Performances, Workshops, and residencies

Jazz Age Series

In 2023, with funding from the NC Arts Council Spark the Arts Grant and in partnership with the Durham Center for Senior Life, we presented Jazz Age, a 12-concert series designed with older adults in mind. The Jazz Age Concert Series was curated for older adults and those with disabilities to be accessible and free of cost. Concerts were one hour, during the day, and we provided transportation for residents at DCSL. This performance series honored the generation that brought us Jazz music!

Music is tied to memory and cognition and participation in a live musical experience is an excellent way to spark joy, memory and human connection. Social isolation compounded by Covid has been especially difficult for our most vulnerable seniors.  We are committed to offering high quality programs for audiences regardless of age, physical or cognitive abilities.

Jazz Age is one of our most popular series, and we’ve heard your requests for more. We plan to continue the joy of daytime music at NorthStar with a second series in Fall 2024/Spring 2025.

Artist Workshops

At NorthStar, we passionately support artists' visions of empowering our community through self-expression. Our artist workshops embody this ethos, providing a nurturing environment where individuals are encouraged to explore their creativity and create their own art.

The Durham Palette with Claire Alexandre allowed participants to create their own paints out of materials from the Earth around Durham, including flowers, soil, and clay. These artists were asked to exhibit their work and speak on their sustainable practices at the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s DeBerry Gallery.

Last fall, Zena Carlota hosted a workshop entitled Mapping the Bones, where participants created multimedia collage to work through feelings of grief and loss. And last summer, Ayan Felix hosted CPT, a dance movement workshop for Black and Indigenous People of Color.

NorthStar is committed to paying multidisciplinary artists of color for their teaching work in our community throughout the year. If you are interested in hosting a workshop, please email our Interim Executive Director at lauren@northstardurham.com

Artist Residencies

NorthStar has provided deep, flexible support to artists in the form of long-term residencies. From our partnership with artist collective Brainchild in 2020 to our Black August partnership with Derrick Beasley in 2023, these residencies have allowed artists of color to dream into our space and break the barriers of what art can do.

In Derrick’s exhibition, Surviving the Burn: Black Water Vernacular, we considered the grief of our climate reality through the lens of a Black man from the South. Over five weeks we hosted several events, including opening and closing receptions, a block party with live music and free screen printing, and an eco salon dinner where participants were invited to think through how we can collectively return to the swamp. He hosted gallery hours for our community to walk through, feel into the weight of the exhibit, and sit with what came up.

Through a partnership with The Beautiful Project, we exhibited the art of participants of Ekrphrasis in Black, a 10 week photography and poetry incubator led my Mariah M. Their event began with a Black Ethereal Tea Party that celebrated the work of the artists.

Our 2023 residencies brought a new paradigm to our longstanding belief in the power of direct artist support. Looking ahead, we plan to announce a new residency application process in Fall 2024. Stay tuned to our newsletter and Instagram for updates!