Artist Michael Fowler creates evocative abstract landscape paintings by incorporating vibrant colors with subtle, complex details. His semi-large-scale approach invites viewers to step into his work and build a sense of wonder and contemplation surrounding the natural world. Fowler’s artistic response in contemplating nature is to capture something of a landscape’s pleasantness, which is often unexpected harmonies of color and shape. In his latest exhibit, Arbor Huescapes, Fowler highlights the distinctive vegetation – primarily trees – and topography of North and South Carolina’s midlands and piedmont regions.

Fowler received his Bachelor of Arts from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas with a focus in Advertising Design. He then attended the University of Nebraska where he received a Master’s degree in Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing with a minor in Art History. From there, he attended the University of Memphis where he earned a Doctorate in Higher Education. Based in North Augusta, South Carolina, Fowler is currently an associate professor of design and computer graphics and serves as the Mary Durban Toole Chair of Art at the University of South Carolina in Aiken. His paintings are in a number of public and private collections nationally, and he actively exhibits in regional and national shows.

Please note: Arbor Huescapes has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 crisis and will now open in fall 2021. The exhibit is on display daily September 18, 2021 – January 9, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside the Baker Exhibit Center. All works are available for purchase and a portion of sales will be donated to The North Carolina Arboretum Society.

Complete this three-day certificate program or register for one or more workshops to improve your effectiveness as a professional woman in a current or future management or leadership role!

Cost: $159 per workshop or $425 for the full certificate

 

Workshop Schedule:

Powerful Communication Strategies for Women
Friday, October 8, 2021
9 am – 3:30 pm
WCU Biltmore Park, Asheville
6.5 SHRM PDCs

Many women have built successful careers, but too few women have reached the highest levels in corporations, government, education and non-profit organizations. In ways that men do not, women must navigate a variety of obstacles, including cultural expectations and stereotypical views. In this day-long workshop designed especially for women, you’ll learn more about the status of women across disciplines, increase your understanding of key gender differences in communication, and build skills in nonverbal communication, listening and conflict management.

Powerful Presentation Skills for Women
Friday, November 19, 2021
9 am – 3:30 pm
WCU at Biltmore Park, Asheville
6.5 SHRM PDCs

The ability to present yourself and your ideas with confidence is essential for professional success and career advancement. In this day-long workshop designed especially for women, you’ll learn how to make a positive first impression, meet and greet with ease, and polish and practice your elevator pitch. You’ll build confidence and skills that will enable you to be heard in meetings, deliver presentations with poise and presence, and strengthen storytelling skills.

Self-Leadership Strategies for Women
Friday, January 21, 2022
9 am – 3:30 pm
WCU at Biltmore Park, Asheville
6.5 SHRM PDCs

Management expert Peter Drucker once said: “Being a self-leader is to serve as chief, captain, president, or CEO of one’s on life.” Self-leadership is your ability to set goals and to intentionally work to achieve those goals. This requires self-awareness, self-management, a growth mindset, and essential planning and organizing skills. In this day-long workshop designed especially for women, you’ll learn how to address feelings and negative self-talk associated with “the imposter syndrome,” grow and show confidence in your talents and abilities, and adopt proven time management skills to attain a healthy work-life balance.

Instructor: DR. BETTY FARMER 

Dr. Betty Farmer is an award-winning professor of communication at Western Carolina University and sought-after communication consultant and trainer. Her specialty areas include leadership and managerial communication, emotional intelligence, gender communication, crisis communication and communication skills training.

2021 HEAL (Healthy Eating & Living) RETREAT!

*Spend the day caring for yourself while in connection with others*

Friday, October 8th

9:30am-3:30pm (check-in begins at 9:00am)

Location: Lake Eden Events – 377 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain, NC (Barn directions here)

This year, instead of more workshops and CEs we’re shifting gears and preparing for a full day of care-for-the-provider sessions and connection. We’ll have dynamic speakers and networking while we spend a gorgeous WNC fall day rejuvenating. Doesn’t that sound so good!? After this past year and now with re-entry to ‘normal,’ this is how we have chosen to provide professional development for clinicians (and other caregivers) in 2021.

