Jazz@CAM: The Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble
2026-01-08 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Cameron Art Museum, 3201 S 17th St, Wilmington, 28412
Thursday, January 8 | 7 PM
Join us for Jazz at CAM as we present the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble!
Experience the energy and precision of one of the nation’s top high school jazz ensembles, delivering everything from swinging big band classics to fresh, contemporary charts. With remarkable skill and youthful passion, the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble proves that the future of jazz is in excellent hands.
Jazz at CAM is must for jazz lovers in the Wilmington area!
CAM Café is open for dinner the night of jazz performances. If you’d like to have dinner before the show, please reserve a table by calling (910) 777-2363. If attending the jazz show, we recommend making your reservation time no later than 6 PM to ensure you make it to the performance on time.
TICKETS
CAM Members: $40
Not-Yet Members: $60
Students and Educators: $15
ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE
Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (TYJE) is one of the premier high school jazz ensembles in the country and is part of Triangle Youth Music, an organization dedicated to providing exceptional music education across the Raleigh-Durham region.
TYJE brings together outstanding high school musicians from across the area who are passionate about jazz performance and improvisation. The ensemble performs both classic and contemporary big band repertoire and has earned national recognition for its excellence. TYJE has been selected eight times as a finalist for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Essentially Ellington Festival and Competition in New York City, placing it among the top 15 high school jazz bands in the United States.
In 2024, TYJE was the only high school community band invited to perform at the renowned Midwest Clinic in Chicago. The group performs regularly throughout the Triangle and beyond, appearing at regional jazz festivals, community events, and concert series.
TYJE is directed by Dr. Gregg Gelb, a saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and founder of the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra. Dr. Gelb is an active performer with many jazz groups in the Triangle and frequently appears with the North Carolina Symphony. TYJE exemplifies Triangle Youth Music’s commitment to high-quality, accessible music education for young people across the region.

Living Waters: Artist Tour & Talk with R. Stein Wexler
2026-01-18 13:00 - 15:00 | Cameron Art Museum, 3201 S 17th St, Wilmington, 28412
Join artist R. Stein Wexler for an artist talk on Living Waters, an immersive installation that reflects on the unifying and essential role of water in human life.
The installation sits within an emergency shelter that includes 7 jerricans of water gathered along the Cape Fear River watershed, a video installation of the surface of that body of water, and an audio collage composed of recorded water rituals and the sounds of water.
Begin with a guided tour at 1 PM led by the artist, registration required.
After, Wexler will discuss her work and process in a moderated conversation at 2 PM with Gene Felice, artist and Assistant Professor of Digital Art at UNCW.
Join us for the tour, the artist talk, or both. Links below to register.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
R Stein Wexler (she/her) is a public- and installation-artist trained as an urban planner. Her projects are research-based, community-engaged, and critical of dominant structures. She creates place-based work in collaboration with local communities to tell (hi)stories. Shaped by empathy, deep listening, and authentic connection, her work results in gatherings, process documentation, immersive and interactive installations, workshops, exhibitions, and policy change. Her work often offers numerous points of entry, be it through sensory experiences, information-sharing, participation in the creation process, or community- and connection-building.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Gene A. Felice II, Assistant Professor in Digital Art at UNCW, bridges his creative practice across art, science, education and design, developing a sustainable network of innovation, living systems, and emerging technologies. His hybrid practice grows at the intersection of nature and technology, developing coactive systems as arts science research. Throughout his creative process, emerging technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutting & CNC milling hybridize with older methods such as wood fabrication, lost wax bronze casting, ceramics, glass casting and more. While keeping site specific histories in mind, he achieves confluence by merging these varied passions into a system of creative collaboration.

YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERT
2026-01-18 14:30 - 18:00 | Cape Fear Community College Wilson Center, 703 N. 3rd Streer, Wilmington, 28411
Bring the whole family for an afternoon of musical discovery, imagination, and fun at the Wilmington Symphony’s annual Young People’s Concert, specially designed for children ages 6 and up! Before the music begins, explore the Instrument Discovery Zone in the Wilson Center lobby starting at 2:30 PM—a hands-on, interactive space where kids can learn about and even try out the instruments they’ll see on stage. From the bold brass to the shimmering strings, it’s a chance to get up close and personal with the magic of orchestral sound.

