Winston-Salem is considered North Carolina’s City of the Arts.  Home to the nation’s first Arts Council, the world-renowned North Carolina School of the Arts, and the National Black Theatre Festival, Winston-Salem boasts a wealth of cultural offerings.  Local galleries and museums offer the region’s most impressive exhibits and stimulating programming.  Visitors can experience the best in contemporary, historical, African-American and scientific exhibitions in North Carolina’s finest museums.  Historic Old Salem preserves the past in a “living” museum while the Sawtooth Center for Visual Arts and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) offer classes and exhibits of various media.  The Reynolda House is an impressive and varied collection of American art in the gracious historic estate of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds.  SciWorks thrills children of all ages with interactive, hands-on exhibits, a planetarium and a 15-acre environmental park. 

The Downtown Arts District at Sixth and Trade Streets is a growing community of eclectic galleries and craft shops.  The Downtown area bustles with energy until late in the evening during the Gallery Hops which take place on the first Friday of each month.  There are also weekly outdoor concert events from May to October with Alive after Five (Thursday), Fourth Street Jazz and Blues (Friday), and Summer on Trade(Saturday).

In 2002, the RiverRun International Film Festival chose to relocate to the facilities offered in Winston-Salem by the North Carolina School of the Arts.  By 2004, there were over one hundred movies shown throughout Winston-Salem with nearly one quarter of the entries from international film makers.  The festival includes huge parties as well as forums and panels with experienced filmmakers.

The Something for Everyone series brings some of Broadways’ best touring musicals and a variety of specialty acts for all ages to the stage at the Stevens Center.  Take in a performance by the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, Piedmont Opera Theatre, the North Carolina School of the Arts or the community Little Theatre.  The Stevens Center also regularly hosts movie screenings as part of the Films on Fourth series which brings independent, international and documentary films to Winston-Salem.