A panel of successful craft entrepreneurs will present on how they have adapted their businesses in order to meet the challenges of COVID-19, from the actual operational and production changes, to how they have diversified their revenue to reach new customers. Learn how these various creative businesses have pivoted to thrive and grow during the pandemic.

Presenters:

• Connie and Alex Matisse from East Fork Pottery
• Melanie and Brian Boggs from Brian Boggs Chairmakers
• Jael Rattigan from French Broad Chocolates

When a friend gave Toland Sand a stained glass studio in 1977, he embarked upon a journey that would lead him to explore the myriad qualities that define glass as a medium. Sand’s 43 years as a sculptor has resulted in works of stained glass, blown glass, and every combination in between. A pioneer in utilizing the unique properties of dichroic glass, Sand begins his current sculpture with optical crystal and dichroic coated glass, hand worked by grinding in ever finer stages until a polish is achieved. Seeking balance, harmony, and symmetry, with an accent on deconstructed form, his work inhabits the symbolic, the cosmic, and the mystery. Sand is inspired by his peers as well as artists such as Isamu Noguchi, David Smith, Henry Moore, and Mark Rothko.
Sand’s work can be found numerous public and private collections including the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, WI, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, Imagine Museum, Sarasota, FL, and others.

Bender Gallery continues to be open and welcoming visitors into our gallery in limited numbers and with facemasks, of course. We remain dedicated to supporting our artists during these unprecedented times by making ourselves available almost anytime you wish to speak with us to answer questions and sharing their work online and through social media. We and our artists thank you for your support!

“Shine and Dine” on the railway! We cordially invite you to hop on board The Carolina Shine, GSMR’s All-Adult First Class Moonshine Car! We will be proudly serving hand crafted, triple-distilled, craft moonshine. Some of the smoothest tasting moonshine in the Carolinas!

Offered on the Nantahala Gorge excursion, this shine and dine experience begins in a renovated First Class train fleet car, The Carolina Shine. The interior features copper lined walls filled with the history of moonshining in North Carolina. Learn about the proud tradition that the Appalachians established when bootlegging was an acceptable way of life and local home brews were the best in town. Read about Swain County’s very own Major Redmond, the most famous mountain moonshine outlaw of the 19th century.

Once your appetite for knowledge is satisfied, enjoy sample tastings of flavors like Apple Pie, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cherry, Peach, and Strawberry moonshine. If the samples are not enough, there will be plenty of Moonshine infused cocktails like Copper Cola or Moonshiner’s Mimosa available for purchase.

GSMR is excited to feature multiple craft NC based distilleries to serve our guests only the best! Each jar is handcrafted and authentically infused with real fruit, the way moonshine was meant to be made.

Passengers will also enjoy a full service All-Adult First Class ride with an attendant serving GSMR’s freshly cooked pulled pork barbeque rubbed with Cajun spices then slow-roasted to perfection served with southern sweet cornbread muffin with honey butter, coleslaw, and cinnamon apples then finish with a delicious piece of Sea Salt Caramel Cheesecake. Riders will also receive their very own Carolina Shine mason drinking jar, refillable with soda beverages and tea throughout the day, and a souvenir GSMR tote bag (1 per couple/party).

• What we’ll do
Network and have lunch with new and old friends while you promote your business products and services. Bring a big stack of business cards and a friend if you like. ALL are invited, no cost to attend the meeting, we just ask that you support our host restaurant and buy your lunch (the buffet is amazing!).

• What to bring
Business Cards, Positive Attitudes, Smiles.

• Important to know
Perfect your one minute speech – make sure people know who you are and most importantly, how you can help them. Networking events are a great place to practice your pitch!

• Thanks to our Sponsors!
– Radius Chiropractic
– Montreat College School of Adult and Graduate Studies
– College Nannies+Sitters
– Charlotte Sheppard, Realtor
– The Super Signguy

Shakespeare Spotlight: John Douglas Thompson
Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson leads a conversation on Shakespeare on Wednesday, August 12 at 1:00pm ET. Hosted by the National Arts Club, this event is free but requires pre-registration for access to the Zoom meeting. Thompson will be discussing his roles with John Andrews, NAC member and head of The Shakespeare Guild.

