Calendar of Events

The WNC Farmers Market is the premier destination for buying and selling the region’s best agriculture products directly from farmers & food producers to household & wholesale customers in an environment that celebrates the region’s diverse culture, food & heritage.

House of Operation:

WNC Farmers Market: 24/7, 361 days a year market access for farmers
Office: Monday- Friday, 8am-5pm
Market Shops: 7 days a week, 8 am-5 pm
Wholesale and Truck Sheds: 7 days a week

Andrea Rich’s intricately designed, carved, and printed woodcuts draw viewers in for an up-close look.

Some of the artist’s earliest memories are of drawing animals. Childhood encounters with pets, livestock, and wildlife, including birds, deer, and toads, created a lasting connection to the natural world. Through encounters with creatures both tame and wild, Rich developed a fascination and a compassion for animals integral to her art.

“My prints are a visual record of the intriguing creatures that have enriched my life. The woodcut process challenges me to focus on the essence of my subjects. At the same time, I am drawn to the smell of the wood, its texture and grain, and the pleasure I experience while carving. I begin working on a block of wood and realize later that hours have passed without notice.”

Rich uses a centuries-old medium that requires one carved wood panel for each color – varying from one to sixteen – necessary to develop the composition. These panels are painstakingly aligned one atop another sequentially and pulled through a printing press to create the final woodcut.

The subjects of Rich’s woodcuts range from the wilderness of the Australian outback and the lush tropical Amazon forests to the roaring rivers of Yellowstone Park. Rich has traveled worldwide to study wildlife habitats and these varied firsthand experiences are reflected in her work.

Among Rich’s many achievements are international recognition for her woodcut prints, including a 2009 Award of Excellence from the Society of Animal Artists and a 2009 Medal of Excellence from the Artists for Conservation Foundation. She was named Master Artist by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in 2006. In 2010 her work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center, Canton, Massachusetts. Rich is a member of the California Society of Printmakers, Artists for Nature Foundation, the Society of Animal Artists, and Society of Wildlife Artists.

In 2000 Rich designated the Woodson Art Museum as the repository for her artistic oeuvre. An Abundance of Riches is drawn from these holdings, which include an example of each of her woodcuts created since the mid-1980s.

Time & loc varies, typical avg spd 15-17mph, dist 30-50mi. For weekly emails, update your profile: Hover on your name upper right; select “Profile”; under “Your website functions” click “Interests”; then check “B Pace Rides”. Leader [email protected]

The beginning of the year is a great time for Ashevillians of all ages to explore, connect, and discover. Asheville Parks & Recreation  (APR)’s new winter-spring program guide is filled with registration dates, information, and listings for hundreds of fitness and active living offerings, sports and clubs, arts and culture programs, out-of-school time activities, outdoor recreation, special events, parks and facilities’ hours of operation, and more.

The free guide is available at all APR community centers and online as a PDF or enhanced digital flipbook. Community members may also download the APR app for iPhone or search programs on avlREC.com.

Winter-Spring 2023 Guide Highlights

• Exercise at fitness centers with a free membership (through June 30, 2023).

• Walk, roll, or run your way to 50 miles in February and March during the Fit 50 Challenge for a free T-shirt.

• Celebrate Black Legacy Month with food, art, and festivals throughout the city in February.

• Meet neighbors over cards, board games, bingo, trivia contests, and community meals.

• Get an up-close look at big trucks, small trucks, transit buses, construction rigs, rescue vehicles, and public works equipment during Truck City AVL on April 15.

• Experience the fun, fellowship, fitness, arts, and competition of Asheville-Buncombe Senior Games and Silver Arts Classic for local adults over 50..

• Flex creativity at art, painting, writing, scrapbooking, and crafting classes.

• Connect with neighbors over sports such as basketball, flag football, volleyball, pickleball, tennis, and archery for kids, teens, and adults.

