Skip to main content
Arts NC State
The Crafts Center

WORDS = POWER

Words have the power to influence, inspire, provoke thought, and catalyze social change.

Art has played a significant role in expressing the experiences, struggles and triumphs of humanity. The WORDS = POWER initiative–which includes creative sessions and exhibitions of artwork–explores our relationship with words and addresses a variety of issues including beauty, destruction and resilience.

Circle graphic that says WORDS = POWER
WORDS = POWER exhibition graphic

WORDS=POWER Creative Sessions

WORDS = POWER incorporates the use of words, phrases, poems and written texts. Through guided creative sessions, participants bring these words to life through mixed media. Participants are led through meaningful discourse and contemplative processes to create their own work of art. Sessions can be tailored to integrate academic course work, reflect particular themes within a group and provide a safe, open creative space for participants to express themselves. Book your group for a creative session below.

Book Your Group

Double Exhibitions

For the first time, the Crafts Center is collaborating with the Gregg Museum of Art & Design to host a double exhibition, with different versions of WORDS = POWER at each location.

Art created for the Words=Power project. Text on the art includes a stylized version of "I will BUILD from the RUBBLE you left me in."

WORDS = POWER at the Crafts Center

September 17-November 14, 2025

The Crafts Center’s exhibition features a collection of artwork born out of the Crafts Center community, including student- and instructor-made work, videos and interactive opportunities for gallery attendees to participate.

"Hell [inset]" by artist Carol Fountain Nix

WORDS = POWER at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design

October 30, 2025-February 28,2026

This group exhibition brings together NC State’s Crafts Center, the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program of graduate students from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the African American Cultural Center, and regional North Carolina artists Anne Storie Willson, Carol Fountain Nix, Jaki Shelton Green, Katy Walls and Meg Day.

In the News

Multimedia design by Carol Fountain Nix, called "Mighty River"

WORDS = POWER Collaboration to Showcase Student, Faculty Art at Crafts Center and Gregg Museum

Throughout human history, creators have turned to both written words and visual art to share messages, convey emotions and express their lived experiences and interpretations of the world around them.

This fall, a collaboration between two Arts NC State organizations will showcase the work of students, faculty and local artists in two powerful exhibitions. 

Read more