, natural history and one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM offers a varied and unique visitor experience, with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities and performance spaces. The museum’s campus, which offers numerous gardens and green spaces, is an accredited arboretum and features more than a dozen noted historic structures, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese home that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture in the United States.

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Puʻuhonua Society is a Native Hawaiian women-led non-profit organization based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

Active at the intersections of contemporary art, traditional cultural practices, environmental stewardship, and transformational education, Puʻuhonua Society creates opportunities for Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based creatives to express themselves and engage with diverse audiences.

Through six interwoven initiatives, we support those who serve as translators/mediators/amplifiers of social justice issues within communitie. Our primary efforts include:

• Aupuni Space an artist-run gallery, venue, and studios;
• Hoʻākea Source, a Regional Regranting Program Partner of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts;
• Hoʻomau Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina, a cataloging and public programming partnership aimed at preserving and making accessible Nā Maka o ka ‘Āina’s vital moving-image archive of over 6,000 tapes;
• KEANAHALA, an inclusive and collaborative weaving program that perpetuates the Native Hawaiian practice of ulana lauhala, pandanus weaving;
• KĪPUKA, a makers’ space and educational environment offering a series of classes and workshops that are focused around the transmission of ancestral knowledge and material practices;
• THE MUʻUMUʻU LIBRARY, a volunteer-run community closet, workspace, and gathering place; and
• NiUNOW!, a cultural agroforestry movement affirming the importance of niu and uluniu, coconut and coconut groves to the health and wellbeing of Hawaiʻi and its peoples.

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Nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Floyd Center for the Arts is a vibrant hub for creativity, learning, and community. Established in 1995 on the site of a former 1940s dairy farm, the Center has transformed the historic barn and surrounding buildings into galleries, classrooms, and working studios that serve artists and the public alike. Today, the campus offers exhibitions, workshops, and free community events that bring people together through the arts, including the annual Floyd Living Traditions Festival, which celebrates the region’s rich heritage of art, craft, and music. Through art education for all ages and abilities, scholarships, and a welcoming environment, the Center ensures that everyone has the opportunity to see, learn, and create!

Mission Statement:
The Floyd Center for the Arts connects people through visual arts, handmade craft, and music – honoring living traditions while embracing innovation.

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The Denton Maker Center, a non-profit organization, strives to be the central location for creative making in the greater North Texas region. This is accomplished by providing activities and resources that nurture a community of makers. Activities include workshops (both in-person and online), exhibitions, sales, open studio times, and related special events. Resources include tools/equipment, expertise of personnel, safe workspace, exhibition space, and a retail store. Generation of public interest and appreciation is accomplished through promotion of these activities and resources through personal networking, social media, website, print materials, and shared distribution by aligned institutions.

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The Huntington Beach Art Center creates opportunities for local, regional, and national artists and the community to share in a climate of experimentation, education, and experience. HBAC is a public/private partnership with the City of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Beach Art Center Foundation, a non-profit private corporation. The Art Center is operated through the City of Huntington Beach Community Services Department, Cultural Services Division.

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Racing Magpie, founded in 2015, is a Lakota-centric creative community space located in Mni Luzahan (Rapid City, South Dakota), on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ homelands. We are a home for Native artists, creatives, and community members; a space for making, gathering, healing, and building relationships. Our work is guided by the Lakota principle of being a good relative, and we center this responsibility in everything we do: with people, with the land, and across generations.

We work at the intersection of art, community, and cultural continuity through five program areas:

• Artist Support & Creative Development – Studio space, residencies, grants, a supply swap.
• Exhibitions – Community-curated and solo exhibitions, traveling shows, and site-specific works.
• Creative Education & Knowledge Sharing – Art classes, our Elder-in-Residence program, internships, Winter Camp.
• Community Creative Events – Art markets, creative gatherings, and youth-friendly, drug- and alcohol-free events.
• Place-Based Practice – Two multi-use buildings with a community garden, outdoor gathering space, and dedicated facilities for long-term sustainability.

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Textile Center is unique as a national center for fiber art, with a mission to honor textile traditions, promote excellence and innovation, nurture appreciation, and inspire widespread participation in fiber arts.

The Center’s resources include exceptional fiber art exhibitions that are free and open to the public, an artisan shop, a secondhand fiber art supplies shop, the region’s only accessible professional-grade dye lab, a natural dye plant garden, and one of the nation’s largest circulating textile libraries open to the public.

