This September, the North Carolina Botanical Garden welcomes back Sculpture in the Garden, its beloved annual exhibition pairing the work of local artists with the Garden’s own curated landscapes.
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On Saturday, July 4, community leaders, historians, authors, elected officials, and residents will gather at the historic Colonial Inn in downtown Hillsborough for a sold-out celebration commemorating the nation’s semiquincentennial and unveiling an important new book: A Gathering of Voices: Orange County at 250, by local author and historian Valarie Schwartz.
“It is what we chose to leave alone that will be our greatest legacy.” John Muir wrote those words more than a century ago, but they read today like a mission statement for a quiet conservation movement taking root across North Carolina
At that magical intersection where strong coffee, creative minds, and the living woods meet, remarkable things can happen.
The red brick buildings of Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street huddle together like old friends, and for Luchina Fisher, they hold the kind of memories that quietly shape a life.
In Carrboro, a California dream became a Carolina institution — and now it’s ready for its next chapter.
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026, Orange County is reflecting on how much life here has changed since the nation’s last major milestone celebration — the Bicentennial in 1976.
If you live in Chapel Hill or Carrboro and it’s the last Friday of the month, do yourself a favor: take the short 12 mile drive, park in the free deck next to Weaver Street Market, and give yourself over to one of the most cultural, welcoming, and free evenings Orange County has to offer.
The Chapel Hill Garden Tour runs April 25-26, 2026. Proceeds benefit the North Carolina Botanical Garden and Chapel Hill Garden Club community programs.
magine being a 20-something college student, finding your footing, building your own life — and then finding out your dad is about to become the new head coach of the basketball team at your school.
When the Town That Thinks Different Meets the Team That Plays Different, Something Beautiful Happens
It is through a shared love of the land that Hillsborough residents Rich Shaw and Holly Reid found one another.
In Chapel Hill, the stars don’t just come out at night: they’re shining 24/7. And just when you think you’ve seen them all, here comes another, even brighter light.
Long before social media feeds and push notifications, neighbors depended on familiar voices and trusted bylines to understand the world around them.
What is it about cookbooks that mean so much to civilization? All of us have a favorite recipe from our youth that brings us back to those loving moments shared with family and friends and forever imprinted on our minds.
In 2026, America turns 250, with commemorative celebrations taking place across North Carolina and Orange County.
Anyone who has watched a UNC Basketball game on television has, whether they know it or not, seen Freddie Kiger.
Why are they called the Bananas? First off, because banana rhymes with Savannah, which is where they hail from. Secondly, and most importantly, they’re crazy, and crazy in all the best ways.
Hillsborough is a small town, historical but humble. It’s also one of those rare places where, on any given day, you might be standing in line at Weaver Street with a Pulitzer Prize winner, or a real-life heroine whose story inspired a major motion picture, or a scientist whose quiet work has saved lives across the globe.
The ArtsCenter in Carrboro is a well-known venue for art classes, exhibitions, and live performance. One not-so-well-kept secret is that the ArtsCenter also offers its after-school programs and summer camps. And they are popular, to say the least.
Though she makes her home now in New York City, Parker Zinn is a homegrown success story, the product of a place, a time, and a family reflecting the values that mean the most to most of us: love, support, and an education. Parker Zinn was beneficiary of all these things. Chapel Hill is her home, and it has given her the world.
It’s amazing how many Chapel Hillians feel compelled to share their love of this place with others. There is something about the mystique, character, and historic accomplishments of Chapel Hill that makes people want to share it, showcase it, and steward it.
The holiday season is a celebration of joy, gratitude, and compassion. Perhaps compassion most of all.
In preparation for America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, writer Valarie Schwartz—together with the Orange County Visitors Bureau—has been gathering stories that celebrate the many voices that shaped this place.
Chapel Hill has always welcomed weary travelers with open arms, but where they’ve stayed the night has changed dramatically over the decades.
UNC Athletics stands as one of the most respected programs in the nation, and no figure embodies its values more deeply than Dean Smith. As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Carolina’s athletic journey since the 1976 Bicentennial offers a revealing lens into the evolution of college sports — an evolution shaped, in many ways, by Smith’s influence on what leadership, integrity, and teamwork should look like.
Service is love in action, and even the smallest act of service has the power to change a life. It’s called giving back. Giving back is not a performative. It isn’t a duty or a box to check. It’s a way of living emotionally — of keeping the gifts of life by sharing them with others, quietly and consistently, in all the daily, ordinary moments. The smallest gesture can rock someone’s world.
The best memories come to us in their own delightful packages: as tastes, smells, sights, and sometimes as snacks. For Becca Jordan Wright (UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA ’21), that snack was bite-sized rounds of buttery cheese — what she called “pennies” — snacks made side-by-side with her dad using her grandmother’s recipe. Imagine a cross between a cheese straw, a biscuit, and a homemade Cheez-It, with just a kick of spice. That’s a pennie.
f you’ve visited downtown Chapel Hill recently, you’ve probably noticed it feels a little different. The familiar rhythms of Franklin and Rosemary Streets — once defined by bookstores, flower stalls, and cafés — now hum with the energy of entrepreneurs, students, and researchers building what’s next. The shift is more than cosmetic: Chapel Hill has quietly become one of the Southeast’s most dynamic innovation and tech ecosystems.
There’s something profoundly intimate about stepping into an artist’s personal workspace. It’s not the curations efforts of a gallery or museum — it’s something far more authentic. Here, you get insight into not just the artwork, but the person behind it.
Teenagers today live in a world full of choices — more than any previous generation could have imagined. At the same time, they carry the weight of a digital reality that they can never completely turn off.
The world-famous Savannah Bananas are set to bring their one-of-a-kind brand of baseball and big-time entertainment to Kenan Stadium on April 11 and 12, 2026.