Mark Graves

Director of Facility and Craft Services

Mark was born in Winston-Salem and grew up in Kernersville NC on the remnants of his grandfather’s dairy farm, then a fledgling neighborhood developed in a former cow pasture. His father was a builder, so at thirteen being big for his age with an ability to swing a hammer efficiently, Mark was conscripted into the building trade on the first day of summer vacation that year and has maintained a relationship (often deep) with the trade ever since. Having a propensity for art and being nurtured by a family of educators he attended Appalachian State where after a few curriculum changes, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art concentrating in sculpture and a very heavy minor in outdoor recreation, an actual course of study and not just “ripping and racing up and down those mountains” as his grandfather would often term Mark’s pursuits. Mark came to D(N)CR at the newly acquired SECCA (NCMA Winston-Salem) in 2008 after a decade as challenge course facilitator with the WS Recreation and Parks Dept., a two-year stint as a high school art educator in the WSFC school system and a fourteen-month enlightenment as a Housing Code Enforcement officer with the city of Winston-Salem. Mark came to Historic Sites in 2013 as a carpenter and jack of all trades as was the requirement of Craft Services at the time; may still be. He derives great satisfaction from the varied nature of the work Craft Services does with the division and the creativity the job consistently requires. In his free time Mark still enjoys “ripping and racing up and down those mountains” whether on a pair of skis or in a raft with his brother(s). He and his wife Toni along with their rescue pup Luna enjoy spending time at their Stokes County home cooking and counting deer while rekindling their art practice.