Art Menius entered the arts/entertainment field as a writer and production assistant for the Nashville Network Bluegrass and Old Time music series, “Fire on the Mountain” after earning his history degree from UNC Chapel Hill. In 1983 he began publishing reviews and features about ‘roots music’ for the Bluegrass Unlimited to the News and Observer, with a long tenure at the Independent Weekly. Art has held positions as the Marketing and Sponsorship Director of MerleFest and Director of Appalshop. He is one of the founders of the International Bluegrass Music Association, the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance and the first chairman of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame committee.
Art Menius has served as Executive Director of Appalshop, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the Folk Alliance International (FAI), The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC, and currently part-time for Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA). He spent ten years handling sponsorship, marketing, contests, and emcee work for MerleFest. Menius has an aggregate of more than 70 years experience on nonprofit boards and currently sits on the Orange County (NC) United Transportation Board (OUTboard) (Chair 2018-2019), Orange County (NC) Historical Commission, WCOM community radio station, and the Chapel Hill Rotary Club (President, 2020-21). He also chairs the Trustees of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame.
Currently Review Editor of County Sales and Contributing Writer for Bluegrass Unlimited, Menius has published several hundred reviews, feature articles, and other pieces for the News and Observer, the New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Southern Exposure, North Carolina Historical Review, Dirty Linen, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina, Indy Week, Chess Life and Review, the Spectator, Canadian Bluegrass Review, and many others. He was the founding editor of International Bluegrass and the Folk Alliance Newsletter. He has copy edited or ghost written five books and currently working on the first two under his own name.