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.
The Museum Store joins the Asheville Downtown Association and local shops during Small Business Week. Receive 10% off all Asheville Art Museum logo items in-store and online, and 10% off any one item in-store (excludes artist consignment items). Shoppers receive one raffle ticket per $25 spent in the Museum Store to enter to win one (or more) of five $20 gift certificates to select local businesses.
|
Tribute Companies is requesting Artist Qualifications for a permanent art mural(s) for their mixed-use development, The Ironwood, located on Asheland/Coxe Avenue in Downtown Asheville.
This artwork should do the following:
● Create excitement and interest for the area. ● Honor the diversity of Asheville’s Southside community. ● Celebrate the vital role of African American history and culture in Asheville. ● Connect visually to the site through interpretation of historical and cultural aspects. ● Be durable, low maintenance, and appropriate to the location. Integral to creating this artwork(s), is the artists’ willingness to learn about the community and have a dialogue with interested community members to help inspire and guide content creation. A range of materials/applications will be considered, including painted murals and digitally printed murals. If digital, the work must be vector based, printable, and scalable to the site specifications. |
This is a variation on the tradition Cherokee Butterbean Game. It can be played by several individual players or several teams. Traditionally, this game uses three butterbeans that have been split in half. More…
From the Museum of the Cherokee Indian: Cherokee people began growing a form of corn two thousand years ago. By about a thousand years ago, or 1000 AD, they were growing corn and beans, as we know them today. Corn, beans, and squash was always grown together and was known as the “Three Sisters.” Beans restore nitrogen to the soil while corn depletes nitrogen. The vines of the beans and squash twined up the cornstalks. When corn and beans are eaten together, they provide complete proteins and amino acids for our diet.
Corn was so important to the Cherokee that they had important celebrations and ceremonies called “Green Corn Festivals.” The first of these was held in August, before the sweet corn was ready to eat. The last was held in October or November, when the
field corn was ready to be picked. At these ceremonies, people purified themselves physically and spiritually before feasting together. At this time, people got married and divorced. All old scores were settled and everyone started a new year together.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand-new novel. If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year, the Buncombe County Public Library wants to support you in your endeavors. Join us for the following events to keep you invigorated and motivated.
All events are free, but you do need to register. To sign up, visit the Library’s event calendar and click on the event on the calendar.
You Wrote a Novel, So Now What?
Thursday November 5 at 5pm
What will you do on December 1 when you finish NaNoWriMo and have a book that’s ready to get out into the world? In this webinar BiblioLabs Community Engagement Manager, Emily Gooding, will show you how to format your novel by using the PressBooks resource available to you for FREE from the library. You will also learn how you can submit your novel to the Indie Author Project and have a digital version of your novel available to readers in the Library!
Celebrate Indie Author Day
November 7
More info available on the Buncombe County events calendar soon.
Come Write In Virtually with BCPL Librarians Who are Also Writing Novels This Month!
Friday November 13 at 4 pm and Wednesday November 18 at 7 pm
We’ll have two virtual Write Ins and would love to write with you in a Zoom Room while our cats meow in the background. We’ll have some prompts but mostly this will be a time to awkwardly write in front of your camera while strangers on the call do the same. Just kidding – we’ll have a blast!
Join the library’s Creative Writing Group Online
Friday November 20 at 3 pm
This monthly group meets on Zoom where we do several rounds of writing and reading our writing to each other. Our focus is creating a supportive and fun environment through writing exercises and discussions. You are welcome but not required to bring a 300-500 word piece of original writing.
Be Inspired by Local and National Authors
Tuesday, November 19 at 7pm
Join us via Zoom on November 19 to celebrate the release of The Right Kind of Fool by Sarah Loudin Thomas as she’s joined in conversation by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Wingate. Sarah and Lisa will chat about inspiration, writing, and their latest stories. The event hosted by Sassafras on Sutton and the Black Mountain Library will include giveaways and time for Q&A. Join us for a great evening of historical fiction! Registration is Limited!