Blue Ridge Humane Society and Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site are partnering to provide a new series of videos for pet owners to guide them through the steps and preparation for safe and fun hiking with their dog.

The videos will feature recommendations from Crystal Tysz, CPDT-KA, the Training and Behavior Manager for the Blue Ridge Humane Society. The series will begin on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 with a special Virtual Visitors Center Q&A hosted on Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site’s Facebook page. Videos will be released weekly, with subjects ranging from how to know if you and your dog are ready to hike, hiking in the heat, trail etiquette, and more.

“We’re excited to partner with the Blue Ridge Humane Society so dogs and their humans can have safe, fun, and “pawsitive” experiences on public trails,” said Park Superintendent Polly Angelakis.

“Hiking is a great activity for everyone. We are happy to do our part to educate pet owners on the small steps they can take to make hiking a safe and enjoyable activity for themselves, their pets, and other trail users.” said Blue Ridge Humane Society Executive Director Angela Prodrick.

Join us online on Wednesday, August 12^th , 1pm-3pm EST, on the Carl Sandburg Home NHS’s Facebook page and start, or learn more about ways to improve, your pet hiking adventure!

Artists Steve Locke and Ben Hall will discuss Locke’s current work, Homage to the Auction Block, a series informed by Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square. Much of Locke’s earlier work deals with the human body and the grid. With his newest work he has moved from the anonymous, embattled body to the very specific body of the individual. In Homage to the Auction Block, Locke brings color theory to his ongoing dialogue on images of racial exploitation in American history including the conflicted past Locke explored in the Auction Block Hall Proposal and the Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Steve Locke was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He received his M.F.A. in 2001 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and attended Skowhegan in 2002. He has had residencies with the City of Boston (2018), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2016), and The MacDowell Colony (2015). He has received grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and Art Matters Foundation. He has had solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Locke has done projects with ForFreedoms, Kickstarter, the Boston Public Library, the Gardner Museum, and P.S. Satellites/Prospect IV in New Orleans and has had gallery exhibitions with yours mine & ours, Samsøñ, Gallery Kayafas, and Mendes Wood. His work has been reviewed in ARTFORUM, Art in America, Art New England, JUXTAPOZ, The Boston Globe, and The New Yorker. Currently a Professor at Pratt Institute, Steve is a painter whose work lives at the intersections of portraiture, identity, and modernism. He uses painting’s ability to direct the gaze to help us look critically and unflinchingly at our shared history. His work can be seen at www.stevelocke.com  

Ben Hall, Detroit-based artist and composer. He received his undergraduate degree from Bennington College where he focused on Quaker-based mediation and conflict resolution and studied drums with Milford Graves. Hall produces new American improvisation on his record labels brokenresearch and Ornette Coleman Fiend Club, including the last small group recordings of visionary trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon. His practice also includes curating Bap-tizum.com, the world’s largest online Black American spiritual collection.

Hall has written for The Wire and BOMB and was profiled in Fred Moten’s book Black and Blur (Consent not to be a single being). Hall contributed the essay “Face Changer” to BMCM+AC 2018 exhibition catalogue Between Form and Content: Perspectives on Jacob Lawrence and Black Mountain College. His upcoming exhibition 2021 exhibition at Essex Flowers is titled Jives n Gambles and focuses on the work of Philip Guston and William Faulkner as interlocutors of racism.

LWVUS Chief Executive Officer Virginia Kase will sit down with LWVUS President Deborah Turner for a one-hour discussion on what lies ahead for democracy in America, and how all women can be active participants.  

This powerful discussion will examine how women voters can better elevate the voices and perspectives of women of color, how we can protect current voting rights while continuing to expand access, and what role we all play in the racial justice movement.   

