During the month of August Second Gear has selected RiverLink as their monthly non-profit partner! They will be donating 1% of all the proceed they receive throughout the month. We are so thankful for their generous support of our mission to protect the French Broad River! Both of our organizations share a passion for the environment and helping our community experience it’s beauty. Their support will help us ensure that the French Broad River continues to be an excellent source of outdoor recreation.

Second Gear is a locally owned, independently run store based out of Asheville, North Carolina where they’ve been proudly serving the community since 2004. They buy and sell outdoor gear and help people prepare for their next outdoor adventure. So go get some gear this month and help support clean water!

11am–6pm. Late-night Thursdays until 9pm; closed Tuesdays.

Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Lands presents works drawn from the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection by artists looking both regionally and nationally at lands that are either state or federally managed or have become so. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery May 19 through August 30, 2021. 

“The Asheville Art Museum’s growing collection of photography features a variety of artworks that consider humankind’s impact on our environment and world,” said Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator. “The imagery featured in Public Domain reminds us of the critical role that artists play in environmental activism and preservation, affecting change at a range of levels”. 

Through images capturing the beauty, changes, and even devastation to the American landscape, photographers have played a vital role in advocating for the preservation of nature via the establishment and maintenance of state parks, national parks and monuments, and other federally protected lands. From George Masa and Timothy McCoy’s photographs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park to a selection of works from Robert Glenn Ketchum’s Overlooked in America: The Success and Failure of Federal Land Management series, these artworks provoke contemplation of both nature’s beauty and a calling to protect it. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Bureau of Land Management whose mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. 

Photographers include Robert Glenn Ketchum, George Masa, Timothy McCoy, Benjamin Porter, Sally Gall, and more. 

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator. 

Contemporary art, interdisciplinary research communities, and the inspiration of Appalachia converge in Rural Avant-Garde: The Mountain Lake Experience. This exhibition showcases a selection of collaborative creative works that emerged from nearly four decades of the Mountain Lake Workshop series, a program sited in rural southwestern Virginia.

Founded by artist and scholar Ray Kass in 1980 and co-organized with influential art critics Dr. Donald B. Kuspit and Dr. Howard Risatti, as well as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), the Mountain Lake Workshops integrated the arts and sciences in a dynamic experimental creative process that pushed past the traditional boundaries of art, dance, and performance.

Community-centered from its inception, the Mountain Lake Workshop demonstrated the relevance of the arts across disciplines, as well as social and participatory learning. This exhibition offers a focused look at art that investigated new conceptual limits, born of the region in southwestern Virginia, just a few hundred miles north of Asheville, NC. Works range from large-scale watercolors and photographic installation to relics of performances and other experimentations in artmaking.

Highlights include composer and conceptual artist John Cage’s New River Rocks and Washes(1990). A significant late-career work by Cage, this rarely exhibited watercolor extends nearly 30 feet in length, produced using methods of chance to trace stones gathered from the workshop’s natural surroundings.

This exhibition was organized by the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts at Longwood University. Generous funding was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artist Walter B. Stephen (Clinton, IA 1875–1961 Asheville, NC) contributed to Western North Carolina’s identity as a flourishing site for pottery production and craftsmanship in the early 20th century. Walter B. Stephen Pottery: Cameo to Crystalline features art pottery and functional vessels from each stage of Stephen’s career, from his origins discovering the medium alongside his mother Nellie C. Randall Stephen in Shelby County, TN from 1901 through 1910 to his multi-decade production just outside of Asheville. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Debra McClinton Gallery July 28, 2021 through January 17, 2022.

In 1926, Stephen founded his third and last pottery studio, Pisgah Forest, in Arden, NC, which he operated until his death in 1961. It was at this studio that the artist perfected the “cameo” decoration technique for which he became best known. His hand-painted images, achieved with layers of white translucent clay, often feature American folk imagery, from covered wagons and livestock to cabins and spinning wheels. A selection of works from the Museum’s Collection showcase his innovation in form and in decorative surface details, including experimentation with crystalline glazing.

Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch is every Sunday! Our menu kicks off at 12Noon with live tunes by Supper Break from 1-3pm. Try our $6 Bloody Mary or Mimosa, or grab a $15 Bottles of Champagne & OJ! Try one of our tasty brunch specials or order from our artisanal sandwich menu. Sláinte Y’all!

Bender Gallery is honored to present One Day I Will Disappear, a solo exhibition of current paintings by Czech American artist Tom Pazderka. His captivating work is deeply personal and is an elegant metaphor for life’s darker side: of landscape, of nature, of memory. The exhibition runs from July 3 through August 31 during regular business hours. There will be an opening reception for Pazderka on Saturday July 3, from 6 to 9 PM by RSVP only.

Pazderka is a painter, an installation artist, an intellectual, and a writer who spent his undergraduate years in the Asheville area. He was born near Prague in 1981 during the waning of the Communist era in Czechoslovakia. He lived in a panelák, a Soviet-style concrete apartment block, until emigrating to the US in 1994 at the age of twelve. Contrary to what we may envision in America, Pazderka has fond memories of his time there. Although life was basic and creativity was not encouraged, his family was never in need and they enjoyed regular visits to their family cottage in the country. However, most of Pazderka’s life has been lived in the US and he also considers himself American. His work and life are deeply influenced by what he describes as the “incompleteness of the immigrant experience”. Pazderka explores humanity’s quest for a universal truth. The work reflects his reverence for history and the failed Soviet promise of utopia of his native land. It is thus a balancing act between this history and his assimilation into the capitalist consumer culture of the United States.