Join Our NaNoWriMo Message board
Anytime
Join our BCPL_Nanowrimo Message Board on the NaNoWriMo Forums. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/
Any questions? Contact your friendly neighborhood library or email [email protected]
The Southern Equality Studios special grant round is dedicated to resourcing and celebrating LGBTQ artists and creatives across the LGBTQ South who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or people of color). Grants of up to $500 will support BIPOC LGBTQ Southern artists working on a wide range of creative projects.
These new grant rounds are part of CSE’s Southern Equality Fund, which has been making grassroots grants across the LGBTQ South since 2015. Since its inception, the Southern Equality Fund has prioritized supporting work led by BIPOC, transgender, and rural organizers.
Have you seen an inspiring BIPOC LGBTQ artists in your community, or are you a creative who could use grant support? If so, we want to hear from you!
We are specifically seeking nominations for artists or creatives efforts who are:
- Based in the South.
- Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC).
- LGBTQ people.
- Funds can be used to support a wide range of artistic endeavors.
- Nominees are eligible to receive this grant even if they have received a previous Southern Equality Fund grant; however, priority will be given to nominees who have not yet received a grant.
- Anyone is welcome and encouraged to nominate an artist for a grant and artists may also nominate themselves.
- There are no grant reports, budgets or supplemental materials required in this process. However, if selected, applicants will have to fill out and return a W9 form to receive their funding.
Kimpton Hotel Arras and local artists today unveiled, “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music,” a locally created, life-size stainless steel sculpture located outdoors on the corner of Lexington and Patton at Kimpton Hotel Arras. Inspired by the city’s vibrant street musicians and their lively drum circles, artists Chukk Bruursema and Ash Knight sought to bring the unique rhythms of Asheville to life through this striking, collaborative piece, which was commissioned by the hotel.
“Asheville Music,” the large steel djembe drum sculpted by Chukk Bruursema, has West African roots, where the djembe is traditionally played as part of an ensemble, invoking feelings of community and togetherness. Adorning the drum is “Asheville Music,” Ash Knight’s five musical buskers depicted playing the spoons, the string washtub, jug, washboard, and the fiddle, with a dog observing from the ground below.
“We are pleased to officially introduce the “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music” sculpture, a defining art piece that truly represents the spirit of our city, to the Asheville community,” said Kimpton Hotel Arras General Manager David McCartney. “This piece is an exciting addition to the hotel and expands our local artwork program, which works to highlight and supporting the work of local artists and purveyors.”
Following the unveiling, tours of the additional local artwork displayed throughout the hotel were offered with the artists in attendance to speak to their pieces, including John Wayne Jackson and Peter Roux. Kimpton Hotel Arras commissioned more than a dozen pieces of local artwork curated by local art consultant Liz Barr of Art Resouces.
Click HERE to view photos of “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music” from the unveiling.
On Saturday November 28, December 5, 12 and 19, music or storytelling will be offered from 10:30 am – 12:00 pm with craft-making from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Beginning October 7, the three-hour documentary-styled art installation Question Bridge: Black Males will be on view at the Asheville Art Museum. This innovative transmedia project facilitates a dialogue between Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds, and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine Black male identity in America. The work will be on view during regular public hours from October 7, 2020 through March 15, 2021.
Question Bridge: Black Males is a project that explores critically challenging issues within the African American male community by instigating a transmedia conversation among Black men across geographic, economic, generational, educational, and social strata of American society. Question Bridge provides a safe setting for necessary, honest expression and healing dialogue on themes that divide, unite, and puzzle Black males today in the United States.
Adonna Khare, Pool Party, 2015, carbon pencil on paper, 6 × 20 feet. Collection of the Artist. © Adonna Khare, image Phil Hatten.
An exhibition highlighting the works of John James Audubon juxtaposed with the work of 21st-century artists who continue his tradition of animal allegories and metaphors is currently on view at the Asheville Art Museum. The exhibition features more than 40 works and will be on display in the Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall through November 30.
|
|
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.
Best of all, Porch Portraits by Suzanne will donate $15 of every session to our great friends at Flat Rock Playhouse. My goal is to raise $15,000 for the Playhouse by the end of the year so any money over and above the price of $65 will go straight to them.