• Enjoy the honor of dirty hands with community garden workdays and Green Thumbs Garden Club at Grove Street Community Center’s greenhouse.

• Witness the power of gravity at the Montford Pinewood Derby in May.

• Refine square, tap, line, and West African dance skills at multiple locations.

• And so much more!

Healing Dolls Exhibition

Explore Biltmore House with an Audio Guide that introduces you to the Vanderbilt family and their magnificent home’s history, architecture, and collections of fine art and furnishings.

PLUS: Immersive, multi-sensory Italian Renaissance Alive exhibition created by Grande Experiences

PLUS: FREE next-day access to Biltmore’s Gardens and Grounds

This visit includes access to:

• Italian Renaissance Alive at Amherst at Deerpark®
• 8,000 Acres of Gardens and Grounds for two consecutive days
• Antler Hill Village & Winery
• Complimentary Wine Tastings at the Winery
• Tastings require a Day-of-Visit Reservation, which can be made by:
  • Scanning the QR Code found in your Estate Guide
  • Visiting any Guest Services location
• Complimentary parking

Art Exhibition: Italian Renaissance Alive

This fascinating experience takes you on a spellbinding tour of Italy, fully immersing you in the beauty and brilliance of iconic masterworks from the greatest artistic period in history

Join us on Sundays this Fall and Winter for $10 to ride Kolo Bike Park on over 125 acres beside Downtown Asheville!  Enjoy pump tracks, skills area, trails, skinnys, berms, table tops and much more! Littleville is also included for our youngest shredders. Rentals not included.

Reservations not required. Call for conditions: 828.225.2921.

Asheville Gallery of Art’s March show, “Awakenings” features work by three new Gallery members: Jon Sebastian, Sara Bell, Andrea Stutesman. The show runs daily March 1 through March 31st, 2023 during gallery hours, 11am-6pm. An opening reception will be held March 3, 5-8pm; everyone is welcome.

The three artists will showcase their passion through three mediums, respectively. Not unlike the delicate and elusive trillium of the North Carolina mountain beds, these artists spring forward in the presentation of “Awakenings.” As featured artists of the month, Andrea Stutesman, Sara Bell, and Jon Sebastian join forces in presenting this amazing show by rendering their art using pastels, watercolors, and oil paints. Mesmerizing spring colors will grace the windows and walls of the gallery, rendering imagery of flowers, exotic and endangered animals, and vibrant landscapes. “Awakenings” is the second of three group shows featuring new artists to the gallery.

Andrea Stutesman
Andrea’s early art explorations began with pastels under the guidance of her mother, an accomplished painter. Her work is from the heart, inspired by her interactions with people and places or by the stories brought to her with requests for commissions. She strives to transform a sense of calm and connection that she experiences when painting that will invite viewers to slow down and enjoy the beauty of life.

Jon Sebastian
Art and painting in particular is, for artist Jon Sebastian, the selective recreation of reality according to his own principles and what he deems interesting and just in this world we share. Jon cannot remember a time when he did not paint. At Asheville Gallery of Art, Jon is now moving forward with confidence that others will find his works a compelling addition to their own collections. Jon paints immersive works filled with color, light and shadow. His subjects are of nature and of the peace and spirituality in which they envelope us.

Sara Bell
Sara Bell has always loved drawing. It’s a form of meditation for her and has now become a way for her to find peace and sanity when her world gets too overwhelming, which, as a single mom with a neuro-divergent teen, happens quite often. When it does, Sara follows John Muir’s quote, “Off into the woods I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” The results of these adventures are delightful sketches and photography of the forests. Sara then works from her photos to create her watercolors and intaglio prints.
Come visit this engaging and thoughtful exhibition at 82 Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville. For further information about this show, contact the Asheville Gallery of Art at (828) 251-5796, visit the Gallery’s website at ashevillegallery-of-art.com, or go to the Gallery’s Facebook page.

An enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Luzene Hill advocates for Indigenous sovereignty—linguistically, culturally, and individually. Revelate builds upon Hill’s investigation of pre-contact cultures. This has led Hill to incorporate the idea of Ollin, the Nahuatl word for the natural rhythms of the universe, in Aztec cosmology in her work. Before Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous societies were predominantly matrilineal. Women were considered sacred, involved in the decision-making process, and thrived within communities holding a worldview based on equilibrium.

Ollin emphasizes that we are in constant state of motion and discovery. Adopted as an educational framework, particularly in social justice and ethnic studies, Ollin guides individuals through a process of reflection, action, reconciliation, and transformation. This exhibition combines Hill’s use of mylar safety blankets alongside recent drawings. Capes constructed of mylar burst with energy and rustle with subtle sound, the shining material a signifier of care, awareness, displacement, and presence. Though Hill works primarily in sculpture, drawing has increasingly become an essential part of her practice as she seeks to communicate themes of feminine and Indigenous power across her entire body of work. The energy within her drawings extends to the bursts of light reflecting from her capes or the accumulation of materials in other installation works.

Luzene Hill was born in Atlanta, GA, in 1946. She received her bachelor of fine art and master of fine art from Western Carolina University. She lives and works on the Qualla Boundary, Cherokee, NC.

Natural Collector is organized by the Asheville Art Museum. IMAGE: Christian Burchard, Untitled (nesting bowls), 1998, madrone burl, various from 6 × 6 × 6 to ⅜ × ⅜ × ⅜ inches. Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2021.76.01.

Natural Collector | Gifts of Fleur S. Bresler features around 15 artworks from the collection of Fleur S. Bresler, which include important examples of modern and contemporary American craft including wood and fiber art, as well as glass and ceramics. These works that were generously donated by contemporary craft collector Bresler to the Asheville Art Museum over the years reflect her strong interest in wood-based art and themes of nature. According to Associate Curator Whitney Richardson, “This exhibition highlights artworks that consider the natural element from which they were created or replicate known flora and fauna in unexpected materials. The selection of objects displayed illustrates how Bresler’s eye for collecting craft not only draws attention to nature and artists’ interest in it, but also accentuates her role as a natural collector with an intuitive ability to identify themes and ideas that speak to one another.” This exhibition presents work from the Collection representing the first generation of American wood turners like Rude Osolnik and Ed Moulthrop, as well as those that came after and learned from them, such as Philip Moulthrop, John Jordan, and local Western North Carolina (WNC) artist Stoney Lamar. Other WNC-based artists in Natural Collector include Anne Lemanski, whose paper sculpture of a snake captures the viewer’s imagination, and Michael Sherrill’s multimedia work that tricks the eye with its similarity to true-to-life berries. Also represented are beadwork and sculpture by Joyce J. Scott and Jack and Linda Fifield.

Paul Wong, Carbon, silver and gold, 2016, pigmented linen and cotton pulp, publisher: Dieu Donné, New York, edition 3/25, 18 × 11 inches. Gift of Dieu Donné, New York, 2022.27.06. © Paul Wong.

On View March 8 through July 24, 2023
The Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery • Level 1

Paper is an essential part of the art-making process for many artists, serving as the base for drawing, painting, printmaking, and other forms of art. As a substrate, paper can vary in weight, absorbency, color, size, and other aspects. Since industrialization, paper has primarily been produced through mechanical means that allow for consistency and affordability.

What happens, then, when an artist chooses to return to the foundations of paper, wherein it is made by hand using pulps, fibers, and dyes that reflect the human element through variations, inconsistencies, flaws, and surprises? Certain artists have sought out these qualities and embraced them, making paper not just a support on which to work, but fully a medium in and of itself.

Pulp Potential: Works in Handmade Paper is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, former assistant curator, with assistance from Alexis Meldrum, curatorial assistant. Special thanks to Dieu Donné, New York, NY.

