Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.

Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.

Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Read Aloud to Children- Spread the Joy!
Aug 7 all-day
Buncombe County Libraries Various Locations

From Buncombe County Libraries:

Do you love to read? Do you like children? The Buncombe County Public Library’s Preschool Outreach Project (POP) is currently looking for volunteers. POP is an outreach service of the library, a program designed to bring the joy and excitement of books to children in child care centers. Our volunteers offer stories, songs, puppets and smiles to our youngest book lovers – children under the age of 5.

No formal experience is needed, just a strong commitment to both children and reading. Most volunteers spend approximately five hours per month on POP, reading twice a month at their assigned center. We ask that volunteers commit to participate with our program for one full school year. All story time materials are provided by the library.

All POP volunteers must participate in story time training and submit to a background check. The next training is Monday, Aug. 26.

Interested volunteers must complete a volunteer application before Aug. 19. Applications can be filled out here.

Summer Exhibitions at Momentum Gallery
Aug 7 all-day
Momentum Gallery

Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville hosts new summer exhibitions – Mariella Bisson, Setting Shapes; Oil paintings by two new painters: Samantha Keely Smith and Paul Sattler; and a group invitational called Give Me Wood. These exhibitions continue at 24 N Lexington Avenue through the end of August.

Mariella Bisson deftly delineates the sculptural planes of regional waterfalls and sylvan scenes creating refreshingly contemporary landscape paintings. Her oil-over-collage paintings feature built-up texture, suggesting the complex surface of stone and tree bark, lichen, and moss. Bisson’s paintings demonstrate a strong understanding of formal composition and reflect a sensibility honed from time she’s spent immersed in the outdoors. Of note, Bisson is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant and was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in painting.

Samantha Keely Smith creates inspired and stirring abstract paintings in oil. The Brooklyn-based artist sees her paintings “as an expression of our internal turbulence. They reflect the overwhelming reality of being constantly aware of what is happening in the wider world – Change is the only constant.” Smith’s nebulous compositions are evocative of luminous cloudscapes and primordial oceans. Brilliant areas of stained pigment collide with waves of painterly brush strokes ultimately conjuring imagined environments with a timeless quality. “These paintings are about the essence of who we all are, as human beings… We all want love and connection.” Smith’s works give form to fluctuations between turbulence and calm present in everything from our emotions to the temporal world. Overall, Smith’s focus is on the underlying psychological impact of the dawning awareness of our shifting reality.

An accomplished oil painter, Paul Sattler was the recipient of the John R. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2004, he was selected to exhibit at the 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he received the Wallace Truman Prize. Dramatic narratives unfold in his charged and enigmatic oil paintings which reference historic and literary sources. Sattler comments, “A diverse population of animals are enmeshed in my works’ human-inhabited environments, theatrical locales, and domestic dramas.”

Give Me Wood is an imaginative and evocative collection of contemporary painting and wood sculpture. Central to the identity and creation of all the extraordinary two- and three-dimensional works in the exhibition is the common material of wood. The participating artists defy logic, explore space (both real and imagined), carve, bend, turn, and otherwise construct some truly amazing and innovative work! Featuring Michael Alm, Garry Knox Bennett, Gil Bruvel, Christian Burchard, Tom Eckert, David Ellsworth, Ron Layport, Wendy Maruyama, and Sylvie Rosenthal.

The Blood Connection and Outback Steakhouse Join Forces to Save Lives BLOOD DRIVE
Aug 7 all-day
various

Outback Give Back – Donate, Mate!

There’s never been a better time to stop by your local Outback Steakhouse! And The Blood Connection is giving you an easy way to eat for FREE.

For the entire month of August, TBC and Outback Steakhouse are working together to spread the word about blood donation. Partnerships like this are essential to the community’s blood supply. Outback Steakhouse’s enthusiasm to partner with TBC has helped the blood center reach new donors and save more lives!

The Outback Give Back Promotion runs August 1st – August 29th. Donors who give blood at any TBC center on any Thursday will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion ® coupon. To find a center near you, click here.

On August 29th, 18 Outback Steakhouse locations will host a blood mobile for a collective blood drive at the same time, 2-7 P.M. Blood donors will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion® coupon. After donating, they can walk right in and enjoy a free dinner at Outback, a thank you for saving lives!

