The State of the Arts Council
By Jim Greene
Arts Council President

 
One of my responsibilities as President of the Board for the Cabarrus Arts Council  is to provide an annual “State of the Arts Council” update at our annual meeting.  For those of you who missed our annual meeting in July at the Wingate Inn, I wanted to again highlight some of the accomplishments of the past year. 

The Cabarrus Arts Council had another outstanding year in fiscal year 2003-2004: 

• With a budget of less than $200,000, arts council programs touched more than 180,000 participants.
• Of the total budget, 72% of expenditures support programs and revenue sources  are balanced with 17% from grants, 18% from individual donations, 19% from local governments, 20% from earned income and 26% from corporate donations.
• Total number of donors  increased by 43% last year. 
• In-kind services are a big part of what makes the arts council’s dollars stretch and last year, over $240,000 of in-kind services were donated by businesses and individuals.
• The arts council  helped generate $468,000 for the arts in Cabarrus County though our grant programs.
• Every public school in Cabarrus County and Kannapolis School Systems participated in Students Take pART in the ARTs! program with over 27,000 students participating. 
• Pops in the Park concerts drew over 14,000 people.

So was 2003-2004 a successful year for the Cabarrus Arts Council?  You bet it was!!  Thank you to everyone who made last year such an outstanding year for the arts council. None of this could have been possible without community support.  With your continued support, the future is very bright for the Arts Council.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve as President last year and look forward to a second year.  I know that I am part of something special.  The organization continues to grow and provide quality artistic programs to the community.  Thank you all again for your support and remember to Take pART in the ARTs!