WINSTON-SALEM – The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) announced today that the annual University of North Carolina (UNC) Festival of the Arts and the annual UNCSA Summer Performance Festival at Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP) in Manteo have been suspended for one year due to budget concerns.  

The UNC Festival of the Arts, which features performances by arts groups from the universities in the UNC system, was scheduled for April 18 and 19, 2009, on the UNCSA campus in Winston-Salem. The festival represents a unique opportunity to experience a variety of arts performances from the state’s public university system — dance, theatre, poetry, opera, improvisation, music, film, and more — all in one place, at one time. This spring would have been the 3^rd Annual UNC Festival of the Arts.

The UNCSA Summer Performance Festival at Roanoke Island Festival Park was slated to run June 23 through Aug. 1, 2009, at the state historic site on the Manteo waterfront. It would have been the school’s 12^th straight season there.  

“After careful deliberation, my administration and I determined that in this treacherous economy, every last dollar must be dedicated to sustenance of the educative environment for our students and the professional laboratories of their productions,” said UNCSA Chancellor John Mauceri. “In the face of unprecedented budget cuts and potential reversions, our commitment is first and foremost to maintain the standard of artistic excellence that defines this institution. 

“Ironically, the very reasons for the Festival of the Arts take on added significance in these troubled times,” Mauceri continued. “It is a celebration that demonstrates the vital importance of the arts to our lives, an open invitation to the public to visit our campus and experience its unique character. At the same time that it showcases the talents of our sister campuses, it defines the University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ leadership in the performing arts in this state, and beyond.

“After a one-year hiatus, we plan to re-launch the festival in the spring of 2010,” Mauceri said.

Chancellor Mauceri expressed gratitude to the UNC schools that had already committed to participating in the festival, but said he knew that others were finding it difficult to find any money in their budgets to send arts groups to UNCSA.  

The first UNC Festival of the Arts was held in conjunction with the installation of Maestro John Mauceri as chancellor of UNCSA on April 3, 2007.  After that experience, Chancellor Mauceri decided to make the festival an annual event, saying that UNCSA is the “perfect place” to host a celebration of the “artistic endeavors of our sister campuses in the UNC system.”  

About the suspension of the UNCSA Summer Performance Festival at Roanoke Island Festival Park for 2009, Chancellor Mauceri said, “It is deeply regrettable. We have enjoyed a tremendously successful relationship with Festival Park for more than a decade, and hope to renew that next year.”

The suspension of the two festivals represents two of many difficult choices UNCSA has had to make recently because of budget cuts. The school has had to implement hiring freezes, freezes on adjunct faculty, and cuts to production budgets. In addition, the school decided to cancel planned orchestra outreach concerts in Charlotte and Raleigh at the end of this month. “Not only is this the fiscally responsible thing for us to do,” Chancellor Mauceri said, “it allows us the greatest flexibility when attempting to navigate future cuts. 

“The extraordinary fact is that fundraising at UNCSA is ahead of last year,” Mauceri noted. “It is that support that sustains and encourages us to forge ahead.”  

At its inception in 1998, the Summer Performance Festival at RIFP was hailed as an imaginative marriage of the arts and tourism that would provide greater exposure for both state institutions. Though it has had various names and various configurations over the years, the Summer Performance Festival regularly brought free entertainment to visitors to Festival Park, from plays and musicals to jazz and chamber music to films.

Last summer, UNCSA presented more than 60 performances, screenings and other events during a six-week residency at Roanoke Island Festival Park. The UNCSA Summer Performance Festival is produced and directed by faculty, staff and alumni of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to provide an enriching educational and training experience for students and alumni as emerging professional artists, and to provide an important cultural resource to residents and visitors of North Carolina.  

The mission of Roanoke Island Festival Park is to involve residents and visitors of all ages in a creative and stimulating exploration of Roanoke Island’s historical, cultural and natural resources. The 25-acre island was home to the first temporary English settlements in the New World, sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh during the years 1584-1587. For more information about park events, please visit www.roanokeisland.com.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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