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.

Thursday, January 21, 2021
Being B.A.D. + MER/made + Picnic in the Time of COVID-27 at Asheville Fringe Arts Festival
Jan 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Online w/ Asheville Fringe Arts Festival

Being B.A.D, by activist artist Brittney S. Harris, explores the lengths one woman goes to take that power back after years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her family and romantic partner.
MER/made, by spoken word artist Alli Marshall, is a multimedia exploration of sinking and swimming, and water as metaphor for change. The nonlinear narrative is presented through a series of videos that incorporate imagery, spoken word, music, and fantastical characters.
In PICNIC IN THE TIME OF COVID-2, by dance collective Taproot CLT, two friends who can’t gather in person must find each other in an absurd, silent film themed virtual reality picnic that takes place in a future that no longer recognizes the norms of eating real food.
Soul Work Through Art
Jan 21 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Online

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).

Stoner Morning Show w/ The Asheville Fringe Festival
Jan 21 @ 10:30 pm – 11:30 pm
Online w/ Asheville Fringe Arts Festival
👁 RAF // Stoner Morning Show
Friday, January 22, 2021
Around the Web w/ BMC: The National Arts Club: On Demand
Jan 22 all-day
Online w/ Brevard Music Center

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.

Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King and Black History Month
Jan 22 all-day
Online

Join us for the 11th Annual Kenilworth Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King! The theme of this year’s event is: ”Don’t Be Afraid to Change the World” Throughout the celebration participants will be introduced to emerging artists, filmmakers, chefs, local business owners, museums, on-line activities, non-violence training and so much more!
To honor legendary educators, Dr. Dolly Mullen and Dr. Dwight Mullen, the collection taken will be donated to help fund the new Drs. Mullen “Don’t Be Afraid to Change the World Scholarship” at UNC Asheville! Donations may be made online at kenilworthchurch.org. When giving, please write MLK in the notes section.
Respond to the event so you will have access to exciting daily content to explore. Let’s gather virtually to learn how so many individuals and organizations are continuing the dream Of Martin Luther King, Jr. and advancing his legacy of hope into our collective future!
Classical Music and Animation for all Ages
Jan 22 all-day
Online w/ Brevard Music Center

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.

Online Education Programs: From Mountain Crafts to Arts and Crafts by Bruce Johnson
Jan 22 all-day
Online w/ Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County

Online Education Programs

From Mountain Crafts to Arts and Crafts by Bruce Johnson

Three Part Video Series

The Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County

Flat Rock Playhouse 2021 calendar!
Jan 22 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Flat Rock Playhouse

2021 year calendar with photo of the Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage covered in snow.

Start the year off right with a Flat Rock Playhouse 2021 calendar! This beautiful image of our Mainstage was taken by longtime Vagabond and Flat Rock Playhouse favorite, Scott Treadway. Enjoy the view of the Rock all year round in your office, on the kitchen wall, or above your desk. This quality printed calendar is 20″x16″ and supports the arts in North Carolina.

 

Mel Chin’s Wake Sculpture
Jan 22 @ 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Downtown Asheville

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.

Make-a-Basket Workshops
Jan 22 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Ronda W Cassada Basketry

Asheville, NC – Creative workshops for beginner and experienced basket weavers! Hands-on stations provide you with all the material, tools and verbal instruction needed to complete a basket in 3-6 hours.
No weaving experience necessary for beginner baskets. Unless otherwise noted, workshops are for those 16 years of age or over.
** Please note: During class masks must be worn and temperatures checked before entering classroom. All tables & tools are sanitized between classes, and hand sanitizers are provided at the door.
Marco Reichert “Man and Machine” Art Exhibit
Jan 22 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Bender Gallery
untitled
2020
78.8 x 59
Marco Reichert
“Man and Machine”, is a solo exhibition featuring new and pivotal works by European painter, Marco Reichert. Berlin-based Reichert is an emerging abstract painter whose current work challenges our ideas of what contemporary art is by using traditional painting techniques in conjunction with experimental “painting machines” to create multi-layered artworks. Reichert’s concept is new and unique, and his paintings exhibit a singular recognizable style. “Man and Machine” opens at the gallery on January 2, 2021 and runs through February 28, 2021.
There are convenient public parking garages located
nearby. The largest is under the Aloft Hotel with an
entrance to the garage on both S Lexington Ave
at the rear of the hotel as well the front of the hotel
on Biltmore Ave. The is also an open air parking lot
at the corner of Aston St and S Lexington Ave.
Across the Atlantic Exhibition
Jan 22 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

