Mini-grant applications are available three times during the 2023-2024 school year. You may apply one time during this cycle. Mini-grants must be used within a year after receiving the funding. 

Applications due by:

• November 30, 2023
• January 30, 2024
• March 30, 2024

If you have questions about your eligibility to apply for funding, please email us at [email protected] before submitting your application. We are unable to provide mini-grants to schools located outside of our 23-county service area or to folks who have received a grant from us within the past year. Learn more and apply here!

the Arboretum will celebrate its Great Backyard Bird Count Day with beginner bird walks, bird crafts and live bird demonstrations available to the public. This is in conjunction with the Great Backyard Bird Count, an international effort to encourage people of all ages to report their observations of birds to help scientists learn about their populations.  This program is free; however, standard non-member parking fees apply.

Join the Buncombe County Special Collections and our partners from the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and Vance Birthplace State Historic Sites for a mini-symposium examining issues of race in Thomas Wolfe’s Asheville and how those themes continue to impact our community in the present.

Saturday, February 17, 2024, 2:30 pm, Lord Auditorium Dr. Darin Waters (Deputy Secretary of Archives and History for North Carolina) and Dr. Kevin Young (Appalachian State University) will present short lectures on Thomas Wolfe’s examination of race in his works Welcome to Our City and Child By Tiger followed by a facilitated Q&A.

Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of the Mountain History and Culture Group.

A 2 hour hands-on experience with a Barista learning about espresso on a pro espresso machine. Anyone who has a home espresso machine and wants to learn their way around the machine, make better espresso, steam latte better, or is looking to get a machine would enjoy taking this workshop and learn a lot! We use only locally roasted beans in all our offerings. 4 people per class. $125 a person.

Calling adventurous tweens/teens! Join us for Dungeons & Dragons at the Weaverville Library! This program is open to tweens and teens ages 12+.

All skill levels are welcome.

Space for this program is limited. Registration is required. Please stop by the Weaverville Library or call 828-250-6482 to reserve your space!

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Mini-grant applications are available three times during the 2023-2024 school year. You may apply one time during this cycle. Mini-grants must be used within a year after receiving the funding. 

Applications due by:

• November 30, 2023
• January 30, 2024
• March 30, 2024

If you have questions about your eligibility to apply for funding, please email us at [email protected] before submitting your application. We are unable to provide mini-grants to schools located outside of our 23-county service area or to folks who have received a grant from us within the past year. Learn more and apply here!

Growing Minds, the farm to school program within ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project), is introducing an immersive curriculum designed around 10 crops grown in North Carolina. “I Tried Local…” A Toolkit for Engaging Kids with Local Food and Farms is designed for use in early care and education (ECE) through second grade classrooms across the state. The print toolkit is currently available for free to educators in North Carolina who participate in a virtual training with Growing Minds. A free digital version is available to anyone at growing-minds.org/publications.

“I Tried Local…” gives educators tools to connect kids with how food is grown and the farmers in their communities who grow it. Each unit includes an overview of a North Carolina–grown crop, lesson plans, recipes, coloring pages, book recommendations, discussion prompts, and a link to the “Meet Your Farmer” video series featuring North Carolina farmers. The toolkit also offers resources for implementing the core elements of farm to school—gardens, classroom cooking and taste tests, farm field trips and farmer visits, and local foods in meals or snacks. “I Tried Local…” can be used on its own or as a companion piece to the Growing Minds Farm to Preschool Toolkit, which is also available at growing-minds.org/publications in both English and Spanish.

“The mission of the Growing Minds program is to help farm to school and farm to ECE programs thrive by improving systems and building the capacity of educators, nutrition staff, caregivers, and farmers,” said Danielle Raucheisen, Growing Minds Program Director. “This new toolkit will engage these leaders so that they, in turn, can inspire the next generation with local food and farms in the classroom, cafeteria, and community.”

Children who participate in farm to school activities learn about where food comes from, foster lifelong healthy eating habits, and build connections with their community. Farm to school offers an experiential, holistic approach to engaging students in a wide variety of subjects, including math, science, literacy, art, nutrition, social emotional learning, and cultural awareness.

Growing Minds will offer virtual training to support educators interested in using the toolkit. These sessions will provide an overview of the curriculum components and the opportunity to hear success stories from farm to school champions across the state. The first will be held Feb. 20, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Register via Zoom. For future dates, subscribe to the Growing Minds e-newsletter or contact [email protected].

“I Tried Local…” is made possible in part through support from the North Carolina Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, supported by the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

Mini-grant applications are available three times during the 2023-2024 school year. You may apply one time during this cycle. Mini-grants must be used within a year after receiving the funding. 

Applications due by:

• November 30, 2023
• January 30, 2024
• March 30, 2024

If you have questions about your eligibility to apply for funding, please email us at [email protected] before submitting your application. We are unable to provide mini-grants to schools located outside of our 23-county service area or to folks who have received a grant from us within the past year. Learn more and apply here!

Sponsored by NC Cooperative Extension and the Transylvania County Library, Living in the Mountains is a five-part educational series exploring the unique challenges and opportunities of living in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Part Five: Wildlife Control for Your Landscape

Living in harmony with nature means a lot more than just putting out bird feeders. In fact, sometimes that’s a bad idea! In this presentation, we’ll discuss how to get along with the moles, voles, deer, birds, bats, bears, and other varmints that might come to visit your home here in the mountains. This will include deer-resistant plants and strategies to keep critters out of your garden.

This event will take place in person, in the Library’s Rogow Room.  Can’t make it in person?  Join the program via Zoom.

Beginning & Intermediate youth music classes on traditional and ol’ time instruments including but not limited to, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. Students will attend 40 minutes of music enrichment, including multiple flat-footing sessions led by Alice Kexel, story-telling, visits from guest musicians, as well as learn about the heritage of the music and the region. They will have 40 minutes of group music classes, and 40 minutes of singing or JAM rehearsal.

Advanced students will have 40 minutes of group instrument lessons, followed by 30 minutes of advanced singing including harmony and shape-note singing, and finish with 50 minutes of coached, small-ensemble rehearsal.

Classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the first student, and a 20% discount of $168 for each additional sibling. Parents may choose to split payments when registering. Inquire with Julie Moore at [email protected] or 864-420-6407 about scholarships.

Youth Classes

Wednesdays, 4-6 pm

Mini-grant applications are available three times during the 2023-2024 school year. You may apply one time during this cycle. Mini-grants must be used within a year after receiving the funding. 

Applications due by:

• November 30, 2023
• January 30, 2024
• March 30, 2024

If you have questions about your eligibility to apply for funding, please email us at [email protected] before submitting your application. We are unable to provide mini-grants to schools located outside of our 23-county service area or to folks who have received a grant from us within the past year. Learn more and apply here!