As we approach the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, LWVUS will dig into the work we need to do over the next 100 years to ensure fair elections with participation by all, particularly those who have been marginalized in the past. 

This conversation will be streamed live on the LWVUS Facebook page and will include a live question and answer portion to provide an opportunity for viewers across the country to pose questions through social media.

#WomenPowertheVote

Be Red Cross Ready is designed to help adults understand, prepare for, and respond appropriately to disasters by focusing on a step-by-step approach that is manageable, action-oriented, and affordable. The program introduces basic emergency preparedness skills, goes through the current causes, signs and prevention of COVID-19 and goes over the risks inherent to local disasters such as floods, wildfires and home fires. We will then discuss how to prepare, respond appropriately, and the basic steps to stay safe after any of these disasters.

New to Medicare and confused by the options? Been on Medicare for a while but feel like you could use a refresher? Sign up below to attend a FREE Medicare Information Session.

Prepare with Pedro is an interactive program that shows students in kindergarten through second grade what they need to do if a flood were to happen in their local area and how to stay safe. It goes through safety in a fun storybook format that covers how to prepare, respond and stay calm in the face of an emergency.

Virtually enjoy the process of marbling, the antique process of floating paint on a thickened water surface. Watch as Pam Granger Gale drops paint onto the surface and each drop expands. More and more paint drops push others around without mixing. Then combs and rakes are used to create both historical and freeform patterns. Paper is placed on the surface and captures this monoprint forever.

Emergency Action Plan (EAP) / COVID-19

During this free one-hour interactive webinar, Mountain BizWorks Coach Mike Ames will provide an overview of the rules surrounding the Small Business Administration’s PPP program and walk you through 8 Guidelines for PPP Forgiveness that can help your business maximize the forgivable portion of your loan, before opening the webinar for questions.

In the meantime, as a PPP loan borrower, there are two very important things you must do to avoid trouble and maximize your forgiveness amount under this program. First, your business MUST use at least 60% of your loan proceeds for eligible payroll costs.  And you must make sure that your PPP loan proceeds are only spent on items from the very specific list of eligible uses for funds.  Failure to meet these guidelines will certainly reduce your potential forgiveness, AND could even create penalties including fines or criminal charges if the use is determined to be fraudulent. Get a deep dive on these two key things and 6 more guidelines, as well as lots of helpful tips and tricks in this webinar!

Prior to the webinar, we recommend reading MBW’s Guide to Maximizing Your PPP Forgiveness, which contains the latest information and examples to help you better understand the program, consider strategies to optimize your results, and answer common questions.

PPP is a very new program, created extraordinarily quickly by the Federal Government to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on employment. We are still getting frequent clarifications, new rules and guidance from the Small Business Administration and Department of the Treasury. As the program is refined we will continue to update the guide and make the most recent version available at our COVID-19 Funding Help Center website page.

We need help organizing, filling orders, loading cars, sorting, and meeting with families! The more people we have helping, the more we can do!

We’re starting something new for you all: Wednesday Night Date Night! Join us for dinner from 5-9PM every Wednesday for a fun evening with a great deal.

For $27, you’ll get your choice of two small salads or one large salad, one appetizer, and one pizza (specialty or a 3-topping BYO) from Grata Pizzeria. Add two UpCountry beers for a total of $37.

See you here!

This class is designed to help adults understand, prepare for, and respond appropriately to disasters by focusing on a step-by- step approach that is manageable, action-oriented, and affordable.
The program introduces basic emergency preparedness skills, goes through the current causes, signs and prevention of COVID-19 and goes over the risks inherent to local disasters. We will then discuss how to prepare, respond appropriately, and the basic steps to stay safe after any of these disasters.

Tickets to the Pre-Event Virtual Reception are $25/person and will include a poetry reading by Clint Smith and a musical performance by local musician Kat Williams.

The Forum is free.

Advance registration is required.

Registration and ticket sales begin August 10^th 

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Contact Ally Wilson: 210-3444.

