William and Sara McCoy of Chapel Hill have announced that they will honor James Moeser, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with lead gifts establishing the James Moeser Fund for Excellence in the Arts at UNC.
The surprise announcement was made Wednesday evening at a reception following a performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Chapel Hill as part of UNC’s Carolina Performing Arts Series. The famed musician attended the reception.
The two gifts ultimately will total $1.1 million, with one being an immediate commitment of $100,000 and the second coming to UNC as part of the McCoys’ estate. They will create a new endowed fund that will go toward visiting artists’ fees of the world’s most acclaimed performers at Carolina. The new fund will create a permanent source of income for the Office of Executive Director for the Arts to ensure that artists at the highest level of excellence will teach students in master classes, engage with faculty through symposia and research and perform for students, faculty, staff and community. Additional private support will be sought to increase the fund’s value.
“I am enormously grateful to Bill and Sara McCoy,” Moeser said. “Bill preceded me in this office, and both he and Sara have continued to be among the University’s most steadfast supporters. I am honored to have my name on their gift.”
Moeser, UNC’s ninth chancellor, will leave office on June 30. After a year’s research leave, he will return to Carolina as a member of the faculty.
“James Moeser was our first artist-chancellor,” said McCoy, a Carolina graduate who served as interim chancellor from 1999 until Moeser took office in August 2000. “That’s why Sara and I wanted to create this fund in his name. Just as his many efforts toward the arts will resonate into the future, so will recipients of the fund. We hope this will be the first of many gifts to his fund in the coming years, and we encourage others to join us in honoring James in this way.”
A concert organist, Moeser has made improving the arts at UNC a major priority during his years as chancellor. He convened a campus committee to evaluate the arts at Carolina and, in 2005, he created the position of executive director for the arts. That led to the hiring of Emil Kang, a former president and executive director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Also in 2005, a newly renovated Memorial Hall, made possible by a state bond referendum and private gifts, reopened to rave reviews. Since then, top-flight performers such as Tony Bennett, Al Green, Bonnie Raitt, Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis have performed at UNC as part of the Carolina Performing Arts Series, which Kang organized.
Memorial Hall is the cornerstone of the University’s planned Arts Common. Progress on the Arts Common is now highly visible, with renovations under way for Person and Gerrard halls, along with Old Playmakers, a National Historic Landmark, and with construction on a new music building for the College of Arts and Sciences.
The new facility is on Columbia Street between Hanes Art Building and Abernethy Hall. The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust gave $4 million to complete its funding and $4 million to create 16 full music scholarships for undergraduate students.
The trust also has supported the Carolina Performing Arts Series with a $5 million challenge gift.
“The arts at Carolina have risen to another level under Chancellor Moeser’s leadership,” said Sara McCoy, who serves on the Carolina Performing Arts Society National Advisory Board. She also has served at UNC on the boards of Friends of Playmakers, the Ackland Art Museum and the School of Information and Library Science.
William McCoy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UNC in 1955 with a degree in business administration. In addition to serving as Carolina’s interim chancellor, he has served on the board of visitors, the Bicentennial and Carolina First campaign steering committees and as chair of the board of visitors of Kenan-Flagler Business School, the National Development Council and the UNC Health Care System. From 1995 to 1998, he worked at UNC General Administration as vice president for finance.
That came after a 35-year career with the BellSouth Corp., where he retired as vice chairman of the board.
Carolina Performing Arts contact: Priscilla Bratcher, (919) 923-2588, priscilla_bratcher@unc.edu
Development Communications contact: Scott Ragland, (919) 962-0027, scott_ragland@unc.edu