Calendar of Events

Join us at The One Stop at Asheville Music Hall every Friday at 5:30PM for our FREE Acoustic Grateful Dead series Featuring members of Phuncle Sam and great drink and food specials.

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.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the sisterhood.

Please join our practice circle. We will take turns going around the circle (on zoom) where someone in the group will ask the group a question and volunteers can take turns answering.

Asheville Parks and Recreation presents Movies in the Park sponsored by Black Orthodontics, a free event series in Pack Square Park. Activities begin at 7 p.m. and the movie begins at dusk on a giant outdoor screen on the Pack Square Park stage. Films are rated PG or PG-13. Bring your chairs or a blanket, snacks, and enjoy a movie under the stars.
FREE

A goody two-shoes from Australia falls in love with a greaser over a summer. When her family moves to the boy’s hometown, and she enrolls at the same high school, they have a difficult time maintaining their relationship.PG, 110 minutes

Written by Sinclair Lewis
Adapted by Tony Taccone & Bennett S. Cohen
Directed by Mary Landingham Dillon
A cautionary dark satire about the fragility of democracy and the threat of fascism, It Can’t Happen Here follows the ascent of a demagogue who secures the US presidency by promising to return the country to greatness. Witnessing the new president’s tyranny from the sidelines is a liberal, middle-class newspaper editor from Vermont who trusts that the system will fix itself–until he ends up in a prison camp. Sicnlair Lewis’s eerily prescient 1935 novel gets a fresh update in this adaptation that examines what brings a citizenry to the point of sacrificing its own freedom, and how a courageous few can prevail to overcome the fall.

Tickets: https://bit.ly/2D8khkr

Playwright Neil Simon got his first big break in the early 50’s as a staff writer on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, and this comedy takes a fictionalized look into writer’s room antics.

Set in the mid-twentieth century English projects, witness a young couple struggle through the issues that seem all too familiar today: employment, finances, class, education, love, loss, and all the complications that come with it. Life leads them through its ups and downs, but will they still be able to find each other in the end?

The Arboretum’s popular ArborEvenings summer after hours series will return this season with a special LEGO twist. Held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July through September, from 8 to 11 …

Starting Saturday, August 1, 2020, the Hominy Valley Wildlife Club will begin hosting a weekly flea market. Spaces will be $15.00 each, maximum of two spaces per seller. Grounds will open at 6 am for seller setup.

For more information contact Lane Brown at 828-231-5408, Bruce Whitt at 828-665-2114, Rachel Godwin at 828-273-6911 or email at [email protected]

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus), Grandfather Mountain is only selling tickets online.

Only a select number of tickets will be sold per day for certain time-slots to limit the number of guests in the park at one time, in accordance with the state of North Carolina’s phased “reopening” plan and social gathering guidelines.

Please check back closer to your visit for ticket availability. As of now, reservations are only available through June 21.

Each guest entering the park must have a ticket, which includes a time-slot. Prices are as follows:

Adult: $22
Senior (age 60+): $20
Child (ages 4-12): $9
AAA Adult: $20 (must present valid AAA card)
AAA Child: $8 (must present valid AAA card)

Hendersonville Farmers Market is located at the Historic Train Depot (650 Maple Street) in downtown Hendersonville’s Seventh Avenue District.

Limited free parking spaces are available at the market on Maple Street off of Fifth Avenue in addition to parking on surrounding streets. Lot and metered parking are available 0.3 miles away at the City Hall lot (145 Fifth Avenue) or 0.4 miles away at the Maple lot (124 Fifth Avenue).

Please note: Nature Connects^®: Art with LEGO^® Bricks has been postponed until July; however, the exhibit will have an extended schedule and will be open until November 1. We look forward to seeing you!

The Arboretum is excited to welcome back the widely popular traveling exhibit, Nature Connects^®: Art with LEGO^® Bricks by Sean Kenney. Featuring 14 larger-than-life-size sculptures place created with nearly 500,000 LEGO Bricks, this family-friendly exhibit draws inspiration from the living world and combines art, play and science to create an inspiring intersection of education, entertainment and the environment. New sculptures include a 5-foot tall colorful peacock, giant dragonfly, bonsai tree and more!

Hikers who wish to register for individual hikes may add their name to the waitlist by sending an email to [email protected]. Additional spaces for individual hikers on the waitlist may open up if a full series hiker cancels their registration.

This peak (elevation 5,482 feet) was named after North Fork’s Walker family, one of the early families to settle in the upper North Fork valley. The Walkers owned much of the land and were engaged in timber and logging. Along this trail are giant hemlocks, lichen and moss covered rocks, stretches of beech forest, surround by spectacular views. This 5-mile, moderate hike begins at Balsam Gap and extends to below Bullhead Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway and then returns. On this hike there are several long range views over the North Fork Valley and the Asheville Watershed.

Difficulty:  Moderate, 5.0 miles

UPDATE: In order to follow state regulations concerning the coronavirus, the Swannanoa Valley Museum has created new guidelines for its 2020 hikes. These guidelines and the 2020 hike schedule, will continue to evolve as the COVID situation changes.  Please email [email protected] with any questions. 

IMPORTANT: COVID-19 Rules and Safety Procedures

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See where the cougars and otters sleep overnight, meet black bears that are not commonly on display, learn the ins and outs of what it takes to care for the animals year-round, observe a training session and find out why the animals call Grandfather Mountain home.

Offered on weekends, April – October.

We were thrilled to have Mills River Brewing Co as our home base for Rigs & Coffee in Asheville, North Carolina.
Rigs & Coffee is a reoccurring “Meetup” every 3rd Saturday of the month from 9am – 11am. It’s open to ALL Rigs! ALL makes, ALL models, ALL styles.
Just good people, hanging out with good company, enjoying a good conversation. Share ideas, experiences and show off your Rig! Maybe you might learn something new too. Who knows!

The Asheville Fire Department is setting up a hot car display this Saturday, August 15th from 9:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. at Asheville Outlets (ShopAshevilleOutlets.com) to bring awareness to the risk of child vehicular heatstroke, and to educate parents + caregivers of steps they can take every time they drive. As summer temperatures rise, the concern around child vehicular heatstroke rises as well. Children dying from heatstroke in cars have increased in recent years and these tragedies are completely preventable. AFD is joining forces with Safe Kids Worldwide, Safe Kids NC, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to support the U.S. Mayors’ initiative to End Child Vehicular Heatstroke.

“It doesn’t need to be an extremely hot day for heat stroke to happen,” says Fire Chief Scott Burnette. “A child’s body temperature increases 3-5 times faster than that of an adult. We need to bring this awareness to our community to help prevent such a tragedy from occurring.” In the majority of cases, children were unknowingly forgotten following changes within their families’ routines or schedules. To learn more about simple steps parents + caregivers can take to prevent child vehicular heatstroke, visit NHTSA’s website at NTSA.gov/child-safety/help-prevent-hot-car-deaths.

Saturdays, 10am – 12:30pm
June 27th – August 15th

Do you enjoy being creative? Are you curious about the intricacies of handmade pottery? Do you aspire to make a personalized mug or bowl? Don’t be nervous, every proficient potter was a beginner once—just like you. This beginner wheel class will build your clay confidence through hands-on experience, live demos, and thought-provoking discussion. Students will be introduced to various techniques and tools for creating colorful and useful pots. Each student with be encouraged to establish a strong skill base while also pursuing their individual interests and goals. Get ready to have a wheely good time in the studio and make something you’re proud of!

Level: Beginner and Seasoned Beginner
Tuition: $245 + $45 Lab Fee

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!