Kenan Institute for the Arts

05/27/2026

From the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to NYC, the Kenan Institute for the Arts is expanding pathways to creativity!

Three UNCSA School of Dance alumni are stepping into the professional world after a year as the inaugural Fellows at Limon Dance Company program.

Naya Gonzalez
Cailee Harvey
Kyriaki Christoforou

After a year performing with Limón2 for the 2025–26 season, they have grown tremendously from mentorship, experience, and a deeper connection to one of the most influential modern dance companies in the world.

This is what building pathways for looks like.

Read more at the link in bio.

Three UNCSA dance graduates launch their professional journeys as inaugural Kenan Arts Fellows with Limón2 in New York City. Through intensive training, performance and mentorship, the fellowship connects conservatory preparation to real-world experience, helping emerging artists refine their voice...

05/01/2026

Winston-Salem, NC: Tonight is opening night of Johnny Loves Johann - a new work led by Grammy-winning violinist and 2024 MacArthur Fellow Johnny Gandelsman.

Kenan Institute for the Arts and Carolina Performing Arts served as lead co-commissioners on this project, with additional support from The Joyce Theater, the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, Works & Process, and The Yard.

Join us this weekend and read more about the December 2025 developmental residency at University of North Carolina School of the Arts with students.

“Johnny Loves Johann” is a multidisciplinary project created by Grammy Award-winning violinist Johnny Gandelsman that explores the relationship between sound and movement. The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the arts at UNCSA serves as a lead co-commissioner for the project.

04/30/2026

>>> Triad Concert Notes followers, get $10 tickets using code "LOVE"!

03/21/2026

The Black Sacred Music Symposium XIX is in full swing, and every room is alive with sound and community. Sessions are bringing together singers, students and community members around the rich traditions of Black sacred music.

Come experience the energy for yourself TOMORROW at 3 p.m. in Gerald Freedman Theatre for a powerful culminating concert celebrating Black sacred music and FELLOWSHIP, hosted by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Be in the room for this joyful gathering. Get your tickets ➡️ https://shorturl.at/pQ5yl

03/17/2026

Misty Copeland stepped onto the Oscars stage in the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s iconic Firebird costume, a look that carries generations of artistry.

Now, that same iconic ballet and look is taking flight again through Dance Theatre of Harlem's restaging of “Firebird,” made possible in part by the multi-year partnership between the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

As we count down to Firebird in Norfolk this weekend, 14 UNCSA dancers and 10 UNCSA musicians will join DTH and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra on stage — demonstrating how works like this move from stage to screen to communities everywhere, inspiring the next generation of artists.

03/12/2026

Black Sacred Music Symposium XIX: FELLOWSHIP will be held March 19-22, 2026, at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC!! Watch Maestra D'Walla Simmons-Burke's reflections from BSMS XVII in 2024. To register for this year's conference or purchase tickets to the concert, please visit www.uncsa.edu/bsms

03/11/2026

The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts are hosting the second regional gathering of the celebrated Black Sacred Music Symposium under the direction of Dr. Ollie Watts Davis of the University of Illinois Black Chorus.

Black Sacred Music Symposium XIX – FELLOWSHIP (March 19–22) is an opportunity for anyone passionate about choral music, especially Black sacred music, to learn and perform with visiting instructors who are among the nation’s leading artists and scholars. The experience is designed to strengthen practice and expand pathways in performance, education, ministry and community work.

A culminating concert, open to the public and featuring Symposium attendees with local and national guest artists, will be held on Sunday, March 22, at 3 p.m. in the Gerald Freedman Theatre at UNCSA.

ℹ️ Learn more and register: https://www.uncsa.edu/kenan/current-programs/creative-community/black-sacred-music-symposium-2026.aspx

Additional presenting partners for the Black Sacred Music Symposium XIX include Building Bridges Through Song, Delta Arts Center, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Winston-Salem State University, and the City of Winston-Salem.

The Black Sacred Music Symposium is a four-day conference dedicated to the study and performance of Black sacred music traditions, culminating in a large-scale community choral performance to celebrate the music, the methods and the message behind the impactful genre.

02/18/2026

As artistic and interim executive director of Madison Ballet, Ja’ Malik is taking real risks. And they’re paying off. In this interview, he talks leadership, contemporary programming and how the company is growing audiences while others struggle.

The Art Restart podcast is hosted by Pier Carlo Talenti and is produced by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts. Photo credit: Lexia Frank

As artistic and interim executive director of Madison Ballet, Ja' Malik is taking real risks. And they're paying off. In this interview, he talks leadership, contemporary programming and how the company is growing audiences while others struggle.

01/22/2026

Photographers Brian Adams and Sarah Stacke approach photography less as image-making than as long-term relationship-building and storytelling. In this episode of the Art Restart podcast, Adams and Stacke discuss the ethical and logistical choices behind their book “In Light and Shadow,” the politics of archives and representation and what it means to be storytellers accountable to the people whose lives and histories they photograph.

The Art Restart podcast is hosted by Pier Carlo Talenti and is produced by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.

Photographers Brian Adams and Sarah Stacke approach photography less as image-making than as long-term relationship-building and storytelling. In this interview, Adams and Stacke discuss the ethical and logistical choices behind their book "In Light and Shadow," the politics of archives and represen...

01/15/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 USA Fellows, including Aristotle Jones, Corey Pemberton, Sheila Kay Adams, and Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis of Wideman Davis Dance, whose awards were supported by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.

01/15/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 USA Fellows, including Aristotle Jones, Corey Pemberton, Sheila Kay Adams, and Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis of Wideman Davis Dance, whose awards were supported by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.

For over 20 years, United States Artists has provided durable, sustainable support to artists and creative practitioners. This year, they have awarded a new cohort of USA Fellows - fifty exceptional artists and collectives across all disciplines, at all career stages, spanning nineteen US states and Washington, DC.

Many of this year’s Fellows explore personal archives, trace artistic lineages, and move fluidly between inheritance and invention. In doing so, they complicate histories, surface overlooked narratives, and challenge the status quo of whose stories are preserved and whose are left out.

To learn more about the 2026 cohort and the USA Fellowship head to https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/