Open Studio: The Arts Online was an exciting five year national project to help individual artists and nonprofit arts organizations become effective information providers on the World Wide Web.

Charlotte's Web (Charlotte NC) was chosen as one of the first three of 18 regional Mentor (Training) Sites, with the goal of training artists and arts groups to communicate and share information online and to create and maintain their own Web sites.

In Phase I of the project (1996-98) Charlotte's Web focused on the 14 NC and SC counties it served and trained 30 local artists and arts groups. In Phase II (1998-99) Charlotte's Web expanded its reach outside the Charlotte area and, in partnership with MAIN (Mountain Area Information Network), Asheville NC, trained a group of very enthusiastic western North Carolina artists, in addition to two more groups of local artists.

Now that Charlotte's Web Community Network has closed down, no more artists in NC and SC will receive training through Open Studio. However, Sam Eneman, former local Project Coordinator, will continue to maintain this web site with its links to the artist/organization trainees and to valuable resources he developed and used in the trainings.

Very special thanks to MAIN for stepping up and hosting this web site and our electronic mail list!

Many thanks to the Benton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for funding the Open Studio initiative to increase the arts and cultural presence on the Internet and expand the online arts audience.

Special thanks to UNC Charlotte Uptown, Western Region Education Service Alliance (WRESA) and Knowledge Development Centers (Charlotte NC) for very generously donating their computer labs for training our Open Studio participants.