Donors can visit any TBC center in the Upstate of South Carolina, and Raleigh and Asheville in North Carolina: 435 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC; 341 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood, SC; 5116 Calhoun Memorial Hwy, Easley, SC; 1308 Sandifer Boulevard, Seneca, SC; 270 North Grove Medical Park Drive, Spartanburg, SC; 225 Airport Road, Arden, NC; 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. Centers are open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekends 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Youth Literacy Tutors Needed
Aug 7 all-day
varies
The Literacy Council seeks caring individuals who are passionate about closing the achievement gap in our schools and communities through educational equity. You do not need any prior experience to become a tutor in our Youth Literacy program.
The Youth Literacy program provides free, one-on-one tutoring to children who live in low-income homes and read, write, and/or spell below grade level. The need for remedial K-12 literacy tutoring is so overwhelming in Buncombe County that we’ve only been able to serve a fraction of students who require this level of support.

Ensuring equity in education is truly a social justice issue. In addition to the shocking national and local literacy statistics, one of our greatest concerns is the growing disparity in achievement in local schools. We are committed to training as many new tutors as possible this fall so they can each keep a child from becoming one of these statistics.

Please join us! If you’d like to change a child’s life in the new school year, contact Rebecca to enroll in the Youth Literacy training this September. Check out our training dates here.

Vance Elementary School and Ben & Jerry’s Art Showcase
Aug 7 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Ben & Jerry' s Scoop Shop

There’s more than Chunky Monkey and New York Super Fudge Chunk in downtown Asheville’s Ben & Jerry’s this summer.

Art created by Vance Elementary School fifth grade students of art educator Robbie Lipe is now on display on the brick walls opposite the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The exhibit depicts the students’ interpretation of the artist Kehinde Wiley and the contemporary portraits he creates inspired by traditional Baroque paintings. It will be featured through the end of the summer.

“Ben & Jerry’s is excited about showcasing art from the community inside our scoop shop,” said general manager Chris Carter. “Making use of our walls to show what local artists are creating complements our social mission — to be actively involved in the places we live and do business. I hope this is the first of many art exhibits on our walls.”

Carter gave all the credit for the exhibit to Ms. Lipe, who teaches kindergarten through 5th-grade students at Vance Elementary. She was named the North Carolina Arts Educators Association “Art Educator of the Year” in 2017-2018.

Ben & Jerry’s is located at 19 Haywood Street. Current hours are Monday-Thursday 12 pm to 10 pm; Friday 12 pm – 11 pm; Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm; Sunday 11:30 am – 10 pm.

For more information, call Carter at 310-601-6247.

Thursday, August 8, 2019
Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Kids Clay Camp 2019
Aug 8 all-day
Odyssey ClayWorks

Come experience the love of clay with our talented artists at Odyssey ClayWorks! Learn to sculpt, coil, and even get to try your hand at throwing on the potter’s wheel in a fun and upbeat atmosphere. All skill levels welcome.

Read Aloud to Children- Spread the Joy!
Aug 8 all-day
Buncombe County Libraries Various Locations

From Buncombe County Libraries:

Do you love to read? Do you like children? The Buncombe County Public Library’s Preschool Outreach Project (POP) is currently looking for volunteers. POP is an outreach service of the library, a program designed to bring the joy and excitement of books to children in child care centers. Our volunteers offer stories, songs, puppets and smiles to our youngest book lovers – children under the age of 5.

No formal experience is needed, just a strong commitment to both children and reading. Most volunteers spend approximately five hours per month on POP, reading twice a month at their assigned center. We ask that volunteers commit to participate with our program for one full school year. All story time materials are provided by the library.

All POP volunteers must participate in story time training and submit to a background check. The next training is Monday, Aug. 26.

Interested volunteers must complete a volunteer application before Aug. 19. Applications can be filled out here.

Summer Exhibitions at Momentum Gallery
Aug 8 all-day
Momentum Gallery

Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville hosts new summer exhibitions – Mariella Bisson, Setting Shapes; Oil paintings by two new painters: Samantha Keely Smith and Paul Sattler; and a group invitational called Give Me Wood. These exhibitions continue at 24 N Lexington Avenue through the end of August.

Mariella Bisson deftly delineates the sculptural planes of regional waterfalls and sylvan scenes creating refreshingly contemporary landscape paintings. Her oil-over-collage paintings feature built-up texture, suggesting the complex surface of stone and tree bark, lichen, and moss. Bisson’s paintings demonstrate a strong understanding of formal composition and reflect a sensibility honed from time she’s spent immersed in the outdoors. Of note, Bisson is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant and was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in painting.

