TheUniversity of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is apublicart school inWinston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants a high school diploma, in addition to both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina School of the Arts by then-GovernorTerry Sanford, it was the first public arts conservatory in theUnited States. The school owns and operates theStevens Center in Downtown Winston-Salem and isaccredited by theSouthern Association of Colleges and Schools.

UNC School of the Arts

Former names	North Carolina School of the Arts(1963–2008)
Type	Publicart school
Established	1963; 62 years ago (1963)
Parent institution	UNC System
Endowment	$26.9 million (2020)[1]
Chancellor	Brian Cole
Provost	Patrick Sims[2]
Academic staff	186
Students	1,144
Undergraduates	739
Postgraduates	124
Other students	276 (high school) 5 (special)
Location	Winston-Salem, North Carolina , United States 36°04′32″N80°14′11″W / 36.0755°N 80.2364°W /36.0755; -80.2364
Campus	Urban
Colors	UNCSA black, white
Mascot	The Fighting Pickle
Website	uncsa.edu
Location in North Carolina Show map of North Carolina University of North Carolina School of the Arts (the United States) Show map of the United States

The school consists of five professional schools: School of Dance, School of Design & Production (including a High School Visual Arts Program), School of Drama, School of Filmmaking, and School of Music.

The idea of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts was initiated in 1962 byVittorio Giannini, a leading American Composer and teacher of Composition atJuilliard, theCurtis Institute of Music, and theManhattan School of Music, who approached then-governorTerry Sanford and enlisted the help of authorJohn Ehle and William Sprott Greene, Jr.^[3] and Martha Dulin Muilenburg ofCharlotte, North Carolina, to support his dream of an arts conservatory. State funds were appropriated, and a North Carolina Conservatory Committee was established. The School of the Arts became a constituent institution of theUniversity of North Carolina system in 1972.^[4]

Vittorio Giannini was the school's founder and first president. His vision of arts education shaped UNCSA at its beginning and continues to influence it today. Giannini served as president of the fledgling institution until his death in November 1966. A resolution dated December 3, 1966, by the board of trustees and the governor pays tribute to Giannini as the founder of the school, noting that "When it was a dream, he sought a home for it and helped bring it into being. When it was an infant institution, he gave it structure and design." The Pulitzer Prize-winning composerRobert Ward became UNCSA's second president following Giannini's death.

In 1974Robert Suderburg became UNCSA's third chancellor following Martin Sokoloff, the administrative director, who served as interim chancellor from 1973 to 1974. During his time at UNCSA the Workplace building, containing the Semans Library, was opened on the UNCSA campus, as well as theStevens Center, previously the Carolina Theatre, in downtown Winston-Salem. The gala opening of the Stevens Center featured the school's symphony orchestra conducted byLeonard Bernstein, withIsaac Stern as soloist andGregory Peck as the Master of Ceremonies. Attendees includedAgnes de Mille,Cliff Robertson,Governor James Hunt, President and Mrs.Gerald Ford andLady Bird Johnson. The Stevens Center remains UNCSA's largest performance facility.^[5]

Jane E. Milley became Chancellor at the School of the Arts in September 1984. In the spring of 1990, Alex C. Ewing was appointed chancellor. He assumed the position in July 1990, following Philip R. Nelson, former Dean of music at Yale University, who served as interim chancellor during the 1989–90 school year. Ewing had been associated with the school since 1985, when he became chairman of the board of visitors. In 1988 he established the Lucia Chase Endowed Fellowship for Dance at the school, in memory of his mother, a co-founder and principal dancer withAmerican Ballet Theatre. Ewing oversaw the revitalization of theJoffrey Ballet during his tenure as general director in the 1960s. As chancellor, Ewing oversaw the school's $25 million campaign for endowment and scholarships. He also orchestrated a combination of local, state, and national support to secure the establishment of NCSA's fifth arts school, the School of Filmmaking, in 1993. Ewing took a special interest in NCSA's campus plan. Other capital projects he spearheaded included a new sculpture studio, a new fitness center, and the start of the student commons renovation. Wade Hobgood, Dean of the College of the Arts at California State University at Long Beach since 1993, was named chancellor in February 2000, assuming the position on July 1, 2000.

