Programs of the Ray Arts Foundation
Our programs preserve the record of North Carolina’s arts and promote the people who make them. Some are open now and some are still being built. Each one says plainly where it stands today. And because the arts are also an economy, with jobs, visitors and income for artists and the businesses around them, we plan to measure what they are worth, every year.
For towns and cities
Recognition for North Carolina towns and cities that commit to their local music and culture, and back that commitment with verified, public information. Music comes first. Arts and culture more broadly will follow.
Express interestE. Ray certification is a free, independent program of the Ray Arts Foundation. A community names a local liaison, forms an advisory board of people from its music and cultural life, and works with us to make sure its venues, festivals, organizations and civic resources are listed accurately and easy to find. When the evidence is in place, the community is certified.
Level 1
The petition is accepted, the liaison and advisory board are confirmed, the workshop is held and a Letter of Commitment is signed.
Level 2
The community’s music venues, festivals, organizations, live-music calendar and civic web presence are verified.
Level 3 · coming later
Level 2, plus verified arts, heritage and education assets.
Program details are being finalized with the founding cohort. We will set timelines together.
We do not provide funding, state endorsement or Index points.
We publish a community’s name, certification status, level and date, its public civic links and its public cultural contact. We never publish advisory board members’ email addresses or phone numbers.
Measuring cultural life
The Ray Arts Index measures the cultural life of a town: its live music venues, how often music happens, its festivals, the organizations that support it, local government support, and heritage and education. It carries Eddie Ray’s name.
The Index rates towns, never venues, groups or artists, and missing information is never counted as zero. It starts with music. Visual arts, performing arts and heritage will follow. It is a pilot: results are labeled provisional while the method is tested.
Keeping the record
We are building a research library and archive for North Carolina’s artists: their biographies, recordings, photographs, papers and the public records that document their lives, such as census entries. It is meant to work the way an academic archive does, so that what goes in can be trusted and cited.
We plan to work with artists’ families and estates, and with universities, to research each artist and keep the record. The idea was Eddie Ray’s, and his own legacy is the first collection.
Researchers review every source that goes into a record.
Facts are confirmed against primary records, and with families and estates where they can help.
Only then is a record marked complete in the library.
The library is in development. These checks describe how we plan to work; details will be set with the universities and families we work with.
Families, estates and researchers: talk to usEddie Ray’s life and career
Find the arts
Eight art forms, every region, one search. Free to use, and free to be listed. The directory is a big part of how we promote North Carolina’s arts.
Go to the directoryVenues, galleries, museums, studios, companies and artists, by art form and by town.
Search the directoryConcerts, openings, readings and screenings from every art form, in one calendar.
See all eventsFix your details, add photos you own and post your events. Listing is free.
Find and claim your listingSee something wrong? Anyone can report a mistake, and we fix it.
Report a correctionFor arts organizations
Many North Carolina arts groups are run by volunteers or a staff of one or two. They make great work but have no time for mailing lists, ticketing or grant research. We are building shared services so a small group can have the tools a large one has.
What’s on near you, by town and by interest.
Post an event once, and show it on your own website too.
Help getting your news and invitations to the people who asked to hear from you.
Help understanding who your audiences are. Personal information is used only with permission.
For organizations without staff to do it.
Also in the works
Classroom resources on North Carolina’s arts and music history, aligned to the state’s Standard Course of Study. Eddie Ray founded a college to teach music and the music business; teaching what we keep follows from that.
Find classes and camps nowEvents presented by the Foundation that bring North Carolina’s artists and audiences together. Details will be announced here and in the press room.
See what’s on across the stateThe State of the Arts in North Carolina 2026, chapter by chapter for every art form, and an economic impact report.
Reports and researchFree for venues, groups and artists
Your listing may already be here, built from public records. Claim it free to fix the details, add photos you own and post your events.