As 2025 comes to a close, the North Carolina Folklife Institute reflects on a year shaped by collaboration, listening, and deep engagement with communities across the state. Our work this year centered the people who carry cultural knowledge forward – artists, tradition bearers, apprentices, and public servants – and the partnerships that make this work possible.
From festival stages and public conversations to apprenticeship mentoring and ethnographic fieldwork, 2025 reaffirmed NCFI’s role as a collaborative partner in documenting, supporting, and sharing North Carolina’s living cultural traditions.
Sharing Carolina Gospel Traditions at Raleigh Wide Open
One of the most visible moments of the year was NCFI’s Gospel Program at the inaugural Raleigh Wide Open Music Festival, presented in partnership with the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music (PineCone).
We were honored to collaborate with Jared Payton, who served as artistic director for the program and curated five powerful gospel groups featured in six performances at the festival. These performances reflected the depth, diversity, and vitality of Carolina gospel traditions and included:
- Jared Payton & The Legacy Chorale
- Jalessa Cade
- Kingdom Voices United
- Chris Johnson & Freedom
- The Gospel Jubilators
In addition to live performances, the Gospel Program included a series of intimate, humanities-driven panel discussions and presentations that invited audiences to listen closely to the stories, histories, and mentorship lineages that shape gospel music in North Carolina. These public conversations created space for reflection, learning, and intergenerational exchange, complementing the music heard on festival stages.
Humanities programs included:
- The Gospel of the Blues with Appaloosa Redd
- The Art of Gospel Quartet Bass Singing with Kendall Kent
- The three-part Gospel Radio Lab series hosted by Cardo Grant
Together, these performances and conversations brought Carolina gospel traditions to downtown Raleigh in ways that centered both artistic excellence and cultural context. This work was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, and through close collaboration with PineCone and the City of Raleigh Museum.
Strengthening the Folklife Sector Through Apprenticeships
In 2025, NCFI continued to administer the North Carolina Folklife Apprenticeship Program, supporting one-on-one, community-based learning across the state.
With support from South Arts, we selected and funded three new apprenticeship pairs, each representing a deep commitment to cultural transmission through mentorship, practice, and shared responsibility.
These apprenticeships are not simply instructional, they are relational. They honor how traditional knowledge is learned in community, across generations, and through sustained engagement over time.
Partnering with the North Carolina Arts Council
Throughout the year, NCFI worked in close partnership with the North Carolina Arts Council to support its folklife program and the broader statewide folklife sector.
This work included administrative support, advising and counseling for grantees and applicants, and site visits with folklife organizations and artists across North Carolina. These conversations took place in community spaces, rehearsal rooms, and workshops – reinforcing the importance of meeting artists and tradition bearers where they are, and of supporting cultural work on its own terms.
We are grateful for this partnership and for the shared commitment to strengthening folklife infrastructure statewide.
Supporting Community-Led Work Through Fiscal Sponsorship
In 2025, NCFI provided fiscal sponsorship to Son de Carolina, the community organization behind Fandango de Durham.
Through this sponsorship, Son de Carolina was able to secure funding from the City of Durham and the Durham Arts Council to support the 2025 Fandango – a vibrant, community-centered celebration rooted in Mexican son jarocho traditions. We are proud to extend NCFI’s nonprofit platform in ways that support community-led cultural work, and we look forward to the next Fandango de Durham in April 2026.
Looking Ahead: Humanities, Public Service, and Storytelling
In November 2025, NCFI was awarded a Large Project Grant from North Carolina Humanities to support a major new initiative with the Greensboro Fire Department as it prepares to commemorate its 100th anniversary as a fully professional department in 2026.
This year-long humanities project will combine ethnographic fieldwork, oral history, public exhibitions, panel discussions, and documentary storytelling to explore firefighting as both a public service and a culture-rich profession. The project emphasizes shared authority, collaborative interpretation, and the voices of firefighters themselves.
We are grateful to our project partners — the Greensboro Firefighter Historical Society, the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro, and the Greensboro Fire Department — and to NC Humanities for supporting this work.
Building Toward 2026
This year also marked the launch of NCFI’s new website, creating a more accessible and robust home for our programs, stories, and resources. As we move into 2026, we look forward to sharing new artist profiles, program documentation, and collaborative storytelling projects — including an upcoming partnership with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage on feature stories highlighting North Carolina communities and cultural heritage tourism initiatives.
Above all, we remain committed to working alongside communities with care, respect, and curiosity.
Thank you to the artists, tradition bearers, partners, funders, and supporters who made this work possible. We look forward to continuing the work together in the year ahead.
