PineCone Bluegrass Camps Win North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association Arts & Humanities Award

CARY, NC – Late last year, the North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association presented their Arts & Humanities Award to the Town of Cary for the bluegrass summer camp program presented in partnership with PineCone-the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music. The bluegrass camps are offered at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, in Downtown Cary. This coming June will mark the fourth year of the camps, which have grown every year – last year songwriting was added to the guitar, fiddle, and mandolin camps.

“We are very proud to have received this award, and are happy to share the prestige with PineCone, our partners in these bluegrass camps,” Kris Carmichael, Page-Walker supervisor, shared. “Their staff has been so helpful in identifying gifted instructors, managing the scholarship fund, and promoting the camps to the community.”

The purpose of the NCRPA’s Arts & Humanities Award is “to select and recognize the most innovative and effective arts and humanities programs of leisure service agency members of the North Carolina Recreation and Park Association. Through the state awards, recognition is given to both the importance of arts and humanities programs and to the leisure service agencies that provide them.”

“The Town of Cary has been a wonderful and supportive partner in making this program available to the community, and helping it grow,” said William Lewis, PineCone’s Executive Director. “Bluegrass music is an important piece of North Carolina’s cultural heritage, and we are glad to share this tradition with future generations of musicians.”

A highlight of the camp experience for many is when the students perform as the “opening act” for a featured bluegrass group as part of the Starlight Concert series. For more information, visit www.townofcary.org or www.pinecone.org. Registration for the 2014 bluegrass camps will begin in February.