Asheville-born and Raleigh-Durham-based interdisciplinary artist Sherrill Roland’s socially driven practice draws upon his experience with wrongful incarceration for a crime he did not commit and seeks to open conversations about how we care for our communities and one another with compassion and understanding. Through sculpture, installation, and conceptual art, Roland engages visitors in dialogues around community, social contract, identity, biases, and other deeply human experiences. Comprised of artwork created from 2016 to the present, Sherrill Roland: Sugar, Water, Lemon Squeeze reflects on making something from nothing, lemonade from lemons, the best of a situation. A reference to a simple recipe from the artist’s childhood, the title also speaks to Roland’s employment of materials available to him while incarcerated, such as Kool-Aid and mail from family members. In the face of his personal experiences, he invites viewers to confront their own uncomfortable complicity in perpetuating injustice. Roland’s work humanizes these difficult topics and creates a space for communication and envisioning a better future. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator, in collaboration with the Artist. This exhibition is funded, in part, by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Included with admission

Back by popular demand, The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad exhibition offers guests:

• An opportunity to view rarely-seen treasures from the Biltmore collection
• A first-hand look at the Vanderbilts’ lifestyle
• Deeper insights into George, Edith, and Cornelia’s personalities, both at home and on their extensive travels

Access to exhibitions at The Biltmore Legacy is included with Biltmore daytime admission.

In the past 50 years in the United States and beyond, artists have sought to break down social and political hierarchies that include issues of identity, gender, power, race, authority, and authenticity. Unsurprisingly, these decades generated a reconsideration of the idea of pattern and decoration as a third option to figuration and abstraction in art. From 1972 to 1985, artists in the Pattern and Decoration movement worked to expand the visual vocabulary of contemporary art to include ethnically and culturally diverse options that eradicated the barriers between fine art and craft and questioned the dominant minimalist aesthetic. These artists did so by incorporating opulence and bold intricacies garnered from such wide-ranging inspirations as United States quilt-making and Islamic architecture. Too Much Is Just Right: The Legacy of Pattern and Decoration features more than 70 artworks in an array of media from both the original time frame of the Pattern and Decoration movement, as well as contemporary artworks created between 1985 and the present. The artworks in this exhibition demonstrate the vibrant and varied approaches to pattern and decoration in art. Artworks from the 21st century elucidate contemporary perspectives on the employment of pattern to inform visual vocabularies and investigations of diverse themes in the present day. Artworks drawn from the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection join select major loans and feature Pattern and Decoration artists Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, and Miriam Schapiro, as well as Anni Albers, Elizabeth Alexander, Sanford Biggers, Tawny Chatmon, Margaret Curtis, Mary Engel, Cathy Fussell, Samantha Hennekke, John Himmelfarb, Anne Lemanski, Rashaad Newsome, Peter Olson, Don Reitz, Sarah Sense, Billie Ruth Sudduth, Mickalene Thomas, Shoku Teruyama, Anna Valdez, Kehinde Wiley, and more. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and guest curated by Marilyn Laufer & Tom Butler.

Join us for a relaxing ride through quiet countryside on your way to small town life in western North Carolina on the Tuckasegee River Excursion. Departing from Bryson City, this 4 hour excursion travels 32 miles round-trip to Dillsboro and back to the Bryson City Depot. Pass by the famous movie set of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford!

• About This Trip
• Things To Do
• Itinerary
• Classes of Service and Pricing
• Class Comparison
• How to Purchase
• Schedule
• The Tuckasegee (tuck-uh-SEE-jee) River Excursion includes an 1 hour and 20 minute layover in the historic town of Dillsboro, where you’ll find more than 50 shops, restaurants, a brewery, and country inns. There is time to shop, snack, and visit the many unique shops before returning to Bryson City.

Workshop
MUSICAL IMPROV
Presented by Ripley Improv w/ instructor Kelly Lohman

Improvising songs can be as easy as A/B, A/B, C! Learn simple musical formats that will wow an audience and make you feel like a wiz. Practice scene-into-song techniques and ways in which a song can enhance your character’s emotional journey. Taught by Ripley Improv member, Kelly Lohman, a 20-year musical improv veteran and recurring guest artist on the fully-improvised (and musical) television series Show Offs.