Samantha Keely Smith creates inspired and stirring abstract paintings in oil. The Brooklyn-based artist sees her paintings “as an expression of our internal turbulence. They reflect the overwhelming reality of being constantly aware of what is happening in the wider world – Change is the only constant.” Smith’s nebulous compositions are evocative of luminous cloudscapes and primordial oceans. Brilliant areas of stained pigment collide with waves of painterly brush strokes ultimately conjuring imagined environments with a timeless quality. “These paintings are about the essence of who we all are, as human beings… We all want love and connection.” Smith’s works give form to fluctuations between turbulence and calm present in everything from our emotions to the temporal world. Overall, Smith’s focus is on the underlying psychological impact of the dawning awareness of our shifting reality.

An accomplished oil painter, Paul Sattler was the recipient of the John R. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2004, he was selected to exhibit at the 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he received the Wallace Truman Prize. Dramatic narratives unfold in his charged and enigmatic oil paintings which reference historic and literary sources. Sattler comments, “A diverse population of animals are enmeshed in my works’ human-inhabited environments, theatrical locales, and domestic dramas.”

Give Me Wood is an imaginative and evocative collection of contemporary painting and wood sculpture. Central to the identity and creation of all the extraordinary two- and three-dimensional works in the exhibition is the common material of wood. The participating artists defy logic, explore space (both real and imagined), carve, bend, turn, and otherwise construct some truly amazing and innovative work! Featuring Michael Alm, Garry Knox Bennett, Gil Bruvel, Christian Burchard, Tom Eckert, David Ellsworth, Ron Layport, Wendy Maruyama, and Sylvie Rosenthal.

The Blood Connection and Outback Steakhouse Join Forces to Save Lives BLOOD DRIVE
Aug 8 all-day
various

Outback Give Back – Donate, Mate!

There’s never been a better time to stop by your local Outback Steakhouse! And The Blood Connection is giving you an easy way to eat for FREE.

For the entire month of August, TBC and Outback Steakhouse are working together to spread the word about blood donation. Partnerships like this are essential to the community’s blood supply. Outback Steakhouse’s enthusiasm to partner with TBC has helped the blood center reach new donors and save more lives!

The Outback Give Back Promotion runs August 1st – August 29th. Donors who give blood at any TBC center on any Thursday will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion ® coupon. To find a center near you, click here.

On August 29th, 18 Outback Steakhouse locations will host a blood mobile for a collective blood drive at the same time, 2-7 P.M. Blood donors will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion® coupon. After donating, they can walk right in and enjoy a free dinner at Outback, a thank you for saving lives!

Donors can visit any TBC center in the Upstate of South Carolina, and Raleigh and Asheville in North Carolina: 435 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC; 341 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood, SC; 5116 Calhoun Memorial Hwy, Easley, SC; 1308 Sandifer Boulevard, Seneca, SC; 270 North Grove Medical Park Drive, Spartanburg, SC; 225 Airport Road, Arden, NC; 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. Centers are open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekends 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Vance Elementary School and Ben & Jerry’s Art Showcase
Aug 8 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Ben & Jerry' s Scoop Shop

There’s more than Chunky Monkey and New York Super Fudge Chunk in downtown Asheville’s Ben & Jerry’s this summer.

Art created by Vance Elementary School fifth grade students of art educator Robbie Lipe is now on display on the brick walls opposite the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The exhibit depicts the students’ interpretation of the artist Kehinde Wiley and the contemporary portraits he creates inspired by traditional Baroque paintings. It will be featured through the end of the summer.

“Ben & Jerry’s is excited about showcasing art from the community inside our scoop shop,” said general manager Chris Carter. “Making use of our walls to show what local artists are creating complements our social mission — to be actively involved in the places we live and do business. I hope this is the first of many art exhibits on our walls.”

Carter gave all the credit for the exhibit to Ms. Lipe, who teaches kindergarten through 5th-grade students at Vance Elementary. She was named the North Carolina Arts Educators Association “Art Educator of the Year” in 2017-2018.

Ben & Jerry’s is located at 19 Haywood Street. Current hours are Monday-Thursday 12 pm to 10 pm; Friday 12 pm – 11 pm; Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm; Sunday 11:30 am – 10 pm.

For more information, call Carter at 310-601-6247.

Friday, August 9, 2019
11th Annual Blue Ridge Pride Festival Volunteer Opportunity
Aug 9 all-day

Give us 2-4 hours. Enjoy a day of music and memories — and the knowledge that you helped to bring a community together! You’ll also get a little swag: a 11th Annual Festival Tee Shirt, snacks, a drink ticket, and our new Blue Ridge Pride Center buttons and stickers. Volunteer roles include: setup and breakdown, selling wristbands, beverages or merchandise, and assisting with volunteer check-in or VIP. Learn more and sign up here.

Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Kids Clay Camp 2019
Aug 9 all-day
Odyssey ClayWorks

Come experience the love of clay with our talented artists at Odyssey ClayWorks! Learn to sculpt, coil, and even get to try your hand at throwing on the potter’s wheel in a fun and upbeat atmosphere. All skill levels welcome.

Read Aloud to Children- Spread the Joy!
Aug 9 all-day
Buncombe County Libraries Various Locations

From Buncombe County Libraries:

Do you love to read? Do you like children? The Buncombe County Public Library’s Preschool Outreach Project (POP) is currently looking for volunteers. POP is an outreach service of the library, a program designed to bring the joy and excitement of books to children in child care centers. Our volunteers offer stories, songs, puppets and smiles to our youngest book lovers – children under the age of 5.

No formal experience is needed, just a strong commitment to both children and reading. Most volunteers spend approximately five hours per month on POP, reading twice a month at their assigned center. We ask that volunteers commit to participate with our program for one full school year. All story time materials are provided by the library.

All POP volunteers must participate in story time training and submit to a background check. The next training is Monday, Aug. 26.

Interested volunteers must complete a volunteer application before Aug. 19. Applications can be filled out here.

Summer Exhibitions at Momentum Gallery
Aug 9 all-day
Momentum Gallery

Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville hosts new summer exhibitions – Mariella Bisson, Setting Shapes; Oil paintings by two new painters: Samantha Keely Smith and Paul Sattler; and a group invitational called Give Me Wood. These exhibitions continue at 24 N Lexington Avenue through the end of August.

Mariella Bisson deftly delineates the sculptural planes of regional waterfalls and sylvan scenes creating refreshingly contemporary landscape paintings. Her oil-over-collage paintings feature built-up texture, suggesting the complex surface of stone and tree bark, lichen, and moss. Bisson’s paintings demonstrate a strong understanding of formal composition and reflect a sensibility honed from time she’s spent immersed in the outdoors. Of note, Bisson is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant and was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in painting.

Samantha Keely Smith creates inspired and stirring abstract paintings in oil. The Brooklyn-based artist sees her paintings “as an expression of our internal turbulence. They reflect the overwhelming reality of being constantly aware of what is happening in the wider world – Change is the only constant.” Smith’s nebulous compositions are evocative of luminous cloudscapes and primordial oceans. Brilliant areas of stained pigment collide with waves of painterly brush strokes ultimately conjuring imagined environments with a timeless quality. “These paintings are about the essence of who we all are, as human beings… We all want love and connection.” Smith’s works give form to fluctuations between turbulence and calm present in everything from our emotions to the temporal world. Overall, Smith’s focus is on the underlying psychological impact of the dawning awareness of our shifting reality.

An accomplished oil painter, Paul Sattler was the recipient of the John R. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2004, he was selected to exhibit at the 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he received the Wallace Truman Prize. Dramatic narratives unfold in his charged and enigmatic oil paintings which reference historic and literary sources. Sattler comments, “A diverse population of animals are enmeshed in my works’ human-inhabited environments, theatrical locales, and domestic dramas.”

Give Me Wood is an imaginative and evocative collection of contemporary painting and wood sculpture. Central to the identity and creation of all the extraordinary two- and three-dimensional works in the exhibition is the common material of wood. The participating artists defy logic, explore space (both real and imagined), carve, bend, turn, and otherwise construct some truly amazing and innovative work! Featuring Michael Alm, Garry Knox Bennett, Gil Bruvel, Christian Burchard, Tom Eckert, David Ellsworth, Ron Layport, Wendy Maruyama, and Sylvie Rosenthal.

The Blood Connection and Outback Steakhouse Join Forces to Save Lives BLOOD DRIVE
Aug 9 all-day
various

Outback Give Back – Donate, Mate!

There’s never been a better time to stop by your local Outback Steakhouse! And The Blood Connection is giving you an easy way to eat for FREE.

For the entire month of August, TBC and Outback Steakhouse are working together to spread the word about blood donation. Partnerships like this are essential to the community’s blood supply. Outback Steakhouse’s enthusiasm to partner with TBC has helped the blood center reach new donors and save more lives!

The Outback Give Back Promotion runs August 1st – August 29th. Donors who give blood at any TBC center on any Thursday will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion ® coupon. To find a center near you, click here.

On August 29th, 18 Outback Steakhouse locations will host a blood mobile for a collective blood drive at the same time, 2-7 P.M. Blood donors will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion® coupon. After donating, they can walk right in and enjoy a free dinner at Outback, a thank you for saving lives!

