Story via David Menconi, Down on Copperline, Orange County Arts Commission
If you have attended any sort of live-music event anywhere in the Triangle over the past three decades, chances are that Greg Bell was part of it. By his own admission, he’s done “a lot of stuff that does not fit on one resume, a lot or a little more of this or that.” He’s played in a long list of bands including the Chicken Wire Gang, Jimbo Mathus’ Knockdown Society, Southern Culture on the Skids and more – not to mention countless for-the-occasion ensembles assembled for specific shows, plays, or recording projects.
Even when you don’t see Bell onstage playing keyboards or accordion, he’s frequently involved in making the show happen. He spent almost a quarter-century as director of Durham’s venerable Festival for the Eno and has also helped organize countless festivals and events across the Triangle and beyond, from SleepyFest to Hopscotch and IBMA’s World of Bluegrass in Raleigh.
Bell’s many and varied experiences make him the perfect choice for Orange County Arts Commission’s newly created position of event contractor. The job will keep Bell busy producing large-scale local events, including a possible new festival at Blackwood Farm next summer, and working with director Katie Murray on expanding the offerings of the Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough.
“Greg and I worked together on a past festival, and I realized we had very similar backgrounds and sort of shared a brain. I’ve spent the better part of my career planning large festivals, and I’m a tough critic. Festivals are an important opportunity for our local creatives to get their work out in the world, but I didn’t want to add more events without the right person on board. Greg knows the industry, knows everyone in the community, and he’s the easiest person to work with. I feel thankful to have him as part of my team,” states Murray.
But a lot of the new job’s big-picture planning aspects had to be put on hold, because they were overtaken by short-term events. Two days after Bell started working in July, Tropical Storm Chantal brought crushing floods to Orange County. The Eno Arts Mill was hit especially hard.
“I started the job on Wednesday and quickly realized I didn’t have the right clothes for working in an art gallery,” Bell says. “I had non-profity clothes, business-meeting clothes, clothes for knocking around the woods – but nothing hip and tidy. So I went shopping, but then the flood happened. So my third day of work, I was leaving the house in chest waders carrying bleach, potable water, and rags. My wife took one look at me and cracked up. ‘Same old same old,’ she said.”
“I hired Greg to plan events, but it turns out he had flood mitigation experience from his time with Festival for the Eno. Immediately after the flood, I was standing around like a deer in headlights, and Greg went into action, setting up a cleaning station and directing volunteers,” states Murray. “In that moment, I was even more thankful to the universe for putting him in my orbit.”
Two weeks after the flood, installation began for the 2nd Uproar Festival of Public Art, produced by the Arts Commission. “We were so behind because of our own devastation, but also because of the impact Chantal had on our town partners. Greg seamlessly fell into the Uproar chaos, helping us in those critical last few weeks when you’re trying to tie up all the loose ends. I’m not sure what we would have done without him.”
Once he gets caught up, Bell will turn his attention to working with Murray on performing arts programming at the Eno Arts Mill.
“I love the space, its history, the location and what the county has done with it,” Bell says. “It will be exciting to expand the performing arts offerings, and hopefully even the space itself.
In the meantime, Bell is still playing music himself. Just about every Sunday morning, you’ll find him playing for the children at The Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill (a volunteer job he’s had for more than 20 years). He most recently performed to a packed house as part of the Crazy Chester tribute to “The Last Waltz” at Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle. “Have piano and organ and accordion,” he says with a laugh, “will travel.”
“Though the flood threw everything upside down,” Bell continued, “I’m just thrilled with this opportunity to create new performing arts programs and spaces here in Orange County.”
Murray is thrilled too. “I feel like the limits of what we will come up with are limitless – I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
(Story and all photos via Orange County Arts Commission)
Chapelboro.com has partnered with the Orange County Arts Commission to bring more arts-focused content to our readers through columns written by local people about some of the fantastic things happening in our local arts scene! Since 1985, the OCAC has worked to to promote and strengthen the artistic and cultural development of Orange County, North Carolina.
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