Art After Helene: From Mountains to Sea Artist Panel Discussion
2026-01-22 18:30 - 19:30 | Cameron Art Museum, 3201 S 17th St, Wilmington, 28412
Art After Helene: From Mountains to Sea Artist Panel Discussion
Thursday, January 22, 2026 • 6:30-7:30 PM
Reception Hall
CAM Members $10 | Not-Yet Members $15 | Students & Educators Free
Join us for an engaging artist panel featuring Western North Carolina artists Julyan Davis, Erika Diamond, and Bill Green, all included in CAM’s exhibition From Mountains to Sea. In conversation with Associate Curator Ben Billingsley, the panel will explore how artists respond to place, change, and lived experience through landscape.
The conversation will also reflect on the impact of Hurricane Helene—the deadliest strike on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina—highlighting how memory, grief, and ecological trauma can be transformed through creative practice into works of hope and renewal.
The exhibition From Mountains to Sea features landscapes that are at once beautiful and provocative, scarred yet sacred, speaking to loss, change, and rebirth. Learn more about the exhibition here.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Julyan Davis is an English-born artist and writer who has painted the American South for thirty years. He received his art training at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. In 1988, having completed his B.A. in painting and printmaking, he traveled to the South on a painting trip that was also fueled by an interest in the history of Demopolis, Alabama and its settling by Bonapartist exiles.
Erika Diamond is a textile-focused artist, curator, and educator. Holding degrees from Rhode Island School of Design (BFA) and Virginia Commonwealth University (MFA), Diamond has exhibited nationally and abroad in venues such as Contemporary Craft, SPRING/BREAK Art Fair, Dinner Gallery, Form & Concept Gallery, and Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. As Associate Director of Galleries at Chautauqua Institution and a freelance curator, she creates exhibitions that blur distinctions between the genres of art, design, and craft, while centering diverse voices and practices.
Bill Green, a photographer, explores the idea of lost America wherever he finds it. Green documents the heritage of Southern small-town life and the stories found therein. Obscure everyday scenes people might not otherwise are where he can be most often found. He believes that a mix of time, place, and texture is often dismissed as the uglier side of cities or countryside, yet it resonates aesthetically in ways modern buildings can’t.
FEATURED IMAGERY:
The photographs used in event materials are by Bill Green, one of the panel artists. His paired “before and after” photographs—this example being one of three—document sites before and after Hurricane Helene, highlighting the storm’s destruction and its lasting impact on small-town Western North Carolina.
Photograph credit:
Bill Green (American, b. 1963), A Quiet Stretch [detail], [left] Before 12/30/21, [right] After 1/5/25. Photography, 20 x 30 in. Courtesy of Bill Green. © 2025 Bill Green.
From Mountains to Sea presented to the community by Wells Fargo.

Little Women the Broadway Musical - Presented by the Thalian Association
2026-01-23 - 2026-02-01 | Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center, 120 South 2nd Street, Wilmington, NC, 28401, United States
Showtimes
Dates: Friday January 23, 2026 – Sunday February 1, 2026
Friday – Saturday Time: 7:30 pm
Sunday Time: 3:00 pm
Location
2nd Street Stage Hannah Block
Historic USO/Community Arts Center
Music by Jason Howland Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein Book by Allan Knee Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott Produced nationally and internationally, Little Women has been praised by critics for its ambition in adapting such a well-known story for the stage. This timeless, captivating story is brought to life in this glorious musical filled with personal discovery, heartache, hope and everlasting love. The original production starred the unparalleled Sutton Foster, who received Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations for her performance. Based on Louisa May Alcott’s life, Little Women follows the adventures of sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested – her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America.

Auditions for Thalian Association's How I Became a Pirate - Youth Rookie Show
2026-01-24 10:00 - 16:00 | Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center, 120 South 2nd Street, Wilmington, NC, 28401, United States
Thalian Association Community Theatre will hold auditions for the fourth youth show of the season, How I Became a Pirate, Saturday January 24 at 10 am. Auditions will be held at the Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center at 120 S 2nd St Wilmington NC at 9 am. How I Became a Pirate is the 4th annual “Rookie show”, an opportunity for youth who have never been cast in a Thalian Association production. The musical, directed by Emily Graham, will run at the Community Arts Center March 20 through March 29. If needed, callbacks will be that afternoon and will include a dance call as well as reading and singing from the show.
All roles are available.
Youth performers of all races and ethnicities are welcome and encouraged to audition.
Those new to Thalian Association should bring an up-to-date picture with them.
Audition sign up begins Dec. 15th. To sign up for an audition time, please call 910-251-1788.
For auditions, performers should prepare 30 seconds of a song they feel confident singing.
A typical rehearsal week would be Monday- Thursday, 5-7 pm and Saturdays 10-2 pm.
Conflicts are allowed if given up front. Please arrive early enough to fill out both sides of the audition form.
Synopsis
Sail off on a fantastic musical excursion when a band of comical pirates lands at North Beach looking for an expert digger to join their crew. Braid Beard and his mates enlist young Jeremy Jacob as they look for the perfect spot to bury their treasure. Jeremy finds that adventuring can be lots of fun, but also learns that love and home are treasures you can’t find on any map! The whole family will love this delightful and swashbuckling musical adventure.
Available Roles:
JEREMY JACOB – a boy of about 10
BRAID BEARD – the Pirate Captain – a pirate with a “braided beard” on his chin
SWILL THE PIRATE – a pirate with wire-rim eyeglasses – philosophical – intellectual – who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong
SHARKTOOTH THE PIRATE – foreboding – scowling grin – wears a patch on eye – but yet – they’re a “sensitive guy”
PIRATE PIERRE – talks with a French accent – the ship’s cook – enjoys fine French cuisine
MAX THE PIRATE – they wear a stuffed Parrot on his shoulder – “he’s only a stuffed, plush Parrot but we don’t have the heart to tell ‘im ‘ees not real”
PIRATE SEYMOUR BRAUNSCHWAGGER – A typical Pirate First Mate
PIRATE SCURVY DOG – A typical Pirate Second Mate – with a tendency to “bark”
ENSEMBLE PIRATES