Perhaps most exciting, an extremely generous Playhouse donor has agreed to a MATCHING GIFT CAMPAIGN up to $36,000.18! This incredibly generous donation draws on the magic of Chai, the Jewish belief that multiples of 18 bring good luck. Meaning that every session booked will result in at least $30 for the wonderful folks at Flat Rock Playhouse.
For decades, Flat Rock Playhouse has been opening their collective hearts and sharing their fabulous talents to bring joy and entertainment to western North Carolina. This is an opportunity to show our gratitude at a time when they really need our support.
Together, let’s make magic happen! Help us kick off this campaign by contributing today.
Asheville Gallery of Art’s November show, “Opening Up to Art,” is a multi-member show featuring each artist’s personal exploration into being part of this world during uneasy times. The show runs November 1-30 during gallery hours 12-5 p.m. Thursday thru Sunday. You can also make arrangements for a private tour by emailing a request to [email protected].
|
Tribute Companies is requesting Artist Qualifications for a permanent art mural(s) for their mixed-use development, The Ironwood, located on Asheland/Coxe Avenue in Downtown Asheville.
This artwork should do the following:
● Create excitement and interest for the area. ● Honor the diversity of Asheville’s Southside community. ● Celebrate the vital role of African American history and culture in Asheville. ● Connect visually to the site through interpretation of historical and cultural aspects. ● Be durable, low maintenance, and appropriate to the location. Integral to creating this artwork(s), is the artists’ willingness to learn about the community and have a dialogue with interested community members to help inspire and guide content creation. A range of materials/applications will be considered, including painted murals and digitally printed murals. If digital, the work must be vector based, printable, and scalable to the site specifications. |
This is a variation on the tradition Cherokee Butterbean Game. It can be played by several individual players or several teams. Traditionally, this game uses three butterbeans that have been split in half. More…
From the Museum of the Cherokee Indian: Cherokee people began growing a form of corn two thousand years ago. By about a thousand years ago, or 1000 AD, they were growing corn and beans, as we know them today. Corn, beans, and squash was always grown together and was known as the “Three Sisters.” Beans restore nitrogen to the soil while corn depletes nitrogen. The vines of the beans and squash twined up the cornstalks. When corn and beans are eaten together, they provide complete proteins and amino acids for our diet.
Corn was so important to the Cherokee that they had important celebrations and ceremonies called “Green Corn Festivals.” The first of these was held in August, before the sweet corn was ready to eat. The last was held in October or November, when the
field corn was ready to be picked. At these ceremonies, people purified themselves physically and spiritually before feasting together. At this time, people got married and divorced. All old scores were settled and everyone started a new year together.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand-new novel. If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year, the Buncombe County Public Library wants to support you in your endeavors. Join us for the following events to keep you invigorated and motivated.
All events are free, but you do need to register. To sign up, visit the Library’s event calendar and click on the event on the calendar.
You Wrote a Novel, So Now What?
Thursday November 5 at 5pm
What will you do on December 1 when you finish NaNoWriMo and have a book that’s ready to get out into the world? In this webinar BiblioLabs Community Engagement Manager, Emily Gooding, will show you how to format your novel by using the PressBooks resource available to you for FREE from the library. You will also learn how you can submit your novel to the Indie Author Project and have a digital version of your novel available to readers in the Library!
Celebrate Indie Author Day
November 7
More info available on the Buncombe County events calendar soon.
Come Write In Virtually with BCPL Librarians Who are Also Writing Novels This Month!
Friday November 13 at 4 pm and Wednesday November 18 at 7 pm
We’ll have two virtual Write Ins and would love to write with you in a Zoom Room while our cats meow in the background. We’ll have some prompts but mostly this will be a time to awkwardly write in front of your camera while strangers on the call do the same. Just kidding – we’ll have a blast!
Join the library’s Creative Writing Group Online
Friday November 20 at 3 pm
This monthly group meets on Zoom where we do several rounds of writing and reading our writing to each other. Our focus is creating a supportive and fun environment through writing exercises and discussions. You are welcome but not required to bring a 300-500 word piece of original writing.
