1. Bricks-And-Mortar

2. Public Education

3. Planning, Survey and Designation

Asheville has not seen a year like 2020 in a hundred years — literally.

 On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Not since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 has the world — including our corner of it — experienced this kind of public health challenge.

Working with Buncombe County health officials, City of Asheville employees rolled up their sleeves, crafted creative solutions and showed up to serve this community.

The year was also marked by national and local social unrest
following the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis.

But that’s not all that happened. The City made strides in solar energy, social and environmental justice and completed a massive dam improvement project.

Voters elected an all-woman City Council.

Here’s a look back at your City government in 2020.Asheville 2020 in review: Response to pandemic, protests and more | The City of Asheville (ashevillenc.gov)

+“Bringing in the Light” opens December 31st at the Asheville Gallery of Art, ringing in the new year with optimism and vigor. The show will feature artwork from four new gallery members: Olga Dorenko, Rebecca Gottesman, Donny Luke, and Susan Voorhees. Olga Dorenko is a familiar name in the Asheville art scene, having run her own fine art gallery since 2008 as well as maintaining a local studio space. Her vivid landscape paintings are meticulously executed and often dreamlike in their composition. Dorenko’s travels through her birthplace in the former Soviet Union inspired the love of nature evident in her work. Rebecca Gottesman is a new painter to Asheville, having traded her home of 30 years in the Vermont mountains for the calling of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her oil paintings take inspiration from the beauty of the natural world, depicting sweeping landscapes and delicate florals with a bright, lively palette. Gottesman often treats the act of painting as a kind of meditation, conveying a sense of reverence for both the paint and the subject, which she hopes to pass on to every person who encounters her art. Donny Luke retired from his 40-year career as an architect and discovered a passion and proficiency for watercolor painting after an inspiring trip out West. His captivating landscapes invite the viewer to dwell in the precise joy of seeing a new place, an experience Luke pursues in his treks through North America in search of fresh material. Susan Voorhees is a prominent local painter, coming from a family of established creatives in the Asheville area. Voorhees works primarily in pastels and demonstrates a masterful, impressionistic approach to her subjects, from wildflower fields in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the bounty gathered from her local farmer’s market. The Asheville Gallery of Art invites viewers to experience these artists through their common use of light in their work, each mastering the play of light and shadow in fresh ways to stir hope for the year ahead. Visitors can view “Bringing in the Light” through the end of January, Thursdays—Sundays from 12-5pm, or by private appointment.

“Blooms” marks Asheville Gallery of Art’s second new member show of the new year and celebrates the early signs of spring through the beauty of nature, new life, and of course, florals! Viewers can expect to see a variety of work from this month’s featured artists: Kate Coleman, Cynthia Llanes, Jacqueline Oliver, and Claire Simpson-Jones. From figurative work to still lifes, every piece connects with the “Blooms” theme. . .and brings a preview of what’s to come.
Kate Coleman has been a professional artist for more than 18 years. She is best known in the gallery for her large, whimsical bird portraits, and her most recent work employs her signature style of acrylic paint and collaged vintage book pages to create a unique, textured image. For “Blooms,” Coleman turns from fauna to flora, creating layered paintings of plant life that have personal and biographical meaning.
Cynthia Llanes has created art from a young age, starting with designing clothes for her dolls and then working as a textile designer in the Los Angeles fashion district before moving to the Blue Ridge Mountains and pursuing an art career. Llanes is a mixed media artist, creating vivid depictions of nature’s beauty with color and texture. Her paintings for “Blooms” are inspired by some of her favorite poet’s descriptions of flowers and are exclusively painted using alcohol ink, which creates especially bright, saturated colors perfect for florals.
Jacqueline Oliver creates narrative paintings and ink drawings inspired by the natural world, depicting plants, animals, and people in her illustrative style. Her work often contains hidden details to reward the curious viewer. She works in a variety of mediums, from acrylic to papercutting, and her artwork for “Blooms” celebrates the new life that emerges in springtime.
Claire Simpson-Jones works primarily as a watercolorist, painting landscapes and women in nature to capture the important role of nature in our lives. Her paintings reflect her deeply rooted passion for the natural environment and are inspired by her extensive travels near and far. “Blooms” features Simpson-Jones watercolor figures in a new context, mingled with soft florals in a peaceful, serene environment.
The Asheville Gallery of Art invites viewers to experience “Blooms” and be invigorated by a sneak peek of spring. Visitors can view “Bringing in the Light” through the end of February, Thursdays—Sundays from 12-5pm, or by private appointment.

Support AIR! 

Our documentary Stories Happen in Forests is enjoying a lot of acclaim, which means more and more people are hearing the powerful message of the beautiful human connection to forests. Most recently our film was announced as an Official Selection at the 2021 Cinema Verde International Environmental Film Festival. Cinema Verde’s mission is to provide environmental education to increase public awareness of environmental practices that enhance public health and improve quality of life in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Stay tuned for more opportunities to watch Stories Happen in Forests!

