The Durham Art Walk Spring Market is a celebration of visual arts and fine crafts held in downtown Durham each May, featuring the work of numerous talented artists in a few central locations. This event kicks off the spring shopping season by bringing thousands of art lovers for a weekend of shopping and exploration of all that Durham has to offer including world-class restaurants, great shopping, innovative businesses and fascinating historic sites. Sites are within easy walking distance around downtown and on Saturday visitors can take the Bull City Connector, Durham's fare-free bus that travels downtown.
The Nasher Museum opened in 2005 as a major center for the arts on Duke University's campus and in the surrounding Research Triangle area. The museum organizes and presents leading-edge exhibitions that travel to institutions worldwide, most recently Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist (2014), Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey (2013), The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-1918 (2010) and Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool (2008). The traveling exhibition El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III was named one of Time magazine's top 10 shows of 2008. The strengths of the museum's permanent collection are Medieval art, art of the Americas (largely pre-Columbian), Classical Antiquities and modern and contemporary art.
The Durham Arts Council Annual Arts Fund is the volunteer driven campaign for the arts in Durham. DAC is a United Arts Fund Affiliate of Americans for the Arts. Since fees and other earned income only provide 42% of the total costs to deliver our outstanding programs and services to the community, the Durham Arts Council must raise $1.2 million in contributions from generous donors each year.
Since its opening in 2008, DPAC, Durham Performing Arts Center, has become the center for live entertainment in the Triangle. Recognized for its contemporary design, DPAC features 2,700 seats, intimate sightlines and state-of-the art sound and video. Listed four times in the top 5 in Pollstar magazine's annual worldwide theater attendance rankings, DPAC is currently the #3 ranked theater in the U.S.
With a mission of presenting one-of a-kind live entertainment events, DPAC truly has "something for everyone", hosting over 180 performances a year including spectacular touring Broadway productions, high-profile concert and comedy events, family shows and the heralded American Dance Festival. Owned by the City of Durham and operated under the direction of Nederlander and Professional Facilities Management (PFM), DPAC has been listed three consecutive years as the #1 performing arts organization in the region by the Triangle Business Journal.
Durham School of the Arts first opened in 1995 and is housed in the former Durham High School building, which opened in 1922 and closed as a traditional high school in 1993. Our campus is expansive, covering three city blocks and includes eight separate buildings. Approximately 1,655 students from all parts of Durham County are enrolled in grades 6 thru 12. All students enroll through a lottery application system since DSA has no specific attendance zone and over 2,000 students apply for open positions yearly. Since both students and staff have elected to be at DSA, we feel it is both an honor and a privilege for all of us to be a part of this learning community. That is one of the reasons that DSA is the most successful school in our district both academically and artistically.
The Scrap Exchange is a nonprofit creative reuse arts center located in Durham, North Carolina.