A 2004state audit uncovered multiple instances of financial improprieties.

John Mauceri was UNCSA's seventh chancellor.^[6] He assumed the position following Gretchen M. Bataille, former Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the 16-campus University of North Carolina, who served as interim chancellor during the 2005–2006 academic year.

In 2008, the institution's board of trustees voted unanimously to change the name of the school from the "North Carolina School of the Arts" to the "University of North Carolina School of the Arts" to raise its profile.^[7] The name change was subsequently approved by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors,North Carolina Senate,North Carolina House of Representatives, and GovernorMike Easley.^[8][9][10]

In 2011, the schoolsettled a lawsuit brought forward by an anonymous former employee after negligently hiring a known sexual predator to its campus police department. According to theWinston-Salem Journal, the amount paid to the former employee by the school was $100,000.

Chancellor Mauceri announced in the fall of 2012 that he would retire at the conclusion of the 2012–2013 academic year. Lindsay Bierman, former editor ofSouthern Living magazine, served as chancellor from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the implementation of a new strategic plan, widespread campus renovations, and the launch of the largest fundraising campaign in school history.^[11] Bierman departed UNCSA in 2019 to become chief executive officer of the North Carolina public television system, known then as UNC-TV and subsequently rebranded as PBS North Carolina.

In 2020, Brian Cole, who had previously served as dean of the UNCSA School of Music and interim chancellor, was named the ninth chancellor at UNCSA.^[12]

The following year,Soderlund and six other dance alumni sued the school and multiple former administrators for sexual abuses perpetrated by faculty. The lawsuit,Alloways-Ramsey et al. v. Milley et al., case 21-CVS-4831 filed 29 September 2021 in the Superior Court for Forsyth County, was made possible by a special North Carolina law allowing child sexual abuse survivors to file claims through the end of the year. Aninvestigation by theRaleigh News & Observer and theCharlotte Observer found that the school's investigation into alleged faculty misconduct in the 1990s "hid the most damning discoveries." In asubsequent refiling, 32 additional alumni joined the complaint, alleging various forms of sexual, physical and verbal abuse by faculty. 17 more alumnijoined the lawsuit in late December 2021, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 56. In May 2024, with the final number of claimants having reached 65, UNCSA and the survivors' attorneys announced a $12.5 million-dollar settlement to be paid out to the survivors incrementally over four years mostly by the State of North Carolina and partially by the university.^[13]

Stephen Shipps, who worked as a violin instructor at UNCSA from 1980 to 1989 (and was also a defendant in the high school alumni lawsuit),was sentenced to five years in prison on April 14, 2022, for trafficking an underaged girl for the purpose of having sex with her back in 2002. Four decades' worth of sexual misconduct allegations against Shipps, made by women who attended both UNCSA and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, came to light as the result ofan investigation by the student newspaperThe Michigan Daily in 2018.

The school's campus consists of 77 acres (310,000 m²) inWinston-Salem, near Old Salem.^[14] There are two residence halls for high school students, Artist Village, a 5 story dormitory on campus, and an off-campus student apartment complex within walking distance. The school has eleven performance and screening spaces; the ACE Exhibition Complex with three movie theaters, Crawford Recital Hall (with a Fisk Organ), deMille Theatre for dance, Hood Recital Hall, Performance Place with three theatrical spaces, theStevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem, which started refurbishment starting in 2023, and Watson Chamber Music Hall. Performance Place is the home of the drama department, the ACE Theatre is the home of the filmmaking department, deMille theatre is the home of the dance department and Watson, Hood and Crawford halls are used by the music department. The Stevens Center is shared.