Registration opens Friday, August 6, 2021 and closes Tuesday, October 5th at Noon – no on-site registration.

General registration: $125

CRC for ED’s Professional Member Network: $75

Fees Include: Sessions. Morning coffee/tea. Lunch.

September-November 2021 (6 Thursdays/Fridays) Create an online marketing communications strategy and powerhouse digital toolbox by completing six, full-day workshops taught by expert marketing and public relations professionals. Gain new insights into PR & marketing strategy, branding, budgeting, online content creation, video creation and use and social media.

Do you have kids’ books you’d like to donate to our little libraries? Please contact [email protected].

Many women have built successful careers, but too few women have reached the highest levels in corporations, government, education and non-profit organizations. In ways that men do not, women must navigate a variety of obstacles, including stereotypical views, cultural expectations, and their own self-doubt and lack of confidence.

How we communicate has a profound impact on our workplace relationships, and, consequently, our careers. Research has documented many gender differences in workplace communication. For example, women often downplay their accomplishments, use tentative language, and send low power nonverbal cues. Women also, more than men, fear speaking up and commanding the “talk stage.” To succeed, every woman must identify and address her communication challenges, understand both feminine and masculine communication styles, and commit to building a powerful professional persona.

As a result of attending this knowledge-and skill-building workshop, participants will gain a greater understanding of key gender differences in communication, including:

• Taking credit for accomplishments
• Tentative language use
• Apologizing
• Interrupting
• Nonverbal cues
• Listening
• Conflict management
• Public Speaking

Participants will complete a self-assessment instrument, engage in a variety of role-playing exercises to develop key skills, and develop their confidence and presence in public speaking. Designed for women only, this workshop is appropriate for women at all stages in their careers and across all workplace types.

Dr. Betty Farmer  will serve as presenter for the workshop.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced the opening of a Business Recovery Center at the Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College Enka campus to assist all businesses and residents with one-on-one assistance in submitting a disaster loan application for remnants of Tropical Storm Fred on Aug. 16-18.

Physical disaster loans are available to businesses of all sizes, nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters in the primary counties of Buncombe, Haywood, and Transylvania counties in North Carolina.

Economic injury disaster loans are available to small businesses and most nonprofit organizations in the primary counties and in the following adjacent counties: Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Rutherford, Swain and Yancey in North Carolina; Greenville, Oconee and Pickens in South Carolina and Cocke and Sevier in Tennessee.

Location and office hours

SBA Business Recovery Center, Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College, 1465 Sand Hill Road, Suite 1054, Candler, NC  28715

Opens: Noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, September 16

Normal hours:  9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Friday; 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturdays; closed on Sundays.

Celebrating Community and Clay

What to expect!

Are you ready for a week of pots, firings, fun, and friendship?
We will all share our passion for clay, experience different firings and best of all get to know each other even better, in person!

• Group Firings: Saggar, Shino (Cone 10 Reduction), and Kazegama (Soda and Ash, Cone 10)
• Teachings in Glaze Application with Shinos, Loading Saggars, using flashing slip for Wood and Soda Firing
• Instructional Demonstrations
• Slide Presentations
• All attendees participate in a Kazegama firing
• Guest Ceramic Artist: Soda Fire Potter Linda McFarling
• Panel discussion
• Cookout
• Courtyard Evening Movie: Karen Karnes
• Gentle Yoga for Potters
• Morning Walks in the River Arts District

Help raise $22,000 for 2,200 kids to attend a live performance at the Wortham Center

Mark your calendars for a chance to win fabulous goods and experiences — all while providing local students the opportunity to learn through the arts. Your support and participation provides access to the arts for all kids through the Y.E.S. Fund Scholarship program.

Throw your raffle tickets in to win excursions, artwork, dinners, gift baskets, gift certificates and more!

Raffle items and baskets on display in the Wortham Center’s lobby:
October 5-7 • 10am-4pm
October 8 • 10am-4pm & 7-9pm
October 9 • 5-9pm
October 10 • 2-4pm
Including during all three Pilobolus performances, October 8-10.

Raffle tickets: $5 per ticket or 5 for $20
Grand prize tickets: $30 per ticket or 4 for $100
Cash and credit card accepted; cash preferred.