WHERE: For the first time, the event will be held online via Zoom. Details will be shared with registered guests closer to the event.

WHO:  Clint Smith, Ph.D. is this year’s keynote speaker. Smith uses his experience as an award-winning poet and teacher to share personal stories of justice, community, and education. He illuminates how we can all find the courage to create change, overcome challenges, and unite ourselves through the power of the collective voice.

His two TED Talks, The Danger of Silence and How to Raise a Black Son in America have been viewed more than seven million times. He was named to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list as well as Ebony Magazine’s 2017 Power 100 list.

Smith is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, and has served as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State.

His first full-length collection of poetry, Counting Descent, won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His other writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Educational Review, and he has just joined The Atlantic as a staff writer.

Smith earned his Ph.D. in Education at Harvard University, a B.A. in English from Davidson College and is an alumnus of the New Orleans Public School System.

A Wednesday tradition at Oklawaha Brewing Company

The French Broad Valley Music Association: FBVMA jam session is focused on regional fiddle tunes and songs. Carol Rifkin and John Mitchell cohost weekly, bring an instrument to play or just enjoy the music, its free, kid friendly, donations encouraged.

Key Players are intermediate to advanced but beginners are most welcome and encouraged to attend to listen, learn/quietly play along. More experienced players sit in the inner circle and take turns choosing fiddle tunes or songs. Guests, families and kids are invited to listen and often sing along. This style of community play has been used to entertain and pass down music to kids for generations.

The French Broad Valley Music Association is a 501c3 non-profit organization formed to celebrate local musical heritage. “Our community. Our music. Our sense of place.”

iDaph Events has a new event series: Pop-up 5k in the Park! This is our newest, creative and
socially distant event. No frills – just running! Our iDaph Team will be at Fletcher Park every 2nd
and 4th Wednesday from July through September to offer participants a bib and a chip timed 5K
event for $10. Sign up for all 6 races for just $50 to receive a super comfy, awesome t-shirt and
a commemorative series medal, and to be included in our series scoring and win prizes.

Location:  (Bill Moore Park is formerly known as Fletcher Park and is located at 85
Howard Gap Road in Fletcher, NC). Virtual option can be run anywhere.
Start Time: 6-8pm Show up anytime

Join us at Archetype Brewing in West Asheville every Wednesday as we kick-off the Jus’ Running Pub Run for 2020!

GUIDELINES: Due to Covid, we have enacted new Pub Run guidelines and will be practicing proper social distancing.
**Rolling Start: Participants will begin their run anytime between 6:00pm and 6:30pm which is meant to disperse runners.**
**Participants must have masks “on-hand” at all times. Masks must be worn when at the brewery (unless at your table). Masks are not required to be worn when actually running, but you must have one in your possession “ready to deploy” if necessary.**

Where: Archetype Brewing West at 265 Haywood Rd

When: Every Wednesday, rolling start from 6pm-6:30pm

What: A casual 4-mile or 2.5-mile jog through West Asheville. Route is similar to last year’s with minor modifications.

All paces are welcome! Please email [email protected] for more information or visit our Pub Run Facebook page.

Wednesdays 6:30 – 9pm
June 24th – August 12th

Join Sara Ballek this session as she dives into the magical realm of red clay. We will be working with a red clay body fired at midrange temperatures to create rich, distinctive works of art. Sara will introduce surface design processes and finishing methods to refine each piece. Students interested in this course should have some knowledge on working with clay and understanding of a few basic construction techniques.

Level: Intermediate and Advanced
Tuition: $310 + $50 Lab Fee

The dynamic father-son duo Ken & Brad Kolodner weave together a captivating soundscape on hammered dulcimer, banjo and twin fiddles rooted in Bluegrass, Old-Time and Folk.

Seated Lounge Show – Limited Tables Available with a Dinner Reservation :: All Other Seating is First Come First Serve General Admission :: Please Call Venue for Dinner Reservations