Whether it be for entertainment or education, NC State LIVE offers events year-round to students, staff and the community. The program hosts musicians, dance companies, visual artists and more to bring the community a plethora of entertainment and variety of performances.

NC State LIVE Director Sharon Moore sat down with Technician to talk about her experience in the arts, working at NC State and goals of the program.

Tell me about what you do as the director of NC State LIVE.

NC State LIVE is a professional performing arts series. I work with a team of two other people to bring this to life. We book and bring artists from around the world to campus and the community. They perform in one of our theater spaces, as well as engaging in different ways beyond the stage. They can provide educational opportunities, casual conversations and projects that can impact students, faculty and staff.

In order to ensure those things happen on campus, we are administrators with multiple hats. We see a large number of work and performances, talk to people on campus about issues and ideas that can correlate to concepts that artists are dealing with in their work. We do that research to see who we should be bringing to campus that is relevant and accessible. We try to figure out ways to connect the artists that we bring with the students and make sure that students are aware that NC State LIVE is here with artists they can enjoy and learn from. We also try to engage with our audience. The three of us also do marketing for the program, write up contracts, fundraise and write grants to bring in money to support the works we bring in.

What got you into arts? What is your background in arts? Where did your passion for the arts stem from?

My mother was a musician as well as her whole family and my father was a visual artist with watercolors so I grew up with the arts in my life. I played piano from an early age and in high school I wanted to be engaged in music in some way so I played the clarinet and was in the concert and marching band. I knew that music was the path I wanted to go down, so I started as a music major at East Carolina University. Because I had such an amazing experience with band in high school, I was interested in going into instrumental education.

I realized early on that teaching was not in my blood and I definitely did not want to be on stage with no interest in being a performer. I was fortunate enough that East Carolina offered a degree in arts management and administration. That was the perfect major for me because it could keep me engaged and working with artists, but especially allowed me to connect artists with the community and audiences.

What is it like directing an arts program at a predominantly STEM school?

It is pretty exciting because NC State as a STEM school is all about innovative and creative critical thinking. The key there is creative. In research, engineering or any STEM curriculum, there has to be a creative component to think outside of the box. NC State LIVE supports that creative thinking. We have had a great amount of success with faculty and other programming units realizing that the artists we are bringing in work in areas that support math and science curriculum. When faculty make that connection with the arts, it is can be really powerful.

While creating those connections can be invigorating, it is not without its challenges. At a large school like NC State, with upwards of 35,000 students and almost 2,500 faculty members, it can be hard to make enough people aware of the work we are doing here. I think once we can get in and develop that relationship, then it can amount to something great.

What are your goals for the future of NC State LIVE?

For us, it is about finding the resources to engage our artists here for extended periods of time and have that opportunity to really connect in meaningful ways. My hope is that we will be able to grow our ability to fundraise to make that possible and be able to explore with different artists for campus and to plan projects that are mutually beneficial to support the artist’s creativity and process as well as reinforcing our campus’ goals and philosophies.

People tend to think that growing your program means doing more and more, but for us it means learning how to better make an impact. Things like growing staff in order to better make relationships with artists and departments on campus and learning the needs of the community are essential to the growth of NC State LIVE. We want to ensure that we are serving the diversity of our community, reflecting our community and providing the needs of our community.

Why should students come out and support the arts?

I think this is the moment in your life as students that you should explore and try new things. You should be inquisitive, step outside your comfort zone and take advantage of things that are here for you. We have made efforts to make events affordable.

They are 75 percent off for students, so our ticket prices range from $6 to $8, whereas out in the real world tickets could be $50. Students should strive to see artists express things in different ways, from different worlds, different cultures and different perspectives. I know that students are busy; they are working, studying and socializing all the time. I think our artists have a lot to offer that students would be surprised how much they enjoy.

A wide range of performances are produced throughout the year. To learn more, visit LIVE’s website for a full schedule of events, ways to get involved and more.