Donors can visit any TBC center in the Upstate of South Carolina, and Raleigh and Asheville in North Carolina: 435 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC; 341 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood, SC; 5116 Calhoun Memorial Hwy, Easley, SC; 1308 Sandifer Boulevard, Seneca, SC; 270 North Grove Medical Park Drive, Spartanburg, SC; 225 Airport Road, Arden, NC; 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. Centers are open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekends 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Vance Elementary School and Ben & Jerry’s Art Showcase
Aug 9 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Ben & Jerry' s Scoop Shop

There’s more than Chunky Monkey and New York Super Fudge Chunk in downtown Asheville’s Ben & Jerry’s this summer.

Art created by Vance Elementary School fifth grade students of art educator Robbie Lipe is now on display on the brick walls opposite the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The exhibit depicts the students’ interpretation of the artist Kehinde Wiley and the contemporary portraits he creates inspired by traditional Baroque paintings. It will be featured through the end of the summer.

“Ben & Jerry’s is excited about showcasing art from the community inside our scoop shop,” said general manager Chris Carter. “Making use of our walls to show what local artists are creating complements our social mission — to be actively involved in the places we live and do business. I hope this is the first of many art exhibits on our walls.”

Carter gave all the credit for the exhibit to Ms. Lipe, who teaches kindergarten through 5th-grade students at Vance Elementary. She was named the North Carolina Arts Educators Association “Art Educator of the Year” in 2017-2018.

Ben & Jerry’s is located at 19 Haywood Street. Current hours are Monday-Thursday 12 pm to 10 pm; Friday 12 pm – 11 pm; Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm; Sunday 11:30 am – 10 pm.

For more information, call Carter at 310-601-6247.

Opening Reception “The Children of Dionysus” a solo art show by Elizabeth Albright
Aug 9 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
ZaPow Gallery

What: “The Children of Dionysus” a Solo Art Show by Elizabeth Albright

When: Opening Reception August 9th from 7-9pm. Show runs August 9th-September 8th

Where: Zapow Gallery, 150 Coxe Ave, Suite 101, Asheville, NC 28801

Since 2018 Elizabeth Albright has been reinventing mythological and historical narratives in her oil paintings by “defacing” classic art. Elizabeth’s last solo show, “Noble Beasts,” explored the symbolic connections between historical figures and animals by transforming renaissance royalty into the animal that best represented them. Her next show, “The Children of Dionysus,” will focus on the more conceptual idea of how mythological themes relate to ideas in classic art.

For this show Elizabeth will be transforming the figures in Rococo paintings into animals associated with the Greek God Dionysus.

Why Rococo? Why Dionyus?

In Greek mythology Dionysus, worshipped as early as 1500 BCE, was the God of wine, fertility, ecstasy, and all those other things that go along with frivolity and excess. Dionysus’ sacred animals were the panther, leopard, tiger, bull, horse, goat, donkey, and serpent.

Rococo painting, which originated in early 18th century Paris, embraced similar concepts. The artists focused on pastoral or boudoir tableaus populated by carefree aristocrats, performers, and farm folk who drink, sing, and cavort. These characters live in a world of amorous encounters and lighthearted youthful revelry, all idyllically portrayed using pastels and soft lines.

Although the myth of Dionysus and the Rococo art movement are separated by centuries, conceptually they are very similar. So why not marry the two and create a new narrative? Why not imagine what it would be like if the Dionysus myth were told in 18th century AD rather than 17th century BCE? In France instead of Greece?

Since the beginning of time, humans have been telling the same stories over and over again. With “The Children of Dionysus” Elizabeth hopes to tell another old story in a new way.

Opening Reception for “The Children of Dionysus” in the ZaPow Gallery Taproom, August 9th, from 7-9pm. Free drinks, music, masquerade ball, prizes, parlor games, and cake (let them eat cake!). The show runs from August 9th-September 8th. For more information visit ElizabethAlbrightArt.com.

Saturday, August 10, 2019
11th Annual Blue Ridge Pride Festival Volunteer Opportunity
Aug 10 all-day

Give us 2-4 hours. Enjoy a day of music and memories — and the knowledge that you helped to bring a community together! You’ll also get a little swag: a 11th Annual Festival Tee Shirt, snacks, a drink ticket, and our new Blue Ridge Pride Center buttons and stickers. Volunteer roles include: setup and breakdown, selling wristbands, beverages or merchandise, and assisting with volunteer check-in or VIP. Learn more and sign up here.

Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Kids Clay Camp 2019
Aug 10 all-day
Odyssey ClayWorks

Come experience the love of clay with our talented artists at Odyssey ClayWorks! Learn to sculpt, coil, and even get to try your hand at throwing on the potter’s wheel in a fun and upbeat atmosphere. All skill levels welcome.

Read Aloud to Children- Spread the Joy!
Aug 10 all-day
Buncombe County Libraries Various Locations

From Buncombe County Libraries:

Do you love to read? Do you like children? The Buncombe County Public Library’s Preschool Outreach Project (POP) is currently looking for volunteers. POP is an outreach service of the library, a program designed to bring the joy and excitement of books to children in child care centers. Our volunteers offer stories, songs, puppets and smiles to our youngest book lovers – children under the age of 5.

No formal experience is needed, just a strong commitment to both children and reading. Most volunteers spend approximately five hours per month on POP, reading twice a month at their assigned center. We ask that volunteers commit to participate with our program for one full school year. All story time materials are provided by the library.

All POP volunteers must participate in story time training and submit to a background check. The next training is Monday, Aug. 26.

Interested volunteers must complete a volunteer application before Aug. 19. Applications can be filled out here.

Summer Exhibitions at Momentum Gallery
Aug 10 all-day
Momentum Gallery

Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville hosts new summer exhibitions – Mariella Bisson, Setting Shapes; Oil paintings by two new painters: Samantha Keely Smith and Paul Sattler; and a group invitational called Give Me Wood. These exhibitions continue at 24 N Lexington Avenue through the end of August.

Mariella Bisson deftly delineates the sculptural planes of regional waterfalls and sylvan scenes creating refreshingly contemporary landscape paintings. Her oil-over-collage paintings feature built-up texture, suggesting the complex surface of stone and tree bark, lichen, and moss. Bisson’s paintings demonstrate a strong understanding of formal composition and reflect a sensibility honed from time she’s spent immersed in the outdoors. Of note, Bisson is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant and was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in painting.

Samantha Keely Smith creates inspired and stirring abstract paintings in oil. The Brooklyn-based artist sees her paintings “as an expression of our internal turbulence. They reflect the overwhelming reality of being constantly aware of what is happening in the wider world – Change is the only constant.” Smith’s nebulous compositions are evocative of luminous cloudscapes and primordial oceans. Brilliant areas of stained pigment collide with waves of painterly brush strokes ultimately conjuring imagined environments with a timeless quality. “These paintings are about the essence of who we all are, as human beings… We all want love and connection.” Smith’s works give form to fluctuations between turbulence and calm present in everything from our emotions to the temporal world. Overall, Smith’s focus is on the underlying psychological impact of the dawning awareness of our shifting reality.

An accomplished oil painter, Paul Sattler was the recipient of the John R. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2004, he was selected to exhibit at the 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he received the Wallace Truman Prize. Dramatic narratives unfold in his charged and enigmatic oil paintings which reference historic and literary sources. Sattler comments, “A diverse population of animals are enmeshed in my works’ human-inhabited environments, theatrical locales, and domestic dramas.”

Give Me Wood is an imaginative and evocative collection of contemporary painting and wood sculpture. Central to the identity and creation of all the extraordinary two- and three-dimensional works in the exhibition is the common material of wood. The participating artists defy logic, explore space (both real and imagined), carve, bend, turn, and otherwise construct some truly amazing and innovative work! Featuring Michael Alm, Garry Knox Bennett, Gil Bruvel, Christian Burchard, Tom Eckert, David Ellsworth, Ron Layport, Wendy Maruyama, and Sylvie Rosenthal.

The Blood Connection and Outback Steakhouse Join Forces to Save Lives BLOOD DRIVE
Aug 10 all-day
various

Outback Give Back – Donate, Mate!

There’s never been a better time to stop by your local Outback Steakhouse! And The Blood Connection is giving you an easy way to eat for FREE.

For the entire month of August, TBC and Outback Steakhouse are working together to spread the word about blood donation. Partnerships like this are essential to the community’s blood supply. Outback Steakhouse’s enthusiasm to partner with TBC has helped the blood center reach new donors and save more lives!

The Outback Give Back Promotion runs August 1st – August 29th. Donors who give blood at any TBC center on any Thursday will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion ® coupon. To find a center near you, click here.

On August 29th, 18 Outback Steakhouse locations will host a blood mobile for a collective blood drive at the same time, 2-7 P.M. Blood donors will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion® coupon. After donating, they can walk right in and enjoy a free dinner at Outback, a thank you for saving lives!

