About CVNC

Continuing to Grow

July 24, 2008, Raleigh, NC: CVNC, an online performing arts journal based in central North Carolina, exists to serve those who share our belief that the performing arts are an integral part of life and cannot thrive unless the community knows what is available and what effect the performances have on audiences. Our platform is modeled on San Francisco Classical Voice, the first large-scale non-profit platform of this kind in America; we remain indebted to Robert Commanday and the SFCV staff for the help they have provided. Sites like ours offer viable alternatives to dwindling coverage in the commercial media.

In our seventh year of service, we published 445 performance reviews, written by critics who live throughout the state. Reviews of a few out-of-state events, a handful of previews, news, and feature articles brought our publications total to 496 items. To help us accomplish this level of coverage, we have engaged some additional critics, bringing the number of distinguished arts writers on our masthead to 30.

In addition to reviews, CVNC publishes the most extensive performing arts calendars available in N.C.; events are listed at no cost to presenters, as a service to our readers and the arts community, in series tabs and in regional calendars. With our engagement in November 2005 of our Administrative Manager we began tracking these statistics, too; in FY 2007-8, we published 2,425 listings representing 500 presenters, performing groups, and artists in 40 N.C. counties (plus a handful of significant broadcasts/webcasts of live performances).

Readership has continued to expand, as it has done annually since our establishment in July 2001 — in FY 2007-8, we averaged 40,997 site visits per month (or 508,777 "hits"). Our readership has grown enough for us to be able to market a few ads on our home and review index pages and thus earn some income beyond grants and contributions; revenue from all sources helps us sustain our operations as we continue to grow. That said, we continue to be supported primarily by grants and tax-deductible donations, and we are profoundly grateful to all who have joined with us in this effort. We invite your support.

In closing, we again thank the presenters across our state whose cooperation makes our work possible. Without input from series managers, college and university arts personnel, and musicians, dancers, and directors everywhere – and without their generous provision of tickets for our critics so we can review their offerings – CVNC would not have made it to its 7th birthday on July 4, 2008. We urge our readers to patronize the presenters whose performances are listed in CVNC and to thank them.

It's a fact that we are all in this together. Thank you!

Jennifer L. Spiker, Chair
CVNC Board of Directors

PS We invite prior donors to renew their support in order to help us match our current-year grants, and we invite readers who have not yet contributed to CVNC to do so now. There are three ways to give — online, by mail, or by buying an ad on our home page. And please contact us if you would like to join our support team.

(7/25/08)

**You can read about it at CVNC!**