Project October 3, 2016
NewsArts
NewsArts partners Pulitzer Center journalism with local arts and educational institutions, showing how creative approaches to storytelling can help engage the public with the big global issues that affect us all. The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based initiative launches with events at Wake Forest University, SECCA (the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts), and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
Jon Sawyer, founding director of the Pulitzer Center, called NewsArts an exciting extension of the Pulitzer Center's long emphasis on arts in its journalism, from photography exhibits and long-form documentaries to video poetry, among the latter its LiveHopeLove.com project on HIV-AIDS in Jamaica that won a national Emmy and was a featured presentation at the National Black Theatre Festival.
"We're thrilled to make Winston-Salem, a national leader in the arts, the hub for our NewsArts activities," said Sawyer, a native of Winston-Salem. The in-person engagements by Pulitzer Center journalists will form the basis for online curricular materials, Sawyer said, distributed via the Center's free Lesson Builder tool that is available to educators across the globe.
NewsArts was inspired by a bequest to the Pulitzer Center from Lucille and Carl Harris, who taught music and the classics to generations of students at Wake Forest. The Oct. 26 launch event will include remarks by Edwin C. Wilson, Wake Forest Provost Emeritus, on the Harrises' long devotion to Wake Forest.
NewsArts is also made possible through the support of IPLACe (Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center) and Wake Forest Innovation Quarter.
"An ongoing collaboration with NewsArts fits perfectly with the mission of IPLACe," said Professor Cindy Gendrich, IPLACe director. "We love the idea of working on projects that use a fusion of journalism and art to touch us locally and connect us globally. Meeting Scott and talking about "Fractured Lands" seems like the perfect way to begin."