The CDC’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended certain populations receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine at least six months after the completion of their 2-dose Pfizer vaccine series. In addition, the CDC Director recommended a booster dose for those in high-risk occupational and institutional settings.

The CDC recommends:

• People 65 years and older and residents in long-term care settings should receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine at least 6 months after their 2nd dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine;
• People aged 50 to 64 with certain underlying medical conditions should receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine at least 6 months after their 2nd dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine;
• People 18 to 49 who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to certain underlying medical conditions may receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine at least 6 months after their 2nd dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, based on their individual benefits and risks; and
• People aged 18-64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting may receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine at least 6 months after their 2nd dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, based on their individual benefits and risks.
• According to the CDC, many of the people who are now eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot will benefit from additional protection. While the more contagious Delta variant remains the predominant strain and in this time of high transmission, a booster shot will help strengthen protection against severe disease in those populations who are at high risk for exposure to COVID-19 or the complications from severe disease.

Individuals who received the 2-dose Pfizer vaccine series and meet the criteria above for the recommended booster of Pfizer may receive their booster at any area Pfizer vaccine provider. Many local pharmacies, grocery stores, medical providers, and local health departments in the area can provide your booster. You can visit www.yourspotyourshot.nc.gov to find a Pfizer booster provider near you.

Buncombe County HHS will begin providing Pfizer boosters to individuals included in the CDC recommendations beginning September 27 at 10 a.m. at Biltmore Church-Arden Campus. The booster drive-through site will be open Monday – Friday from 10 am – 6 pm. In the event of adverse weather, Buncombe County will use all available communication platforms and partners to notify the community.  Please bring your proof of vaccination, preferably your vaccine card that lists your previous vaccinations. Only Pfizer boosters will be available at the Biltmore Church Arden drive-through site. Moderna and J&J boosters are not recommended at this time.

As a reminder, Buncombe County has extended the countywide Face Covering requirement in all indoor spaces during this time of high COVID-19 transmission. Even after the booster, individuals must comply with the local face covering requirement unless experiencing a medical exemption. Additionally, it is recommended that all individuals continue following other infection prevention measures, such as waiting six feet apart from others you do not live with and washing hands frequently.

For more information on Buncombe County’s vaccination efforts, visit www.buncombeready.org.

Guest Presenter: Brett Binford

You can join this class in person following strict COVID protocols outlined below* or via Zoom.

How do you determine your value in the marketplace and in your own company? 

Brett Binford, co-founder and CEO of Portland based Mudshark Studios, will share the story of how he started his first business and overcame obstacles along the way to go on and eventually found other successful, thriving companies. Specific to making, Brett will provide an overview of Lean Manufacturing techniques and how they can apply to your business as you grow from a solopreneur to an employer. Community and company culture are also the cornerstones to your business success and Brett will share his philosophies and insights regarding this topic for both outward facing branding and internal policies to ensure a happy and safe workplace.

Brett will reflect on Covid and how he positioned Mudshark Studios to be able to adjust to both the operational and production changes necessary to keep his employees safe and his customers happy during this pandemic, and how he had to shift both his business and way of thinking to survive beyond just the pandemic

Participants are encouraged to come to the workshop with as many pertinent questions to their own businesses as well. We can all learn through each other’s experiences and breakouts and various exercises will be a part of this workshop.

Please note we will take an hour lunch break from 12 – 1 pm. Due to COVID safety issues we will not be providing lunch. You will need to provide your own lunch.

*Please note we will be limiting the number of in person attendees and requiring proof of vaccination, masks to be worn at all times, and social distancing. Joining in via Zoom will also be available.

The Scaling and Shifting Your Craft Business workshop is part of the Craft Your Commerce Workshop Series Beyond the Studio: Financials and Operations.

Concerns and Legislative Solutions presented by Pat Soldano, President of the Policy and Taxation Group, Family Enterprise USA – a lobbying group for family businesses

CODE: LV2DPS

Brunch B’Yahad is now available through Zoom meeting here.   

Join new and old friends for light brunch, socialization and lively discussion.  Featured guest speakers, and relevant cultural and timely topics will fill our minds.

“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.

