Since opening its doors for business in the Chamber of Commerce offices back in 1962, the UAC has distributed more than 15 million dollars to arts organizations and projects in and around the city. But, according to President and CEO Tom Philion, the Council’s impact on Greensboro goes far beyond the dollars it provides.

The UAC's support of a downtown arts hub was visionary 20 years ago. Today the Cultural Arts Center downtown serves as the artistic heart of the city. Over the past 50 years, the Council has been preserving Greensboro landmarks while simultaneously nurturing the thriving arts scene there.

In the early 1970s, the UAC acquired the historic Sternberger House which continues to support more than a dozen artist studios. And the Gate City’s historic Carolina Theatre owes its continued existence to the Council which saved the building, and operated it for years until spinning it off into its own non-profit entity in 2006. 

Much of the vision behind the growth of Greensboro’s creative economy is personified in Greensboro native Betty Cone. Her efforts to foster and grow the arts and culture in the community over several decades have been memorialized by the United Arts Council’s Betty Cone Medal of Arts Award.

Cone’s wide-ranging support of arts and artists in the Triad continues to be felt by this year’s award winner, singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett. She’s best known locally for her work with Polecat Creek and original compositions for Triad Stage’s “Beautiful Star” and “Bloody Blackbeard” productions.

Dossett’s new work The Gathering: A Winter’s Tale in Six Songs was commissioned by the NC Symphony.

Laurelyn Dossett will be presented with the Betty Cone Medal of Arts Award at tonight’s celebration where she’ll also perform. The Arts Council will be honoring NC Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle, and NC Arts Council Executive Director Mary Regan as well.

The evening including live entertainment and dinner will conclude with a unique performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It’ll be performed by members of the Greensboro Symphony, with Associate Conductor Nate Beversluis conducting from the piano bench. The version he’ll be playing is the seldom-heard original orchestration first performed with the Paul Whiteman jazz orchestra in 1924.

UAC Board Chair April Harris says this evening’s 50th Anniversary Celebration will lay the foundation for the new Half-Century Fund. The Council’s annual fundraising campaign begins on February 21.