Across the Atlantic

Across the Atlantic

American Impressionism Through the French Lens

January 22–April 19, 2021
LOCATION:
Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall

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.

Fantastical Forms: Ceramics as Sculpture Asheville Art Museum
Jan 22 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum
Left: Virginia Scotchie, Object Maker Series, 2020, glazed stoneware. Asheville Art Museum. © Virginia Scotchie. Right: Jane Palmer, Untitled, circa 1990, glazed stoneware, 41 × 14 ¼ × 21 ½ inches. Asheville Art Museum. © Estate of Jane Palmer.

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.

The Gallery at Flat Rock: Porch Portraits sessions donates to Flat Rock Playhouse
Jan 22 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
The Gallery at Flat Rock
Man and woman smiling as
                    their infant son poses in front of them.The Goodrum Family, photo by Suzanne Camarata

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.

Bringing in the Light Asheville Gallery of Art
Jan 22 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Asheville Gallery of Art

Asheville Gallery of Art’s January show, “Bringing in the Light”, features four new artists to the gallery: Olga Dorenko, Rebecca Gottesman, Donny Luke, and Susan Voorhees.
The variety of work displayed contains common themes of light, joy, and optimism for the year ahead.
December 31-January 31
Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sun Noon-5pm
Free Fringe: Chakra Ceremony Chakra Ceremony by The SHIVA Project
Jan 22 @ 12:00 pm – 12:15 pm
Online w/ Spartanburg County Public Libraries

👁 RAF // Chakra Ceremony

Behold and bare witness as Pan and the Woodland Nymph awake into their own dreaming of a Chakra Ceremony. A hypnotic visual art form of flowing dance and music.

Behold and bare witness as Pan and the Woodland Nymph awake into their own dreaming of a Chakra Ceremony, by invocation of the sacred, invitation of a state of flow through their movements in harmony with resonate musical tones and the serenades of Pan’s flute, and reflection in the lens of a hypnotic visual art form

Slow Art Friday with Asheville Art Museum: The Human Spirit
Jan 22 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Online w/ Asheville Art Museum

Join Kay Dunn, 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 the portrayals of people in these artworks say to you about the human spirit?
  • How would you describe the mood of this artwork? What elements help to create that mood?
2021 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival
Jan 22 @ 5:00 pm – 11:30 pm
Online w/ Asheville Fringe Arts Festival
FRI JAN 22
Drawing Discourse Online Exhibition Opening and Juror Lecture
Jan 22 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Online w/ UNCA

poster with event info includes drawing of people

Drawing Discourse, UNC Asheville’s annual juried international exhibition of contemporary drawing, will have its 12th renewal online and in paper this year, opening virtually at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22 with a lecture by juror Pamela Phatismo Sunstrum. The talk and online exhibition will be free and open to everyone – check back closer to the opening date for Zoom access information and the exhibit link.

Submissions are being accepted through Dec. 13, with links to more information on UNC Asheville’s Department of Art and Art History website.

Saturday, January 23, 2021
Around the Web w/ BMC: The National Arts Club: On Demand
Jan 23 all-day
Online w/ Brevard Music Center

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.

Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King and Black History Month
Jan 23 all-day
Online

Join us for the 11th Annual Kenilworth Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King! The theme of this year’s event is: ”Don’t Be Afraid to Change the World” Throughout the celebration participants will be introduced to emerging artists, filmmakers, chefs, local business owners, museums, on-line activities, non-violence training and so much more!
To honor legendary educators, Dr. Dolly Mullen and Dr. Dwight Mullen, the collection taken will be donated to help fund the new Drs. Mullen “Don’t Be Afraid to Change the World Scholarship” at UNC Asheville! Donations may be made online at kenilworthchurch.org. When giving, please write MLK in the notes section.
Respond to the event so you will have access to exciting daily content to explore. Let’s gather virtually to learn how so many individuals and organizations are continuing the dream Of Martin Luther King, Jr. and advancing his legacy of hope into our collective future!
Classical Music and Animation for all Ages
Jan 23 all-day
Online w/ Brevard Music Center

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.

Online Education Programs: From Mountain Crafts to Arts and Crafts by Bruce Johnson
Jan 23 all-day
Online w/ Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County

Online Education Programs

From Mountain Crafts to Arts and Crafts by Bruce Johnson

Three Part Video Series

The Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County

2021 Asheville Fringe Festival
Jan 23 @ 8:00 am – 11:30 pm
Online w/ Asheville Fringe Arts Festival
SAT JAN 23
Flat Rock Playhouse 2021 calendar!
Jan 23 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Flat Rock Playhouse

2021 year calendar with photo of the Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage covered in snow.

Start the year off right with a Flat Rock Playhouse 2021 calendar! This beautiful image of our Mainstage was taken by longtime Vagabond and Flat Rock Playhouse favorite, Scott Treadway. Enjoy the view of the Rock all year round in your office, on the kitchen wall, or above your desk. This quality printed calendar is 20″x16″ and supports the arts in North Carolina.

 

Mel Chin’s Wake Sculpture
Jan 23 @ 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Downtown Asheville

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.

Make-a-Basket Workshops
Jan 23 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Ronda W Cassada Basketry

Asheville, NC – Creative workshops for beginner and experienced basket weavers! Hands-on stations provide you with all the material, tools and verbal instruction needed to complete a basket in 3-6 hours.
No weaving experience necessary for beginner baskets. Unless otherwise noted, workshops are for those 16 years of age or over.
** Please note: During class masks must be worn and temperatures checked before entering classroom. All tables & tools are sanitized between classes, and hand sanitizers are provided at the door.
Marco Reichert “Man and Machine” Art Exhibit
Jan 23 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Bender Gallery
untitled
2020
78.8 x 59
Marco Reichert
“Man and Machine”, is a solo exhibition featuring new and pivotal works by European painter, Marco Reichert. Berlin-based Reichert is an emerging abstract painter whose current work challenges our ideas of what contemporary art is by using traditional painting techniques in conjunction with experimental “painting machines” to create multi-layered artworks. Reichert’s concept is new and unique, and his paintings exhibit a singular recognizable style. “Man and Machine” opens at the gallery on January 2, 2021 and runs through February 28, 2021.
There are convenient public parking garages located
nearby. The largest is under the Aloft Hotel with an
entrance to the garage on both S Lexington Ave
at the rear of the hotel as well the front of the hotel
on Biltmore Ave. The is also an open air parking lot
at the corner of Aston St and S Lexington Ave.
Across the Atlantic Exhibition
Jan 23 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

Across the Atlantic

Across the Atlantic

American Impressionism Through the French Lens

January 22–April 19, 2021
LOCATION:
Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall

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.

Fantastical Forms: Ceramics as Sculpture Asheville Art Museum
Jan 23 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum
Left: Virginia Scotchie, Object Maker Series, 2020, glazed stoneware. Asheville Art Museum. © Virginia Scotchie. Right: Jane Palmer, Untitled, circa 1990, glazed stoneware, 41 × 14 ¼ × 21 ½ inches. Asheville Art Museum. © Estate of Jane Palmer.

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.