Our Why

Mission & Vision

CHArt is a community-engaged research center at UNC Charlotte.

Our mission is to empower communities to reclaim, elevate, and co-create cultural histories and artistic futures.

Our vision is that no place erases its unique artistic and cultural heritage or minimizes the diverse creative voices that give it life.

“Heritage is something vital and alive. It is a moment of action, not something frozen in material form. It incorporates a range of actions that often occur at places or in certain spaces. … It is this tension between action and material representation that is an important element of heritage.”

– Laurajane Smith, The Idea of Heritage