Donors can visit any TBC center in the Upstate of South Carolina, and Raleigh and Asheville in North Carolina: 435 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC; 341 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood, SC; 5116 Calhoun Memorial Hwy, Easley, SC; 1308 Sandifer Boulevard, Seneca, SC; 270 North Grove Medical Park Drive, Spartanburg, SC; 225 Airport Road, Arden, NC; 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. Centers are open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekends 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Unveiling “Going to Market,” Art Installation by local artist Cleaster Cotton
Aug 10 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Beverly-Hanks, REALTORS®

Please join us the morning of August 10th from 10am-11am for

the unveiling of “Going to Market,” Art Installation by local artist

Cleaster Cotton on the Beaumont Street wall. This art is a gift from

the developers of 55 South Market to the residents of the building.

We appreciate you and look forward to celebrating.

Vance Elementary School and Ben & Jerry’s Art Showcase
Aug 10 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Ben & Jerry' s Scoop Shop

There’s more than Chunky Monkey and New York Super Fudge Chunk in downtown Asheville’s Ben & Jerry’s this summer.

Art created by Vance Elementary School fifth grade students of art educator Robbie Lipe is now on display on the brick walls opposite the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The exhibit depicts the students’ interpretation of the artist Kehinde Wiley and the contemporary portraits he creates inspired by traditional Baroque paintings. It will be featured through the end of the summer.

“Ben & Jerry’s is excited about showcasing art from the community inside our scoop shop,” said general manager Chris Carter. “Making use of our walls to show what local artists are creating complements our social mission — to be actively involved in the places we live and do business. I hope this is the first of many art exhibits on our walls.”

Carter gave all the credit for the exhibit to Ms. Lipe, who teaches kindergarten through 5th-grade students at Vance Elementary. She was named the North Carolina Arts Educators Association “Art Educator of the Year” in 2017-2018.

Ben & Jerry’s is located at 19 Haywood Street. Current hours are Monday-Thursday 12 pm to 10 pm; Friday 12 pm – 11 pm; Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm; Sunday 11:30 am – 10 pm.

For more information, call Carter at 310-601-6247.

Sunday, August 11, 2019
Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Kids Clay Camp 2019
Aug 11 all-day
Odyssey ClayWorks

Come experience the love of clay with our talented artists at Odyssey ClayWorks! Learn to sculpt, coil, and even get to try your hand at throwing on the potter’s wheel in a fun and upbeat atmosphere. All skill levels welcome.

Read Aloud to Children- Spread the Joy!
Aug 11 all-day
Buncombe County Libraries Various Locations

From Buncombe County Libraries:

Do you love to read? Do you like children? The Buncombe County Public Library’s Preschool Outreach Project (POP) is currently looking for volunteers. POP is an outreach service of the library, a program designed to bring the joy and excitement of books to children in child care centers. Our volunteers offer stories, songs, puppets and smiles to our youngest book lovers – children under the age of 5.

No formal experience is needed, just a strong commitment to both children and reading. Most volunteers spend approximately five hours per month on POP, reading twice a month at their assigned center. We ask that volunteers commit to participate with our program for one full school year. All story time materials are provided by the library.

All POP volunteers must participate in story time training and submit to a background check. The next training is Monday, Aug. 26.

Interested volunteers must complete a volunteer application before Aug. 19. Applications can be filled out here.

Summer Exhibitions at Momentum Gallery
Aug 11 all-day
Momentum Gallery

Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville hosts new summer exhibitions – Mariella Bisson, Setting Shapes; Oil paintings by two new painters: Samantha Keely Smith and Paul Sattler; and a group invitational called Give Me Wood. These exhibitions continue at 24 N Lexington Avenue through the end of August.

Mariella Bisson deftly delineates the sculptural planes of regional waterfalls and sylvan scenes creating refreshingly contemporary landscape paintings. Her oil-over-collage paintings feature built-up texture, suggesting the complex surface of stone and tree bark, lichen, and moss. Bisson’s paintings demonstrate a strong understanding of formal composition and reflect a sensibility honed from time she’s spent immersed in the outdoors. Of note, Bisson is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant and was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in painting.

Samantha Keely Smith creates inspired and stirring abstract paintings in oil. The Brooklyn-based artist sees her paintings “as an expression of our internal turbulence. They reflect the overwhelming reality of being constantly aware of what is happening in the wider world – Change is the only constant.” Smith’s nebulous compositions are evocative of luminous cloudscapes and primordial oceans. Brilliant areas of stained pigment collide with waves of painterly brush strokes ultimately conjuring imagined environments with a timeless quality. “These paintings are about the essence of who we all are, as human beings… We all want love and connection.” Smith’s works give form to fluctuations between turbulence and calm present in everything from our emotions to the temporal world. Overall, Smith’s focus is on the underlying psychological impact of the dawning awareness of our shifting reality.