Textile Center produces more than 200 classes a year for all ages and skill levels through its youth, adult, older adult, and outreach programs. A dynamic hub of fiber activity for more than 30 years, Textile Center brings people together in community to learn, create, share, and be inspired by fiber art.

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Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America is the leading center for Nordic culture in the United States, offering a wide range of programs that illuminate the culture and vitality of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It is the home of the American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF), an American non-profit organization offering fellowships, grants, intern/trainee sponsorship, publishing and memberships.

ASF is the organizer of “Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art,” the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic folk arts and cultural traditions from the Upper Midwest. On view at Scandinavia House in 2025, the exhibition will travel to the South Dakota Museum of Art in Brookings, SD (October 2025-January 2026), the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, MN (February-June 2026), and Vesterheim in Decorah, IA (October 2026-January 2027), and other locations in 2027.

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The Mint Museum welcomes all to be inspired and transformed through the power of art and creativity. Among the most significant public institutions in Charlotte, the museum holds a permanent collection of nearly 35,000 objects, one of the largest in the Southeast, spanning art, craft, and design from around the world.
Widely recognized as an invaluable cultural and educational resource, The Mint is committed not only to the growth and quality of its collections but also to nurturing appreciation of the vital role the arts play in our lives.

Each year, the museum celebrates this mission through programs and events such as the annual Potters Market, which showcases exceptional ceramic artistry and supports both artists and the community.
The next Potters Market will be held on September 27, 2025. Guided by values of inclusivity, innovation, collaboration, and empathy, the museum engages communities in lifelong relationships with art, enhancing lives and creating a more connected and welcoming world.

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Mission

The Center for Craft amplifies how and why craft matters by increasing access to resources that catalyze artists and scholars nationwide. Proudly based in Asheville, it has been at the center of the conversation about the future of craft since 1996.

What We Do

The Center for Craft resources the preservation and innovation of craft. We catalyze the makers and thinkers behind the objects that shape our lives. 

How We Do It

• Grants and fellowships that provide funding, networks, and peer-to-peer learning nationwide
• Exhibitions that illuminate 21st-century practices of craft
• Public programs that tell the story of how and why craft matters

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BARN (Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network) is a regional center for craft on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Our dedicated volunteers and staff provide fun, welcoming spaces where everyone can explore creativity, learn new skills, work with others, and give back to the community.

BARN operates eleven member-run studios spanning woodworking, glass arts, fiber arts, metal fabrication, culinary arts, jewelry making, and more. Since opening our 25,000-square-foot facility in 2017, we’ve grown to serve over 1,400 members with 2,700+ classes and events annually. BARN’s mission centers on growing and inspiring creative community through craft, learning, and service.

Beyond skill-building, BARN members actively contribute to the region through dozens of community service projects—from building furniture for at-risk youth to preparing meals for community events. We believe everyone can be creative, and we offer comprehensive tuition assistance and programming designed to remove barriers to participation. Whether someone is a complete beginner or seasoned artisan, BARN provides the tools, expertise, and supportive community to help creativity flourish.

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San Diego’s Mingei International Museum celebrates folk art, craft, and design from all eras and cultures of the world. The Japanese word mingei means “art of the people”  and the museum collects, conserves, and exhibits arts of daily use made by contemporary and historic designers, artists, and craftspeople, known and unknown.

Established in 1978, Mingei’s inaugural exhibition was Dolls and Folk Toys of the World. Since then, the Museum has shared over 183 exhibitions covering a diverse range of cultures, themes, and media. Recent exhibitions include Across the Spooniverse,  Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo, African by Design, and Fashioning an Icon: The Virgin of Guadalupe in Textile Design.  Upcoming exhibitions explore subjects such as mid-century modern design, Indigenous works in glass, DIY skateboard culture, sustainable fishing, feedsack quilts, Japanese shrine paintings, and global percussion.  

Mingei champions artists and craftspeople, and we envision a world where people find joy, beauty, and inspiration in our shared human creativity.

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Tucked away in the mountains of western North Carolina, the John C. Campbell Folk School (“the Folk School”) offers weeklong and weekend classes for adults in craft, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography, writing, and more. Our non-competitive and small-sized classes are offered year-round on a scenic 270-acre campus, attracting students from all over the world. The Folk School transforms lives, bringing people together in a nurturing environment for experiences in learning and community life that spark self-discovery. “I sing behind the plow,” the Folk School’s motto since its founding in 1925, reflects the importance of lifelong learning and growth while finding joy throughout every step of the process.

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