Calendar of Events
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.
Hosts Kimala Luna from Dogwood Alliance and Elizabeth Lashay from SlayTheMic talk with artist Allison Maria Rodriguez about her artwork and how she creates immersive experiential spaces to challenge conventional ways of understanding the world. Her work delves into climate change, species extinction, humanity’s relationship to nature, and the pervasive sense of loss for that which can never be recovered.

Wake, Mel Chin’s giant animatronic sculpture, installed in New York City’s Times Square last summer, will be on view in Asheville through March 15, 2021, at 44 Collier Avenue. Chin, a WNC based conceptual artist, was named a MacArthur Fellow in September 2019.
Wake was commissioned as part of Mel Chin: All Over the Place, a multi-site survey of his works from across many decades that took place in several New York City locations. A collaborative group, led by UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio and The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, formed to plan and raise funds for the sculpture to be seen locally.
Wake – 60 feet long, 34 feet wide and 24 feet high, conceived and designed by the artist – was engineered, sculpted and fabricated by an interdisciplinary team of UNC Asheville students, faculty, staff and community artists led by Chin. The sculpture is interactive and features decks and places to sit and contemplate.
Wake evokes the hull of a shipwreck crossed with the skeletal remains of a marine mammal. The structure is linked with a carved, 21-foot-tall animatronic sculpture, accurately derived from a figurehead of the opera star Jenny Lind that was once mounted on the 19th century clipper ship, USS Nightingale. Jenny Lind moves subtly as she breathes and scans the sky.
Visitors can experience Wake daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 44 Collier Avenue. For more details and a schedule of programming, visit ashevillearts.com.
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Across the Atlantic

Across the Atlantic
American Impressionism Through the French Lens
This extraordinary exhibition, drawn from the collection of the Reading Public Museum, explores the path to Impressionism through the 19th century in France. The show examines the sometimes complex relationship between French Impressionism of the 1870s and 1880s and the American interpretation of the style in the decades that followed. More than 65 paintings and works on paper help tell the story of the “new style” of painting which developed at the end of the 19th century—one that emphasized light and atmospheric conditions, rapid or loose brushstrokes, and a focus on brightly colored scenes from everyday life, including both urban and rural settings when artists preferred to paint outdoors and capture changing effects of light during different times of day and seasons of the year.
Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism through the French Lens is organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges and The Maurer Family Foundation.

This exhibition features archival objects from the Theodore Dreier Sr. Document Collection presented alongside artworks from the Museum’s Black Mountain College Collection to explore the connections between artworks and ephemera. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by lydia see, fall 2020 curatorial fellow, with support from a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant through the Council on Library and Information Resources.
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The Asheville Art Museum presents Fantastical Forms: Ceramics as Sculpture on view at the Museum November 4, 2020 through April 5, 2021. The 25 works in this exhibition—curated by associate curator Whitney Richardson—highlight the Museum’s Collection of sculptural ceramics from the last two decades of the 20th century to the present. Each work illustrates the artist’s ability to push beyond the utilitarian and transition ceramics into the world of sculpture.
North and South Carolina artists featured include Elma McBride Johnson, Neil Noland, Norm Schulman, Virginia Scotchie, Cynthia Bringle, Jane Palmer, Michael Sherrill, and Akira Satake. Works by American artists Don Reitz, Robert Chapman Turner, Karen Karnes, Toshiko Takaezu, Bill Griffith, and Xavier Toubes are also featured in the exhibition.
Thank you Suzanne Camarata of The Gallery at Flat Rock whose Porch Portraits sessions raised $2835 for the Playhouse! Suzanne began this series when the pandemic made traditional photo sessions a challenge and inspired photographers used social distancing to create a new way to capture memories. “Porch Portraits by Suzanne brings the fun of a casual, light-hearted photoshoot right to your home – literally to your front porch or in your front yard. ” Suzanne is continuing her sessions this year, so make sure to visit the link below to get (or gift) a session today.


