Ray Arts Foundation
Preserve the record. Grow the arts.
The Ray Arts Foundation gathers and verifies information about North Carolina’s arts, the artists, venues, organizations and events, and makes it free for anyone to use. We believe the arts are more than a pastime: they are how people make a living and how they lift up their families and communities. Our first project is the NC Arts Directory.
What we do
Open data, real outreach
Our work comes full circle: we gather and verify the facts about the arts, share them openly, and take the arts out to the people. North Carolina, Eddie Ray’s home state, is our pilot; we plan to take the model across the country.
Explore the directory-
Side A Verified, open information
Preserve
A trustworthy record of North Carolina’s arts, from the artists to the venues, organizations and events that support them, verified and free for everyone.
- In development
The home for everything we gather and verify, and where our published data and research live. It holds the story of the artists (biographies, recordings, photographs and papers) and of the places and gatherings that made the arts happen: venues, historic stages and festivals, like the sites people still remember long after the music ends. It is where students and scholars go to study North Carolina’s arts, and it honors Eddie Ray, starting with his own collection.
About the Library - Under way
Listings of artists, venues, organizations and events across North Carolina, collected and checked, and free for anyone to use.
Browse the directory - Planned
Regular surveys, yearly, twice a year or quarterly as each study needs, of artists, venues and arts groups, statewide or city by city. They give us our own first-hand data, such as the economic impact of the arts, and build lasting relationships with the people we survey.
Get updates - Planned
Universities and other independent partners review how the data is gathered and check it for bias, so anyone who asks where a number came from gets a clear, documented answer.
Explore the directory - Planned
Through the Library, schools, students and researchers can use the data for teaching and academic study, so learning about the arts includes the people and places in their own communities.
Explore the directory
Independent research, open results. We run our own surveys and studies, including the economic impact of the arts, with universities and other independent partners who check the methods for bias. Every number has a documented method and a track record, and we publish the results openly through the Eddie Ray Library of Creative Excellence, so schools, students, researchers and anyone else can use them.
- In development
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Side B Helping the arts thrive
Promote
The arts are education, and they are also a livelihood. We support everything that helps people make a living in the arts and make an impact on themselves, their families and their communities.
Outreach that people can join. We plan to bring the arts to large festivals and community events, with sponsors covering the cost so smaller arts groups can take part without the money or the people to do it alone.
- Open now
Our first project: a free guide to every art form in every region. Free to use, and free to be listed.
Explore the directory - Planned
Large shared booths at festivals and events, where arts organizations can show their work and meet the public together, with sponsors covering the cost.
Get updates - Planned
Old-school portable recording studios where visitors can sing a cover of a North Carolina music legend and take the recording home. We hope to do this with the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Get updates - Planned
Partnering with music and arts charity programs to help more people learn, create and earn a living in the arts.
Get updates
- Open now