Be Inspired by Local and National Authors
Tuesday, November 19 at 7pm
Join us via Zoom on November 19 to celebrate the release of The Right Kind of Fool by Sarah Loudin Thomas as she’s joined in conversation by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Wingate. Sarah and Lisa will chat about inspiration, writing, and their latest stories. The event hosted by Sassafras on Sutton and the Black Mountain Library will include giveaways and time for Q&A. Join us for a great evening of historical fiction! Registration is Limited!
Join Our NaNoWriMo Message board
Anytime
Join our BCPL_Nanowrimo Message Board on the NaNoWriMo Forums. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/
Any questions? Contact your friendly neighborhood library or email [email protected]
The Southern Equality Studios special grant round is dedicated to resourcing and celebrating LGBTQ artists and creatives across the LGBTQ South who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or people of color). Grants of up to $500 will support BIPOC LGBTQ Southern artists working on a wide range of creative projects.
These new grant rounds are part of CSE’s Southern Equality Fund, which has been making grassroots grants across the LGBTQ South since 2015. Since its inception, the Southern Equality Fund has prioritized supporting work led by BIPOC, transgender, and rural organizers.
Have you seen an inspiring BIPOC LGBTQ artists in your community, or are you a creative who could use grant support? If so, we want to hear from you!
We are specifically seeking nominations for artists or creatives efforts who are:
- Based in the South.
- Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC).
- LGBTQ people.
- Funds can be used to support a wide range of artistic endeavors.
- Nominees are eligible to receive this grant even if they have received a previous Southern Equality Fund grant; however, priority will be given to nominees who have not yet received a grant.
- Anyone is welcome and encouraged to nominate an artist for a grant and artists may also nominate themselves.
- There are no grant reports, budgets or supplemental materials required in this process. However, if selected, applicants will have to fill out and return a W9 form to receive their funding.
Kimpton Hotel Arras and local artists today unveiled, “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music,” a locally created, life-size stainless steel sculpture located outdoors on the corner of Lexington and Patton at Kimpton Hotel Arras. Inspired by the city’s vibrant street musicians and their lively drum circles, artists Chukk Bruursema and Ash Knight sought to bring the unique rhythms of Asheville to life through this striking, collaborative piece, which was commissioned by the hotel.
“Asheville Music,” the large steel djembe drum sculpted by Chukk Bruursema, has West African roots, where the djembe is traditionally played as part of an ensemble, invoking feelings of community and togetherness. Adorning the drum is “Asheville Music,” Ash Knight’s five musical buskers depicted playing the spoons, the string washtub, jug, washboard, and the fiddle, with a dog observing from the ground below.
“We are pleased to officially introduce the “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music” sculpture, a defining art piece that truly represents the spirit of our city, to the Asheville community,” said Kimpton Hotel Arras General Manager David McCartney. “This piece is an exciting addition to the hotel and expands our local artwork program, which works to highlight and supporting the work of local artists and purveyors.”
Following the unveiling, tours of the additional local artwork displayed throughout the hotel were offered with the artists in attendance to speak to their pieces, including John Wayne Jackson and Peter Roux. Kimpton Hotel Arras commissioned more than a dozen pieces of local artwork curated by local art consultant Liz Barr of Art Resouces.
Click HERE to view photos of “Ode to Buskers & Asheville Music” from the unveiling.
Beginning October 7, the three-hour documentary-styled art installation Question Bridge: Black Males will be on view at the Asheville Art Museum. This innovative transmedia project facilitates a dialogue between Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds, and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine Black male identity in America. The work will be on view during regular public hours from October 7, 2020 through March 15, 2021.
Question Bridge: Black Males is a project that explores critically challenging issues within the African American male community by instigating a transmedia conversation among Black men across geographic, economic, generational, educational, and social strata of American society. Question Bridge provides a safe setting for necessary, honest expression and healing dialogue on themes that divide, unite, and puzzle Black males today in the United States.
Adonna Khare, Pool Party, 2015, carbon pencil on paper, 6 × 20 feet. Collection of the Artist. © Adonna Khare, image Phil Hatten.