Robert Longo, Untitled (Eric, from the series Men in the Cities), 1980 (printed 1998), silver dye bleach print, 41 7/8 × 29 5/8 inches. © Robert Longo, image courtesy the Artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
The Museum is thrilled to present a special evening program with Robert Longo, an American artist of international renown whose works are currently on view in Vantage Points and recently in Reverberations. With a 40+ year career as an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and musician, Longo is best known for his detailed photorealistic drawings of jumping figures, sharks, tigers, and guns. For this program, Longo discusses his body of work—including five photographs from his Men in the Cities series on view in Vantage Points—then joins Museum staff for a conversation about the narrative power of art and audience Q&A.
Join me for this 4-week intensive program where you will dive into intuitive drawings, aura drawings and auragraphs.
Intuitive Art
Doodling your Feelings. Intuitive drawings can begin as simple doodle that will become more eloquent as you practice. You can use ballpoint pens, markers, gel pens or pastels. Draw for the surprise and joy of the process, without knowing in advance how each drawing will turn out.
Aura Drawings
Your energy field contains massive information about your life. The oval field surrounding you can reveal the energetic memory of your life before conception and to present day.
Auragraphs
An auragraph is a beautiful way of giving a psychic reading. It is a representation of a person’s life story, their past, present and potential future. A Psychic or Medium will tune into the auric field and draw a symbolic representation.
Each week we will discuss a different type of soul work. Each student will draw, read another student and receive a reading. Each reading is unique and contains information that your sitter is ready to hear, and the information Spirit wants you to have.
Be sure to bring paper and colored pencils or crayons (or anything that you would like to use to draw with).
This workshop will take place Thursday evenings at 7:30PM – for 4 weeks and 2 hours each. January 7 – 28, 2021
$90/person payable via paypal.me/mediumrobyn or Venmo (@Robyn-Wolf-11).

Around The Web
Live-streamed performances, resources, and activities we love from around the web, updated regularly.
The National Arts Club: On Demand
Founded in 1898, The National Arts Club boasts more than 150 free programs to the public, including exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances, lectures, and readings. Current and archived videos are available and are updated weekly.
Staff Picks From Around the Web
Live-streamed performances, resources, and activities we love from around the web, updated regularly.
Classical Music
and Animation
Enjoy examples of the relationship between classical music and animation aimed at audiences of all ages.
Hosts Kimala Luna from Dogwood Alliance and Elizabeth Lashay from SlayTheMic talk with artist Allison Maria Rodriguez about her artwork and how she creates immersive experiential spaces to challenge conventional ways of understanding the world. Her work delves into climate change, species extinction, humanity’s relationship to nature, and the pervasive sense of loss for that which can never be recovered.

Wake, Mel Chin’s giant animatronic sculpture, installed in New York City’s Times Square last summer, will be on view in Asheville through March 15, 2021, at 44 Collier Avenue. Chin, a WNC based conceptual artist, was named a MacArthur Fellow in September 2019.
Wake was commissioned as part of Mel Chin: All Over the Place, a multi-site survey of his works from across many decades that took place in several New York City locations. A collaborative group, led by UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio and The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, formed to plan and raise funds for the sculpture to be seen locally.
Wake – 60 feet long, 34 feet wide and 24 feet high, conceived and designed by the artist – was engineered, sculpted and fabricated by an interdisciplinary team of UNC Asheville students, faculty, staff and community artists led by Chin. The sculpture is interactive and features decks and places to sit and contemplate.
Wake evokes the hull of a shipwreck crossed with the skeletal remains of a marine mammal. The structure is linked with a carved, 21-foot-tall animatronic sculpture, accurately derived from a figurehead of the opera star Jenny Lind that was once mounted on the 19th century clipper ship, USS Nightingale. Jenny Lind moves subtly as she breathes and scans the sky.
Visitors can experience Wake daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 44 Collier Avenue. For more details and a schedule of programming, visit ashevillearts.com.

No weaving experience necessary for beginner baskets. Unless otherwise noted, workshops are for those 16 years of age or over.
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Across the Atlantic

Across the Atlantic
American Impressionism Through the French Lens
This extraordinary exhibition, drawn from the collection of the Reading Public Museum, explores the path to Impressionism through the 19th century in France. The show examines the sometimes complex relationship between French Impressionism of the 1870s and 1880s and the American interpretation of the style in the decades that followed. More than 65 paintings and works on paper help tell the story of the “new style” of painting which developed at the end of the 19th century—one that emphasized light and atmospheric conditions, rapid or loose brushstrokes, and a focus on brightly colored scenes from everyday life, including both urban and rural settings when artists preferred to paint outdoors and capture changing effects of light during different times of day and seasons of the year.
Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism through the French Lens is organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges and The Maurer Family Foundation.