Bio for Instructor Kelly Lohman:

Kelly Lohman is a member of Little Candle Productions and Vs. Theatre Company. She improvises musicals in cities across the country with The Society. Kelly performs regularly at Impro Studio with Ripley, Oregon Trail Uncharted, Fraudway, and more. Favorite theatrical roles include Hope in “Urinetown”, Christine in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, Anne in “The Elliots”, and Jennifer in “The Dastardly Ficus”. TV and film credits include Bones, Gilmore Girls, Days of Our Lives, and The Hillside Strangler.

March 12, 2023
Sunday at 11am

About Ripley Improv:  Ripley Improv is an all-female and nonbinary / genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.

Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

Food Scraps Drop Off

The City of Asheville, in partnership with Buncombe County and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is offering a FREE Food Scrap Drop-Off program in

two locations for all Buncombe County residents.  This organic matter will be collected and turned into good clean compost, keeping it OUT of our landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Register for Food Scraps Drop Off

Need a handy kitchen countertop food scrap bin?  Let us know on the registration form! We’ll be having bin giveaways at city and county facilities and would love to give you one.

Locations

Stephens-Lee Recreation Center “Food Scrap Shed” next to the Community Garden on the North side of the parking lot

30 Washington Carver Avenue, Asheville

• • Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
  • Saturday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  • Sunday, 12 – 4 p.m.

Murphy Oakley Community Center and Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the east side of the parking lot

749 Fairview Road, Asheville

• • Dawn – Dusk

West Asheville Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the south side of the building

942 Haywood Road, Asheville

Library open hours

Buncombe County Landfill – Convenience Center85 Panther Branch Road, Alexander

• • • • Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
      • Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12:30 pm

Steve Lapointe’s nine years of classical piano as a youth grounded him in music theory. Jazz studies while in Ithaca, NY, opened his ears to extemporaneous improvisation and the music of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Michel Petrucciani and the American songbook. Steve served as musical director of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach, Florida, and occasionally performed at the UU Asheville congregation.

The Perspective Café is kicking off 2023 with a classic bang! Grab your friends and join us each Sunday from 2pm to 5pm in the Perspective Café to play an assortment of board and card games. You can even bring your own favorite games from home to share with new friends.

The Perspective Café will be offering special snacks and cocktails to savor while you play and make a memorable afternoon! Enjoy the galleries and then head up to the rooftop.

Coffee Craze, The Caffeinated Side of Baroque. Enjoy a weekend of exquisite and entertaining acoustic offerings by some of Asheville’s top singers and instrumentalists.

Western North Carolina’s acclaimed ensembles, Pan Harmonia and Asheville Baroque Concerts, present an all-Baroque weekend in partnership with St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Asheville and First Presbyterian Church of Asheville.

Enjoy a cup of coffee with Bach’s comic Kaffeekantata (Coffee Cantata) depicting a dismayed father and his coffee-addicted daughter and featuring soprano Nana Hosmer Griffin, bass Roberto Flores and narrator Garrett Scholberg. Yes, Bach can be funny!

Bassoonist Rosalind Buda shares the spotlight with flutist Kate Steinbeck in GP Telemann’s lyrical Concerto for bassoon and flute supported by the masterful musicianship of Barbara Weiss, harpsichord; Jeremy Roberts, organ and chamber orchestra artists: Mariya Potapova and Andrea Pettigrew, violins; Claire Gerhardt, viola; Katherine Haig cello; Sara Nichols bass.

We are committed to ensuring that programs remain accessible to all members of the community. In the spirit of inclusivity and equity, PAN HARMONIA offers donation-based, pay-as-you-can community concerts. All are welcome.

Those planning to attend are expected to be fully vaccinated for the safety of our community.

Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session 

Sundays

1 till who knows when?

Traditional Irish music is kept alive at Jack of the Wood with our unplugged Sunday session.

Jack of the Wood

95 Patton ave

Asheville, NC 28801

(828) 252.5445

http://www.jackofthewood.com/

ENCOUNTER
Presented by Ripley Improv
ENCOUNTER is a fully-improvised, hour-long stage play that explores the stories of first contact between one woman and the completely unknown. Inspired by Ripley’s namesake film Alien, along with Arrival, and the book Annihilation, ENCOUNTER blends sci-fi, horror, and “the new weird,” unpacking the emotional and psychological impact of a meeting with benevolent extraterrestrials, malevolent predators, and entirely unexplained forces.

Ripley has no script. No set dialogue. Not even an outline. Each performance of ENCOUNTER offers a brand new story based on a single audience suggestion.

With Mary Chieffo, Madi Goff, Laurie Jones, Kelly Lohman and Jessica Lynn Verdi.

About Ripley Improv:

Ripley Improv is all-female and nonbinary, genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.

Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

March 12, 2023
Sunday at 4:00pm

Tina & Her Pony (indie Appalachian folk) will play a full band show with special guests at The Grey Eagle on Sunday, March 12th, to celebrate the release of their new album Marigolds. $15 advance / $18 at the door / $20 VIP. Purchase tickets online here. Door opens at 6pm, show starts at 7pm. Asheville based retro soul band Fwuit opens.

Marigolds is an album about the cyclical nature of change – of death and rebirth as initiation. After major losses, we are never the same, and we are asked by the universe to allow ourselves to die and to subsequently re-create a new version of ourselves. In Tina’s words “this album is a collection of songs that tells the stories of the ways I have personally been asked to let go.”

On the heels of their sold out Spring, 2022 Dreams in Gold arena tour Grammy-award winning rock band Greta Van Fleet announce new arena shows for this fall. Kicking off August 16 in Quebec City, QC the band will make stops in 42 cities across the U.S. and Canada; including September 30 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, October 18 at PNC Arena Raleigh, October 19 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville SC, October 28 at Spectrum Center Charlotte.    

There will be a Fan Presale on March 2 and a Local Venue Presale on March 3, with general ticket on sale March 4 at 12 p.m. at LiveNation.com. Fans can sign up for presale at peacefularmy.com.

The expansive new dates follow the band’s spring tour, which sold out over 100K tickets in just two days and kicks off coming up on March 10; Full dates below and HERE. Greta Van Fleet recently joined Metallica on February 25 in Las Vegas and announced two additional August dates with them recently

Greta Van Fleet will be joined by a host of acclaimed artists on their fall tour, including Houndmouth plus Robert Finley in Charlottesville VA and Durand Jones & The Indications plus Crown Lands in Raleigh, Greenville, and Charlotte.

Earlier this year, the band’s Jake Kiszka partnered with Gibson to honor the SG, a seminal guitar in the rock ‘n’ roll revolution which celebrates its 61st anniversary this year. Watch his interview HERE.

The group is touring in support of their acclaimed sophomore album The Battle at Garden’s Gate, released last year to extensive chart and critical success. The album debuted at #1 Billboard Rock Album, #1 Billboard Hard Rock Album, #1 Billboard Vinyl Album, #2 Billboard Top Album Sales and in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. The album currently has 275K in sales with streaming numbers at 200 million and continuing to climb.

Get ready to walk the red carpet and feel like a star at Foundy Street and Grail Moviehouse’s Super Movie Awards Celebration on March 12th at 7PM!

From a Hollywood glamour contest to ballot predictions and a photobooth, this night is all about celebrating the best in film. And the best part? Your $15 admission comes with unlimited popcorn and a $5 concessions credit! Let’s make this award show viewing one for the books! Get your tickets now!

MercyMe’s “Always Only Jesus” tour returns to the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on March 12, 2023.