These videos were created by Howell Hammond for the Yancey Foundation for the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for the arts in education, one of the many programs by the Arts Council. They feature Denise Cook, executive director, Carolyn Riley, education coordinator, and Terry McKinney, renown local musician and participating artist in education.

Thanks to the generosity of several forward-looking organizations, the Toe River Arts Council's mission of arts education will be funded for the coming year. According to arts education coordinator Carolyn Riley, TRAC received grants from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Yancey County United Fund, United Way of Mitchell County, and the Blue Ridge Heritage Area, ensuring that children in Yancey and Mitchell Counties will have the advantages of exposure to and participation in the arts. These programs reach over 5,000 area students annually, helping them to prepare to compete in a global economy.

The Environment and the Arts residency program is funded by an Arts in Education Grant through the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency, and also by the support of Mitchell and Yancey County schools. The program provides a teaching artist for a week at a time at each of the elementary schools in the two counties. Professional teaching artists make up to five visits to classes, the schools having selected the artists and the dates of their visits. The number of weeks artists spend at each school is based on the school population. Artists working with Environment and the Arts in the coming years are Melissa Cadell, Kerstin Davis, and Lisa Gluckin.

The Middle School Residency program is funded by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina and support from the Mitchell and Yancey County school systems. As with the Environment and the Arts program, teaching artists meet with each class for an hour, five times a week. Jacque Red Leaf, Native American storyteller, will be working with Mitchell County Middle School students this year.

Appalachian Musicians is a program designed to teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students the traditional music of Western North Carolina. This year's program is made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council and the Blue Ridge Heritage Area. Students participating in the program learn to play traditional tunes on the guitar, fiddle, banjo, and dulcimer in an after school environment. Terry McKinney, well-known local and national musician is working with students in Yancey County.

With the Performances in the Schools program, TRAC brings a variety of performances to all the schools in Yancey and Mitchell Counties, usually twice a year. In the past students have thrilled to see music, drama, puppet, dance, and storytelling events. Performances in the Schools is made possible by Yancey County United Fund, United Way of Mitchell County, and the Grassroots Art Program, through the North Carolina Arts Council.

Hands-on art instruction, study of the local heritage and environment, musical and dramatic training and attendance at outstanding performances, exhibitions of student work, this ambitious and far-reaching array of programs for Toe River Valley young people ensures that their exposure to culture is profound and lasting.