EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Just Getting StARTed

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington is home to all kinds of art. Theatre, music, paintings, photography, the list simply goes on and on. April 15th and 16th was the first ever Wilmington Arts Summit. One of the leaders behind it is Rhonda Bellamy, our Extraordinary Person of the Week.

It wasn’t hard to find support for her at this first ever event.
(crowd clapping)

“The Arts Summit is actually an outgrowth of our strategic process which we started in January of 2015,” Rhonda Bellamy said, “it was a facilitated look at how we grow the Arts Council.”

Growth. It’s something Rhonda Bellamy has been working on for many years in the Port City.

“In 2003, I went back with a report that said if you are not going to establish or fund an outside agency,” Bellamy said, “at the very least create an office of cultural affairs within’ city government so you have one entity that is kind of the unified voice of the arts community. That did not happen.”

No it didn’t. But Bellamy loves art. Everything about it. So she and other art organizations invited the state arts council to help get some sort of foundation started that would make Wilmington known as an arts destination. A place where local artists make up part of the local economy. It worked.

By July of 2012, she would be named executive director of The Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County.

“I had always been active in the arts,” Bellamy said, “I’m a two time board member for the Cameron Arts Museum. I founded the NC Black Film Festival, so I’ve always been a part of the arts community.”

She’s also been a part of the airwaves….with some 22 years as a news director on her resume.

She’s hosted a talk show.

She’s been honored by various organizations, like the YWCA’s Women of Achievement Award.

And now she continues to make our area a cultural masterpiece.

“It was important to me, coming here from New York City,” Bellamy said, “that we honor and use the gifts we’re given to make the place where my parents were born a better place.”

You paint a beautiful community, Rhonda Bellamy, and we know you’re just getting st-ART-ed. That makes you…Extraordinary.

For more information on The Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County, click here.