The works shown in One Day I Will Disappear consist of oil, ash, and charcoal paintings on burned panel and paper. They feature clouds, mountains, portraits, ephemera, and remnants of nature. They are conceptually dark, yet haunting and beautiful at the same time. Pazderka uses humble materials such as found plywood panels that he burns with a torch before beginning the painting process. He transforms the painting surface with the destructive, yet creative power of fire. He states, “Materials and process are components of the work that are as important as the image and what the work is about”.

Pazderka chooses to work in a colorless palette reminiscent of aged black and white photographs. He explains, “Photographs interest me because it is a tangible memory, but photographs are really residue of the photographic process.”  They are themselves a memory of a memory. Much of Pazderka’s work is based on old family photographs and photos taken from nature and architecture relaying the past, the present, and the hope of a better future. The work appears otherworldly and fleeting, like ghosts of his memories. In Pazderka’s words, “The present is all there is in the end.”

Pazderka holds a BFA from Western Carolina University and an MFA from U.C. Santa Barbara. He has received many awards and fellowships and has held residencies in the US, France, and the Czech Republic. He lives and works in Ojai, CA.

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Women’s Soccer announces Fall 2021 schedule

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville Women’s Soccer Coach Andy McNab announced the program’s Fall 2021 schedule on Monday, including nine non-conference matches to go along with 10 Big South contests.

The Bulldogs will play 11 games at Greenwood Field this upcoming season, hitting the road for seven matches.

The Bulldogs welcome Appalachian State to town on August 19 at 6:00 p.m. for their first home match of the season. After two road contests at Western Carolina (August 22) and Furman (August 26), Asheville kicks off a five-game home stretch by hosting ETSU on August 29 at 2:00 p.m. Elon (September 2), Indiana State (September 5), The Citadel (September 9) and Davidson (September 12) cap off the non-conference action for the Bulldogs.

Asheville opens up Big South play on September 18 when it visits Gardner-Webb, hosting High Point on September 22. The Bulldogs then travel to Hampton on September 25, before home dates with USC Upstate (September 29) and Charleston Southern (October 2).  After a pair of road matches at Radford (October 6) and at Campbell (October 9), Asheville hosts Presbyterian on October 13 before its last road contest at Winthrop on October 20.

The Bulldogs will close out the regular season on October 23, welcoming Longwood to town for senior day. The first round of the Big South Championship will be held October 29-31, with higher seeds hosting.

To view the full schedule, click here.

I had not been to this place and dragged my husband on a reconnaissance mission over the weekend to find out if it would be a cool Meetup. We went not knowing what to expect and left with huge smiles.
They’ve got cheese (of course). They’ve got cider. They’ve got wine. All amazing. The staff were super friendly and helpful.

So, let’s meet and get our charcuterie on!
https://www.lookingglasscheese.com/

In conjunction with Sunday Sessions Live (and virtual) music: Food Truck Sundays will bring a new or rotating “staff favorite” cuisine each week to the Beechams Curve offerings.
Gan Shan West, our main culinary provider 6 days a week, is closed on Sundays. Enjoy the convenience, delicious variety and the music – all in one Sunday Funday stop!

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/

A BENEFIT FOR MOUNTAINTRUE & THE FRENCH BROAD RIVERKEEPER

Michael Franti is a globally recognized musician, humanitarian, activist and award-winning filmmaker revered for his high-energy live shows, inspiring music, devotion to health and wellness, worldwide philanthropic efforts and the power of optimism. Throughout his multi-decade career, Franti has earned three Billboard No. 1’s with triumphantly hopeful hits “Sound of Sunshine,” “Say Hey (I Love You)” and “I Got You,” as well as six Top 30 Hot AC singles, nine Top 25 AAA Singles and three Billboard Top 5 Rock Albums. “I Got You,” lead single from his latest album Work Hard And Be Nice, marked Franti’s first No. 1 in nearly 10 years and landed on NPR’s “Most Popular Songs of 2020,” while the music video boasts over 1 million views since its release. Michael Franti & Spearhead recorded the 17-song album in studios in Nashville, Los Angeles and San Francisco working with A-list writers and producers on what has been called their most diverse record yet.

In January 2019, Franti released his self-directed documentary “Stay Human,” which won an array of awards at film festivals worldwide and influenced his writing for his album Stay Human Vol. II (Thirty Tigers), which debuted at No. 1 on both the Americana and Independent Album charts and received critical acclaim from USA Today, Billboard, Associated Press and Paste. Influenced by the film, Franti’s Stay Human podcast on American Songwriter Podcast Network launched in October 2020, featuring creatives from all walks of life, with new episodes available each week.

Deemed a “groundbreaking musician” by Entrepreneur, Franti launched a virtual event revolution in June 2020 with his Stay At Home Concert World Tour, a creation prompted by his first summer in 33 years in which he wasn’t on the road due to the global pandemic, performing for over 50,000 fans worldwide with seven uniquely themed virtual livestreams. In order to better connect with his Soulrocker community, Franti developed a dual-screen model, allowing fans to join a “Backstage Zoom Party Room” and interact directly with one another.
Michael Franti & Spearhead continue to foster their community both on and off stage with a wish granting non-profit, Do It For The Love, founded by Franti and his wife, Sara. Do It For The Love brings those with life threatening illnesses, veterans, and children with severe challenges to concerts worldwide, fulfilling over 3,300 wishes and touching the lives of over 12,000 people to date. Franti also owns SOULSHINE Bali (where he and his family have resided since February 2020), a 32-room top-rated yoga retreat hotel located in Ubud, Bali.