The school also has a fitness center with an interior basketball court, the Semans Library, the Hanes Student Commons, Workplace (adjacent to the library) which holds Visual Arts Studios as well as Offices and Studios for the School of Dance, Gray Building, which holds high school academics on the third floor and music offices and practice rooms on the first and second floors, a building holding two dance studios, a visual arts sculpting studio, a large design and production complex, a costume, wig and makeup studio, a welcome center, and several buildings for administrative offices and college academics. New studio spaces and a new apartment complex are currently under construction.

UNCSA offers many performance opportunities throughout the course of a school year. Dance students have three seasonal performances: Fall dance, Winter dance, and Spring dance. They also perform the Nutcracker every Christmas as well as many other minor performances throughout the school year. Music students have the chance to perform in front of their peers every Wednesday at performance hour, and students are usually in a large ensemble, such as jazz band, orchestra, opera, or wind ensemble. These ensembles each perform several times a year.

The School of Design and Production is responsible for the scenery, costumes, wigs, makeup, lighting, sound, and stage management for all shows produced by the School of Drama, two operas that UNCSA produces each year through the Fletcher Opera Institute, as well as dance performances, although dance costumes are provided partly by the Costume Department and also by the School of Dance's own professional costume shop. The Lighting Department each December presents a showcase entitled "Photona" which combines lighting as well as projection equipment.

The Film-making school is host to the ACE Exhibition Complex, where students can display their work and watch others. This complex, along with theStevens Center, is host to theRiverRun International Film Festival every spring.

Once every four years, UNCSA produces an all-school musical – a Broadway-style production involving all five arts schools of the conservatory. All students have the opportunity to audition. Past all-school musicals have includedBrigadoon,Oklahoma!,Kiss Me, Kate,Canterbury Tales, andGuys and Dolls^[15] with the most recent one beingLeonard Bernstein'sMass. The purpose of the all-school musicals is not only to provide the students with professional experience but also to raise money and awareness for the school. For example, forWest Side Story the lead roles and ChancellorJohn Mauceri traveled to New York to promote the school and the school's revival of the musical.^[16]West Side Story was performed at UNCSA's Stevens Center from May 3–13, 2007, and then went on tour toChicago'sRavinia Festival^[17] on June 8, 2007. The production was directed by Dean of DramaGerald Freedman, the assistant director of the original production, and conducted by UNCSA Chancellor and world renowned conductorJohn Mauceri. It has also been reported thatArthur Laurents changed portions of the dialogue for the UNCSA production.^[16]

In May 2011, UNCSA presentedOklahoma! as an all-school musical, once again conducted by Mauceri with direction by UNCSA alumnusTerrence Mann.^[18][19][20] Notably, the production utilized archival photography, original design notes,Miles White's "swatch book",Robert Russell Bennett's original 24-piece orchestrations, and interviews with the surviving members of the original cast (includingCeleste Holm andJoan Roberts) to replicate the original 1943 Broadway production as closely as possible, with the participation of theRodgers & Hammerstein Organization andGemze de Lappe, who also recreatedAgnes de Mille's choreography.^[19] The attempt was noted byTed Chapin, the then-president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, as unprecedented in the musical's history, with theater historian Ethan Mordden highlighting the production as the first time many elements of the original design had been realized in color for modern theater audiences.^[20][21] The production was professionally recorded for broadcast onUNC-TV, and won a National Educational Telecommunications Award. It was later broadcast onOklahoma Educational Television Authority in 2012, and has since been released as a two-part video on YouTube.^[22][23][24]

Although UNCSA has no officially sanctioned athletic teams, the school mascot is The Fighting Pickle.^[25] The premiere athletic event from the early 1970s was an annual touch-football game between a UNCSA team versus one from aWake Forest University fraternity.

The mascot was selected by a contest name the football team in 1972. The original name was simply "The Pickles", along with a slogan, "Sling 'Em By The Warts!" but the mascot eventually became "The Fighting Pickles". In the spring of 2010, UNCSA hosted a competition to choose the new, official "Fighting Pickle" mascot. Design entries and voting was opened to students, alumni, faculty, staff and former faculty and staff. The winner was unveiled on May 21, 2010, in the Student Union's cafe, "The Pickle Jar".^[26]

• Official website