On September 21, 2001, Foundation President Jim Goodmon and North Carolina School of the Arts Chancellor Wade Hobgood signed a historic document establishing the Fletcher Opera Institute. The Institute, housed on the campus of the School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, is expected to become one of the nation’s leading centers for the training of professional singers and the production of opera; it is also intended to be a perpetual embodiment of Mr. Fletcher’s goals for opera and music education.

The Foundation’s commitment will underwrite operating expenses of the Institute at the level of $500,000 per year for 10 years, and will establish an endowment with an additional $500,000 per year during the same 10-year period. The NC School of the Arts will make a dollar-for-dollar matching contribution to both annual operations and endowment. Hence, the Institute will have an operating budget of at least $1,000,000 per year, and by 2011 should have a permanent endowment with a minimum of $10,000,000 in assets.

The Institute began its classes and production activities in September. From over 300 applications, a group of seven outstanding young singers was chosen for the first year’s program. The number of singers will increase to twelve by the third year of the program, and will remain at that level (unless there is a mutual agreement to increase the size of the program). In addition to twelve Fletcher “fellows” the Institute will draw on the resources and talents of both students and faculty in other areas of the School: dance, instrumental music, theater and design & production.

The Fletcher fellows’ first performances with the Institute will be educational programs for North Carolina public schools. Later in the fall, rehearsals will begin for the first evening production, Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, scheduled for Winston-Salem and Raleigh early in 2002. The Raleigh performances (February 8 & 10, 2002) will be part of a larger weekend celebrating the first season of the Fletcher Institute.

On Saturday, February 9, the Institute will welcome friends and supporters from across the state to a reception at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham. In addition to introducing the work of the Institute, the event will honor long-time School of the Arts patrons Mary and Jim Semans, as well as Robert Ward, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and retired Chancellor of the NCSA. Co-Chairs for the weekend are Jim and Barbara Goodmon.

The Institute has developed an outstanding website, www.fletcheropera.com.

A $50,000 grant awarded the Challenger Center for Space Education (a project of North Carolina State University) was designed to cover infrastructure, development and public relations consulting. The firm of Ruder-Finn was hired to develop a market feasibility study, a fundraising plan and strategy for implementation. North Carolina State University received two additional grants in support of this project: the NC Board of Science and Technology gave $25,000, and the Kenan Institute gave $25,000.

It had never been the intent of the University to manage the project or a facility; its institutional goal was to give start-up support, and then transfer the project to a privately backed organization. Regrettably, no such entity emerged to adopt the project, and the University felt compelled to drop its plans for a Challenger Center.

Ruder-Finn completed its contract and was paid in full for its services. Since the Foundation’s $50,000 grant exceeded the project’s expenses, the University will refund $24,267.22 of the grant.

Despite the fact that the project did not go forward, valuable lessons were learned. NC State University gained a better understanding of its involvement in space and space- related technologies. The final grant report stated that the University collected the data that demonstrates both a need and desire for a Challenger Learning Center in the Triangle. It is apparent, however, that the case is not strong enough at this time to generate adequate private support.