An accomplished oil painter, Paul Sattler was the recipient of the John R. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2004, he was selected to exhibit at the 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he received the Wallace Truman Prize. Dramatic narratives unfold in his charged and enigmatic oil paintings which reference historic and literary sources. Sattler comments, “A diverse population of animals are enmeshed in my works’ human-inhabited environments, theatrical locales, and domestic dramas.”

Give Me Wood is an imaginative and evocative collection of contemporary painting and wood sculpture. Central to the identity and creation of all the extraordinary two- and three-dimensional works in the exhibition is the common material of wood. The participating artists defy logic, explore space (both real and imagined), carve, bend, turn, and otherwise construct some truly amazing and innovative work! Featuring Michael Alm, Garry Knox Bennett, Gil Bruvel, Christian Burchard, Tom Eckert, David Ellsworth, Ron Layport, Wendy Maruyama, and Sylvie Rosenthal.

The Blood Connection and Outback Steakhouse Join Forces to Save Lives BLOOD DRIVE
Aug 11 all-day
various

Outback Give Back – Donate, Mate!

There’s never been a better time to stop by your local Outback Steakhouse! And The Blood Connection is giving you an easy way to eat for FREE.

For the entire month of August, TBC and Outback Steakhouse are working together to spread the word about blood donation. Partnerships like this are essential to the community’s blood supply. Outback Steakhouse’s enthusiasm to partner with TBC has helped the blood center reach new donors and save more lives!

The Outback Give Back Promotion runs August 1st – August 29th. Donors who give blood at any TBC center on any Thursday will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion ® coupon. To find a center near you, click here.

On August 29th, 18 Outback Steakhouse locations will host a blood mobile for a collective blood drive at the same time, 2-7 P.M. Blood donors will receive a $20 Outback gift card and a free Bloomin’ Onion® coupon. After donating, they can walk right in and enjoy a free dinner at Outback, a thank you for saving lives!

Donors can visit any TBC center in the Upstate of South Carolina, and Raleigh and Asheville in North Carolina: 435 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC; 341 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood, SC; 5116 Calhoun Memorial Hwy, Easley, SC; 1308 Sandifer Boulevard, Seneca, SC; 270 North Grove Medical Park Drive, Spartanburg, SC; 225 Airport Road, Arden, NC; 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. Centers are open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekends 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Vance Elementary School and Ben & Jerry’s Art Showcase
Aug 11 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Ben & Jerry' s Scoop Shop

There’s more than Chunky Monkey and New York Super Fudge Chunk in downtown Asheville’s Ben & Jerry’s this summer.

Art created by Vance Elementary School fifth grade students of art educator Robbie Lipe is now on display on the brick walls opposite the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The exhibit depicts the students’ interpretation of the artist Kehinde Wiley and the contemporary portraits he creates inspired by traditional Baroque paintings. It will be featured through the end of the summer.

“Ben & Jerry’s is excited about showcasing art from the community inside our scoop shop,” said general manager Chris Carter. “Making use of our walls to show what local artists are creating complements our social mission — to be actively involved in the places we live and do business. I hope this is the first of many art exhibits on our walls.”

Carter gave all the credit for the exhibit to Ms. Lipe, who teaches kindergarten through 5th-grade students at Vance Elementary. She was named the North Carolina Arts Educators Association “Art Educator of the Year” in 2017-2018.

Ben & Jerry’s is located at 19 Haywood Street. Current hours are Monday-Thursday 12 pm to 10 pm; Friday 12 pm – 11 pm; Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm; Sunday 11:30 am – 10 pm.

For more information, call Carter at 310-601-6247.

Monday, August 12, 2019
Adult Literacy tutoring
Aug 12 all-day

Interested in a short-term tutoring commitment?

While the majority of Adult Literacy students require a year-long commitment in order to gain basic literacy skills, we are seeing an increase in students who have their eyes on a more short-term goal: earning their HSE (High School Equivalency). The most well-known of these certifications is the GED, and most Adult Literacy students currently on the waiting list are looking for 1-on-1 tutoring to prepare for one of the four subject tests – Mathematical Reasoning, Reasoning Through Language Arts, Social Studies, or Science. If you have a background in any of these subjects, and you are looking for a more short-term tutoring commitment, HSE tutoring may fit your schedule. It typically takes 4-6 months of tutoring to prepare an Adult Literacy student for a single subject test.
 We’d love to have you!