The exhibit was developed as part of the celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Juan Pardo expeditions. Several years ago, archaeologists identified a site near Morganton as the location of Joara, one of the largest Native American towns in what is today Western North Carolina.

Joara was occupied from approximately 1400-1600 A.D. Two Spanish expeditions led respectively by Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo visited the town in the 1500s. The Pardo expedition was part of a larger effort to establish a string of forts from the coast of present-day South Carolina all the way to Mexico. In 2013, archaeologists confirmed that Joara was also the site of Fort San Juan, established by Pardo in 1567, nearly 20 years before the English settlement at Roanoke on the coast of North Carolina and 40 years before the settlement at Jamestown.

Through various artifacts uncovered by the archaeology, the exhibit showcases the Spanish occupation of Fort San Juan and the lives of the native people who lived in the Joara area.

The exhibit is on loan from the Exploring Joara Foundation Inc. Exploring Joara engages the public in archaeology in the Carolinas, and emphasizes the discovery of the Native American town of Joara and Fort San Juan. The exhibit will be on display at the Western North Carolina Historical Association’s gallery inside the Smith-McDowell House through December 15.

The gallery is open for visitation Thursday, Friday, and Saturday between 10:30am and 4:00pm. Reservations are recommended.

Nancy Graves, Parable of Nostalgia from the Tango portfolio, 1991, intaglio on cotton rag paper, edition 12/26, publisher: Iris Editions, New York, image: 26 × 17 5/8 inches, sheet: 35 3/4 × 26 inches. Asheville Art Museum. © Nancy Graves Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

A Dance of Images and Words: The Nancy Graves/Pedro Cuperman Tango Portfolio features a series of eight intaglio prints that depict plants and animals alongside eleven sheets of prose that explore the steps of the Argentinian dance, the tango. Organized by the Asheville Art Museum from the Museum’s Collection and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator, this exhibition will be on view in The Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery at the Museum from September 29, 2021 through January 10, 2022.

The common idiom “it takes two to tango” is immediately called into question in both the imagery and words of the Tango portfolio. The portfolio is an expression of artist Nancy Graves (Pittsfield, MA 1939–1995 New York, NY) writer Pedro Cuperman’s (1936–2016 Buenos Aires, Argentina) meditations on the dance. Their imagery and words become paired in an illustrated book though their explorations take different formats and directions. Both Graves and Cuperman look towards humankind and nature as a place where beings come together in the experience of living. This exhibition presents Graves’s eight prints alongside the portfolio frontispiece and a page of Cuperman’s text to immerse visitors in the collaborative dance of the tango.

Continuum Arts Gallery will host its first, curated gallery show beginning on September 18th, 2021. Titled ‘Haec Culti’, the group show will run from September 18 – November 9th, featuring artists Kat Knutsen, Kevin Yaun, Frank Lombardo, and Conrado Lopez. For our opening day, light horderves will be served and live music will be showcased throughout the day. Miami Gold, a local Asehville band, hits the stage at 7pm! This event is free and open to the public.

Open Sun-Tues by appointment only

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.

The Friends of the Weaverville Library (FOWL) are excited to announce the opening of their used bookstore in Weaverville on Thursday, July 8. Located in the lower level of the Weaverville Library at 41 N. Main St., the store will be open Thursdays 1-5 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m.-2 p.m., with expanded hours beginning in September. The store is stocked with thousands of books, audiobooks, CDs, DVDs, and more. All adult books are priced at $1.50-$3.00, children and teen books at $1.00-$1.50, audio and video at $2.00.

There is also a bargain-priced area and a collection of special finds that are priced individually. Please feel free to contact us at 828-641-1812 or [email protected]. All proceeds from the store will benefit the Weaverville Library.

Starting this weekend, we’ll be selling local heirloom and edible pumpkins from Sandy Mush, NC, and decorative gourds from Union Grove, NC!

Come join us at the farm as we get into the fall spirit & celebrate the harvest 

Eve Arnold, Marilyn Monroe During the Filming of ‘The Misfits.’ Nevada, USA, 1960, gelatin silver print on paper, 11 1/2 × 17 inches. Promised gift of Suzanne R. Jones in memory of Stephen P. Jones, EL2019.07.01. © Eve Arnold.