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NCPC: Our Story & Philosophy

OUR STORY | OUR PHILOSOPHY | PAST PRESIDENTS | PAST EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

OUR STORY

NCPC was formed in 1991 with a membership of 8 presenters and increased to 40 members by spring 1998. The first hard-copy edition of On Stage in North Carolina was published in the fall of 1998. Provisions were made by the end of that year to add associate and professional memberships. NCPC was incorporated in 1999, with part-time contract administration added that same year. During the year 2000, 501c3 status was awarded, a five-year strategic planning process was completed, and NCPC and the NC Arts Council began co-sponsoring the ArtsMarket performing arts showcase conference. NCPC’s strategic plan was updated in June 2006, at the same time NCPC launched its statewide online event calendar onstageinnc.com, and ceased publication of the hard copy directory. Upon the retirement of its founding administrator in 2014, NCPC hired its current Executive Director and started a new strategic planning process.

With membership standing at around 200 organizations, NCPC is regarded as one of the premier presenting networks in the U.S. and has frequently been used as a prototype by other states in establishing presenter network organizations.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Having grown into a national model for presenting networks, NCPC functions as a noncompetitive alliance of colleagues who trust, support and uplift each other, knowing that building one’s own audience for the performing arts builds our state’s audience for the arts.

NCPC engages its membership in an open sharing of vision, advice, resources, opportunities, successes, difficulties, creativity and progress. And in so doing, we strengthen relationships between artists and audiences across our great state.

It is NCPC’s shared belief that the arts have both the power and the responsibility to educate, entertain, enlighten, engage, provoke, challenge, motivate, liberate, enlarge and inspire the human spirit. The sharing of the arts experience creates an opportunity for dialogue and question, resolution and response. Through active participation, each of us shapes the record of what matters. We remind you that your voice counts.

PAST PRESIDENTS

1992-1994: Joe Jeffcoat, Spirit Square, Charlotte

1994-1996: Bill Wilson, CoMMA, Morganton

1996-1998: Steve Davis, Stevens Center, Winston-Salem

1998-2000: Sharon Moore, NCSU, Raleigh

2000-2002: Lyman Collins, Town of Cary, Cary

2002-2004: Perry Mixter, ASU, Boone

2004-2006: John Ellis, Diana Wortham Theatre, Asheville

2006-2008: Louisa Hart, High Point Theatre, High Point

2008-2010: Russell Wicker, Isothermal Community College, Spindale

2010-2012: Ray Jordan, Sampson CenterStage, Clinton

2012-2014: William Lewis, PineCone, Raleigh

2014-2016: Sherry Archibald, Paramount Theatre, Goldsboro

2016-2018: Rae Geoffrey, Diana Wortham Theatre, Asheville

2018-2020: Shane Fernando, The Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington

2020-2022: Noelle Rhodes Scott, former Director Cabarrus Arts Council,  Retired

2022-2023: Shane Fernando, The Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington 

2023-Present: Joey D. Bennett, Richmond Community College Cole Auditorium, Hamlet, NC 

PAST EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

1999-2014: Stephen Barefoot

2014-2022: Susan Heiserman

2022-2025: Catherine Gouge