Stories Happen in Forests Trailer – YouTube

INTRODUCTION: Congratulations, you’ve finished the 21 Day Challenge! Thank you for participating and making this experience so enriching. We hope you learned something new and deepened your commitment to dismantling racism wherever it shows up in your daily life. Although this session of the Challenge has come to an end, the conversation continues and the work is not over! As we see markers like current unemployment numbers and COVID-19 illness and fatalities on the rise, especially among women in Black and brown communities, we ask you to continue this habit-building series with an additional set of resources to close this session of the challenge. It’s widely known that we are in a recession but why is this one different?

WE CHALLENGE YOU TO…

15 mins
Read our op-ed published recently in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Our nation is experiencing the onset of our first female-led recession– more appropriately, a “Shecession”– which was fueled by disappearing service-sector jobs and a lack of child care options.

10 mins
The U.S. lost 140,000 jobs in December, but according to this CNN article, women accounted for all the job losses.

30 mins
The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and YWCA USA partnered on a research paper entitled “America’s Recovery from the 2020 “Shecession”: Building a Female Future of Childcare and Work,” which details how challenges and systemic inequities are contributing to this economic crisis’ and the disproportionate impact on women. The white paper outlines how national and local policymakers have failed to identify women’s economic security concerns, despite overwhelming support among women, around key areas like childcare, equal pay, and fair workplaces. The authors of the report demonstrate the ways the country’s childcare system is failing parents, children, childcare workers, and the American economy, and raise serious concerns about a future of work that will automate women out of the workforce.

What is the 21 Day Racial Equity & Social Justice Challenge?

Many people are becoming newly aware of how systemic racism and violence are impacting people of color. Even if you are new to the conversation, that is OK. Our 21 Day Challenge is designed to create dedicated time and space to build more effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership. Participants who sign up for the Challenge will receive daily tasks via email to help foster their understanding and awareness, with activities such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, or reflecting on personal experience. If you’ve already completed this challenge with us in the past please know that our challenge is designed to be taken multiple times by selecting different daily challenges in order to expand what you have previously learned. Follow this link for the resources.

Update: The deadline to apply has been extended to Jan. 31.

Volunteers are an integral part of our community, offering their time and energy to important causes often without reward or recognition.

The Governor’s Volunteer Service Award honors the true spirit of volunteerism by recognizing individuals, groups, and businesses that make significant contributions to their community through volunteer service. The awards program, created by the Office of the Governor in 1979, recognizes North Carolina’s most dedicated volunteers. Through the years, the award honors thousands who have shown concern and compassion for their neighbors by volunteering in their local community.

Nominate an outstanding volunteer

Each county will select up to ten individuals, businesses, groups/teams, and one paid Director of Volunteers to be recognized for their outstanding contributions to their communities. Buncombe County is seeking nominations from the public through Jan. 20, 2021. Any person, group, or entity from the public, nonprofit, and private sector may be nominated for an award, and one of the nominees will be nominated for the Governor’s Medallion Award for Volunteer service, awarded to the top 20 volunteers in the state. See the Buncombe County 2020 awardees.

If you would like to nominate a deserving volunteer, group, or organization there are two ways. Find a link to the online submission or download a form. If using the form attached below, please email your nomination forms to [email protected] by Jan. 31, 2020.

• Write letters to the editor
• Sign the petition
• Get a yard sign… when more arrive!

Amid the arrival of the long awaited COVID-19 vaccine, the demand for a well-known treatment for those battling the virus, convalescent plasma, has skyrocketed.

The Blood Connection (TBC), a non-profit community blood center, has seen the demand for this life-saving product triple in the past few months because of its effectiveness.
However, the need for convalescent plasma continues to far outrun the supply.
The release of the COVID-19 vaccine has created a challenge for TBC, as it reduces the number
of people who are eligible to give convalescent plasma. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA)
has recommended that donors who have received the vaccine should not donate convalescent
plasma but can donate whole blood (a regular blood donation). To give convalescent plasma,
donors must be symptom free for at least 14 days and must have proof of a positive COVID-19
test or positive COVID-19 antibody test.

Visit web site or call to schedule your donation appointment:
Hendersonville
825 Spartanburg Highway
Hendersonville, NC 28792

Greenville
435 Woodruff Rd.
Greenville, SC 29607

Spartanburg
270 N. Grove Medical Park Dr.
Spartanburg, SC 29303

Asheville
225 Airport Rd.
Arden, NC 28704

Nonprofit organizations wishing to apply for the 2021 Charitable Giving Program can access applications
online at www.horizonheatac.com/hha-community-fund. Applications will be accepted through Monday,
February 1, 2021. Last year, $24,000 was awarded to 14 nonprofits whose programs range from food
assistance to medical care and after-school education.

Another Cuba Trip! We’re excited to announce we have scheduled a second trip to Cuba for June 22nd – July 1, 2021 In the case of trip cancellation, a full refund or roll over of funds paid to future trips will be offered to all registered participants. Flexible payment plans are available.

The conference will offer more than a dozen workshops led by farmers and regional professionals, including several that address the continued effects of COVID-19 on the industry, such as Direct Marketing in the Time of COVID, Optimizing Your Online Store, and Planning for Meat Sales in 2021. The conference also includes a business planning track in collaboration with Mountain BizWorks. The popular Grower-Buyer Meeting will return in a virtual format, giving farmers the chance to meet individually with grocers, distributors, and chefs. Farmers can receive one-on-one support on legal, recordkeeping, marketing, and production planning issues.