This exhibition features archival objects from the Theodore Dreier Sr. Document Collection presented alongside artworks from the Museum’s Black Mountain College Collection to explore the connections between artworks and ephemera. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by lydia see, fall 2020 curatorial fellow, with support from a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant through the Council on Library and Information Resources.
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|
The Asheville Art Museum presents Fantastical Forms: Ceramics as Sculpture on view at the Museum November 4, 2020 through April 5, 2021. The 25 works in this exhibition—curated by associate curator Whitney Richardson—highlight the Museum’s Collection of sculptural ceramics from the last two decades of the 20th century to the present. Each work illustrates the artist’s ability to push beyond the utilitarian and transition ceramics into the world of sculpture.
North and South Carolina artists featured include Elma McBride Johnson, Neil Noland, Norm Schulman, Virginia Scotchie, Cynthia Bringle, Jane Palmer, Michael Sherrill, and Akira Satake. Works by American artists Don Reitz, Robert Chapman Turner, Karen Karnes, Toshiko Takaezu, Bill Griffith, and Xavier Toubes are also featured in the exhibition.
Thank you Suzanne Camarata of The Gallery at Flat Rock whose Porch Portraits sessions raised $2835 for the Playhouse! Suzanne began this series when the pandemic made traditional photo sessions a challenge and inspired photographers used social distancing to create a new way to capture memories. “Porch Portraits by Suzanne brings the fun of a casual, light-hearted photoshoot right to your home – literally to your front porch or in your front yard. ” Suzanne is continuing her sessions this year, so make sure to visit the link below to get (or gift) a session today.
The Gallery at Flat Rock Offers Virtual and In-Person Exhibit
On January 21, The Gallery at Flat Rock opened their latest exhibit, Transcendence: An Artistic Celebration of the U.N. International Year of Peace and Trust. The in-person and virtual exhibit features, “over two dozen Gallery at Flat Rocks artists, who will each provide one artwork for the show that they believe evokes themes of peace and mutual trust among members of humanity.”
Winter Hours:
Wed – Sat 11am – 4pm
Sun 11am – 3pm
Open by appointment
or by chance


John Sloan, Fun, One Cent, 1905, etching on cream colored paper, edition of 100 (60 printed), 5 ¼ × 7 inches. Museum purchase in memory of Nat C. Myers and Dick Albyn with funds provided by Leah Karpen, Fran Myers, Kenneth Myers, Russell & Ladene Newton, and Ute Roth, 2009.06.63. © John Sloan Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Join Shana Hill, touring docent, for an interactive conversation about three artworks in our Collection. Before the discussion, find a quiet space. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Now open your eyes, and engage with the artworks in the image gallery; click on the thumbnail for a larger image, and spend about 15 minutes looking slowly at each.
- What’s going on in this artwork? What do you see that makes you say that?
- What do you think the artist wanted you to see? Why?
- How does the artwork make you feel? Why?
- What sounds do you hear? What smells do you smell? What would the textures feel like?

Hosts Kimala Luna from Dogwood Alliance and Elizabeth Lashay from SlayTheMic talk with artist Allison Maria Rodriguez about her artwork and how she creates immersive experiential spaces to challenge conventional ways of understanding the world. Her work delves into climate change, species extinction, humanity’s relationship to nature, and the pervasive sense of loss for that which can never be recovered.

Wake, Mel Chin’s giant animatronic sculpture, installed in New York City’s Times Square last summer, will be on view in Asheville through March 15, 2021, at 44 Collier Avenue. Chin, a WNC based conceptual artist, was named a MacArthur Fellow in September 2019.
Wake was commissioned as part of Mel Chin: All Over the Place, a multi-site survey of his works from across many decades that took place in several New York City locations. A collaborative group, led by UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio and The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, formed to plan and raise funds for the sculpture to be seen locally.
Wake – 60 feet long, 34 feet wide and 24 feet high, conceived and designed by the artist – was engineered, sculpted and fabricated by an interdisciplinary team of UNC Asheville students, faculty, staff and community artists led by Chin. The sculpture is interactive and features decks and places to sit and contemplate.
Wake evokes the hull of a shipwreck crossed with the skeletal remains of a marine mammal. The structure is linked with a carved, 21-foot-tall animatronic sculpture, accurately derived from a figurehead of the opera star Jenny Lind that was once mounted on the 19th century clipper ship, USS Nightingale. Jenny Lind moves subtly as she breathes and scans the sky.
Visitors can experience Wake daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 44 Collier Avenue. For more details and a schedule of programming, visit ashevillearts.com.

No weaving experience necessary for beginner baskets. Unless otherwise noted, workshops are for those 16 years of age or over.
|
|
Across the Atlantic

Across the Atlantic
American Impressionism Through the French Lens
This extraordinary exhibition, drawn from the collection of the Reading Public Museum, explores the path to Impressionism through the 19th century in France. The show examines the sometimes complex relationship between French Impressionism of the 1870s and 1880s and the American interpretation of the style in the decades that followed. More than 65 paintings and works on paper help tell the story of the “new style” of painting which developed at the end of the 19th century—one that emphasized light and atmospheric conditions, rapid or loose brushstrokes, and a focus on brightly colored scenes from everyday life, including both urban and rural settings when artists preferred to paint outdoors and capture changing effects of light during different times of day and seasons of the year.
Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism through the French Lens is organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges and The Maurer Family Foundation.








