Central Carolina Bank Donates $300,000 for Durham Arts Pavilion; George Watts Hill Arts Pavilion to Become a Magnet for Regional Artists and Students.

Business Editors

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2002

In little more than a month, Central Carolina Bank has made a second major donation to support the regeneration of downtown Durham.

CCB President Richard L. Furr today announced a $300,000 gift for the construction of an arts pavilion that will become the cornerstone of the Durham Central Park. The pavilion will be named the George Watts Hill Arts Pavilion in recognition of the former CCB chairman and president's contributions to the arts and artists across North Carolina.

The pavilion will be adjacent to the existing Liberty Warehouse located at 603 Rigsbee Avenue, bounded by Foster, Corporation and Hunt Street, just north of CCB's headquarters in downtown Durham.

"The construction of a working arts pavilion gives yet another boost to downtown Durham's revitalization, and symbolizes a merger of the arts and economic development," said Richard L. Furr, CCB president. "The George Watts Hill Arts Pavilion will attract artists throughout the state, draw visitors from across the region to make purchases and commission art, and we hope, ultimately result in increased investment in the area by other private entities."

The gift was made to Liberty Arts, a non-profit corporation focused on encouraging the creation of studios and venues for the production and placement of public art in Durham. When construction of the building is complete, the arts pavilion will be donated to the City of Durham and leased back to Liberty Arts. Liberty Arts will manage the foundry as a for-profit institution.

Construction is set to begin immediately and will take approximately three months to complete.

"We thank Central Carolina Bank for their generous donation and for their support of the arts through the years," said Jack Preiss, Liberty Arts president and treasurer. "The pavilion represents the kind of public-private partnership which is necessary to develop downtown Durham, particularly Durham Central Park. Liberty Arts. Inc. appreciates the confidence that CCB and the City has shown us to build and operate this unique facility. We hope it will stimulate other organizations to come forward with other exciting plans and proposals for the park."

"We share Liberty Arts' belief that the arts can transform a community," said Dean Hamric, CCB's Durham city executive. "But the transformation requires the commitment of individuals like Jack Preiss and Frank A. DePasquale, and companies like CCB, who are passionately involved in making Durham a better place to live, and driven to make vision a reality."

The 1,600 square foot pavilion will house a state-of-the-art foundry for casting large-scale sculptures and is one of only several of its kind located on the East Coast. The pavilion will also include ceramic kilns and metal forges that enable artists to create art using different mediums.

The construction of a facility for precisely the purpose of designing and casting large-scale sculptures has already generated interest from local artists, schools and arts councils. "Individual artists will be able to work there, classes will be taught, and users of the Durham Arts Council's Clay Studio will fire their work there," added Preiss. "The arts pavilion will fill a serious gap in Durham's art infrastructure."

The pavilion design, by Frank A. DePasquale, AIA, of DTW Architects and Planners, Ltd., Durham, is in itself a work of art. A curved wall, which faces into Durham Central Park, will be comprised of open grilled panels and several sets of unique artist-made gates. This will allow the work areas to be visible to the public.

A portion of the $300,000 gift will be used to commission the first piece of artwork to be fabricated in the pavilion. When completed, the sculpture will be displayed in the planned City Center Plaza, for which CCB has committed $400,000 to develop. The plaza is adjacent to CCB's headquarters at 111 Corcoran Street.

The pavilion is perhaps one the most visible of CCB's investments in the arts during its 100 years in Durham. During the 1960's, under the direction of George Watts Hill, then president of CCB, the bank began to purchase the original work of area artists for local branch offices. The collection now consists of more than 2,000 works of art, and is one of the finest compilations of North Carolina artwork to be found.

Background

Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2003, CCB has a rich heritage of community service and support that continues today. CCB employs more than 1,100 people in the Durham region in its main office, operations center and 21 Durham branches.

CCB has more than 265 branches in North and South Carolina, primarily located along the I-85 corridor from Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina to Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina, and in Wilmington, Elizabeth City and Asheville. CCB's customers also have convenient access to their accounts via the Internet (www.ccbonline.com), the Telebanking Center (1-800-422-2226) or by stopping at any one of the more than 550 ATMs in the network.

About Liberty Arts

Liberty Arts is a non-for-profit corporation formed by working artists and members of the Durham Central Park, Inc. The goal of the organization is to create and encourage the creation of the studios and venues for the production and exhibition of art, with a focus on production and placement of public art for the City of Durham.