Fifty years is no small feat, especially for an arts council. This year marks the milestone anniversary of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, located at 536 N Eastern Blvd, will host the event on June 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The dress code is colorful cocktail attire.
There are two ticket options for the evening of fun. General admission is $50 and VIP tickets are $75 and can be purchased online on the Arts Council website at https://www.theartscouncil.com/. Attendees can look forward to a night of vibrant art, live music by local artists, and light hors d'oeuvres and refreshments. VIP ticket holders will have access to craft cocktails in the Arts Lounge, exclusive Arts Council swag, and a special gift to take home.
Robert Pinson, President of the Arts Council of Fayetteville, is a familiar face, as his time at the council spans 13 years. He is elated about the 50-year celebration.
“It’s a year-long celebration. We aren’t just doing a one-event type of thing. We will start with a major social event out at the Botanical Garden on June 6. It’s a world of color. We really feel that the Arts Council has taken a black and white world, in its near beginnings in the 50s and 60s, to a very colorful, exciting world that engages all people in our community,” he said. “What we want to do is really be able to tell our story throughout the year. We are going back into some of the chronicles and files downstairs to see what we got. From the very beginning, there was a publication, almost a newsletter thing called Spectra. One of the things we are looking to do is to recreate an issue of Spectra that will tell some of the stories of what we have done in the community over these last 50 years, from 1974 to present.
"Along with that, we will do a series of stories; again that's what the Arts Council is about. It’s the stories of how we have engaged the community through some of the funding things we’ve done over the years but also just engage our community and make our community a better place. We have a lot of personal
stories to tell.”
Pinson’s tenure has come with a vast knowledge of the history of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County.
“It was a project that started out of the state. The North Carolina Arts Council, at the state level, was starting to create a series of regional arts councils. So this wasn’t just a Cumberland County pop-up idea, ‘let’s create an arts council here in Cumberland County,’ it was actually started through some efforts of the state. With the idea that they wanted to make sure there was some type of art representation throughout all 100 counties in North Carolina…. Everybody is not as big as Cumberland County, Wake County, or Mecklenburg County, so what was created was a series of regional arts councils. When I first started working here some 13 years ago, we actually had 16 counties that were part of our umbrella here in North Carolina. So again, all 100 counties didn’t have their own dedicated arts council, but the regional arts councils stood up and we were one of them….When I first started working here, Wilmington didn’t have its own arts council. Who would think Wilmington, North Carolina didn’t have an arts council? They now have a robust arts council and we are proud of that.”
The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County has come a long way and is looking to the future and pivoting into whatever role the community needs. Miles McKeller Smith, Director of Public Relations, is one of the newest and freshest faces at the Arts Council.
“I’ve been very fortunate. I got here when things were kind of moving in the sense of being executed on… being able to have input in the logo that we are using for the 50th and figuring out what all goes into that. Figuring out how to market the events we are doing. What goes into the celebration on the 6th? Just what other experiences can we create for people to make sure that we commemorate 50 years… of serving the community, 50 years of serving artists? Just being able to be at the table for those discussions and see where it goes…. When I think about the Arts Council, I think about the community,” McKeller-Smith said. “Make sure we are reaching these communities and counties that maybe don’t have the opportunity available for their artist,” McKeller-Smith remarked on his time and work to date at the Arts Council.
“We are not in a 10-year plan anymore… actually as we were coming out of Covid, we got very much involved in a strategic planning process that took us two years out. Then as we continue to move forward, we’re toward the tail-end of that first two years. We are starting to work on the next couple of years as we go forward with it. But our biggest impact we continue to see is not necessarily in programming things ourselves. We’ve got a lot of agencies and organizations in this community that can do that. Where we really see our strength is… or strength is to be able to go after those dollars to be able to bring them into the community and then strengthen those organizations that are already set up to do that sort of thing. So, that’s really what we are looking to do and try to continue to engage the community.
"We are trying to get deeper into the community. We’ve got a lot of pockets in our community that have just been underserved over the years and we are trying to make a lot of efforts, deep efforts to reach some of those and make them aware of opportunities that we have in the community through many of our grant programs… The mini-grant program is a fantastic program,” Pinson remarked of the current role the Arts Council is taking in the community.
The Arts Council continues to be an integral part of the arts in Cumberland County and beyond, moving from facilitator to funder through the mini-grant programs, providing local artists and collectives the opportunity to see their visions realized.

(Photo: The outside of the Arts Center, where the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County calls home. Located in downtown Fayetteville, it is the heart of the historic part of the city. Photo by Aly Hansen)