An exhibition highlighting the works of John James Audubon juxtaposed with the work of 21st-century artists who continue his tradition of animal allegories and metaphors is currently on view at the Asheville Art Museum. The exhibition features more than 40 works and will be on display in the Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall through November 30.
|
|
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.
Best of all, Porch Portraits by Suzanne will donate $15 of every session to our great friends at Flat Rock Playhouse. My goal is to raise $15,000 for the Playhouse by the end of the year so any money over and above the price of $65 will go straight to them.
Perhaps most exciting, an extremely generous Playhouse donor has agreed to a MATCHING GIFT CAMPAIGN up to $36,000.18! This incredibly generous donation draws on the magic of Chai, the Jewish belief that multiples of 18 bring good luck. Meaning that every session booked will result in at least $30 for the wonderful folks at Flat Rock Playhouse.
For decades, Flat Rock Playhouse has been opening their collective hearts and sharing their fabulous talents to bring joy and entertainment to western North Carolina. This is an opportunity to show our gratitude at a time when they really need our support.
Together, let’s make magic happen! Help us kick off this campaign by contributing today.
Asheville Gallery of Art’s November show, “Opening Up to Art,” is a multi-member show featuring each artist’s personal exploration into being part of this world during uneasy times. The show runs November 1-30 during gallery hours 12-5 p.m. Thursday thru Sunday. You can also make arrangements for a private tour by emailing a request to [email protected].
Artist Willie Cole joins Popcorn Custom Products’ David Graveen and Museum staff on this year’s Museum Store Sunday to discuss Cole’s work and the launch of his line of Black Art Matters merchandise. All attendees are entered to win a print signed by the Artist!
Black Art Matters is an affirmation of the importance and presence of Black art socially, academically, culturally, and institutionally. It both teaches and celebrates the Black artist’s contribution to the human experience. Popcorn has launched a new initiative to partner with today’s best artists to create and bring engaging merchandise into the museum store marketplace.
Black Art Matters t-shirts, mugs, and advocacy stickers and pins are available for purchase in the Museum Store and online. Exclusively on November 29, all Black Art Matters items are 10% off! Ten percent of the proceeds from the sale is donated to Wells Bring Hope, whose mission is saving lives with safe water.
|
Tribute Companies is requesting Artist Qualifications for a permanent art mural(s) for their mixed-use development, The Ironwood, located on Asheland/Coxe Avenue in Downtown Asheville.
This artwork should do the following:
● Create excitement and interest for the area. ● Honor the diversity of Asheville’s Southside community. ● Celebrate the vital role of African American history and culture in Asheville. ● Connect visually to the site through interpretation of historical and cultural aspects. ● Be durable, low maintenance, and appropriate to the location. Integral to creating this artwork(s), is the artists’ willingness to learn about the community and have a dialogue with interested community members to help inspire and guide content creation. A range of materials/applications will be considered, including painted murals and digitally printed murals. If digital, the work must be vector based, printable, and scalable to the site specifications. |
This year the Asheville Area Arts Council is offering $500 micro-grants for arts-based projects specifically focused on community hope and healing. These can be projects that bring joy to our local community, and/or projects that actively engage community members in safe activities following state and local health restrictions.
Arts and culture are a fundamental part of our community. They help us connect with one another and better understand history, people, and new ideas. When people become involved in the design, creation, and upkeep of places, they develop a vested interest in using and maintaining these spaces. When neighbors have a true sense of “ownership” or connection to the places they frequent, the community becomes a better place to live, work, and visit. According to Americans for the Arts (AFTA), “86% of participants who took part in community-based art want to be involved in future projects, and people living where these art projects occurred were more than twice as likely to be civically engaged as those whose neighborhoods did not have projects.”
Things are looking a little different this winter holiday season. Show & Tell has gone virtual, bringing the holiday pop up shop you know and love Home For the Holidays!
∙∙∙
Although we are going to miss decking the halls, we are so excited to reach a wider audience with our online presence and are thrilled to showcase the best in handmade, vintage, fair trade, and packaged bites from Asheville, NC and beyond.