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.

Sunday, December 2, 2018
A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 2 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Monday, December 3, 2018
In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 3 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 3 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 3 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Introduction To Modeling The Human Figure with Leonid Siveriver
Dec 3 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Odyssey ClayWorks

Mondays 6-9pm
October 22- December 10

Working from a live model each week, students will hone their understanding of basic anatomy, proportions and the mechanics of movement in 3 dimensions. After first creating multiple fast sketches in clay to work out technique, students will then advance to a longer-term sculpture based on a single pose, with more attention to detail. Please join us for this exciting opportunity to work with decorated sculptor, Leonid Siveriver.

Level: All Levels
Tuition: $325 + $75 Lab & Live Model Fee

Tuesday, December 4, 2018
In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 4 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 4 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 4 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Put A Lid On It with Cayce Kolstad
Dec 4 @ 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Odyssey ClayWorks

Tuesdays 3-5:30pm
October 23- December 11

A good casserole bakes and presents your food beautifully and certainly impresses at potlucks. But casseroles are complex forms to create and get just right. Join Cayce as he demystifies the process step-by-step, with plenty of one-on-one instruction. Techniques demonstrated will include throwing hollow, making a tight fitting lid, and plenty of variations for knobs and handles. Soon you will be creating beautiful, functional casseroles to use and enjoy for years to come.

Level: Intermediate and Advanced
Tuition: $310 + $50 Lab Fee

Wednesday, December 5, 2018
In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 5 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 5 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 5 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Second Annual Repeal of Prohibition Party
Dec 5 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm
The Poe House

Celebrate The Poe House’s Second Annual Repeal of Prohibition Party. In 1920, The US government passed the 18th Amendment, ‘The Volstead Act’, prohibiting the sale and consumption of ‘intoxicating liquors, wine & beer. Prohibition, as it was called, threw the United States into a dark & violent period with massive amounts of violence & corruption until the government REPEALED PROHIBTION, with the 21st amendment on December 5th, 1933. Please join us to celebrate this momentous anniversary. We will feature special ‘prohibition era cocktails’ and encourage each of you to dress like your favorite flapper, bootlegger or gangster– Just like you were living in 1933!

Live Music from the era will be from 7 to 10 p.m. Our Doors will open at 5 p.m. & the Party, Music & Dancing will start at 7. Make plans now for this Fun/Special Occasion!

https://www.facebook.com/events/307141949888617/

Thursday, December 6, 2018
Winter In The Weave
Dec 6 all-day
Creperie & Cafe

One stop holiday shopping featuring over 15 local artists and small business owners. Food samples provided by the Creperie & Cafe

In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 6 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 6 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

Ceramic Tile Design and Murals with Mac McCusker
Dec 6 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Odyssey ClayWorks

Thursdays 11am-1:30pm
October 18- December 13
No class November 22

Tile murals can beautifully enhance your kitchen, bathroom, or outside sidewalks and paths. Students will design their own ceramic tiles using the slab roller and press molds, then incorporate ideas and imagery through carving, sgraffito, Mishima, and ceramic decals. Underglazes, glazes, and firing will be covered. Finally, we will learn how to install these finished pieces indoor or outdoor.

Level: All Levels
Tuition: $310 + $50 Lab Fee

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 6 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Friday, December 7, 2018
In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 7 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 7 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 7 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Holiday Spa Party at Maggie Valley Wellness
Dec 7 @ 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Maggie Valley Wellness Center

This event is the full trifecta! Come pamper yourself, knock out some holiday shopping, and support local causes in the process!

* $1/minute charity foot soaks, massages & mini facials
* Free add-on to nail treatment (paraffin wax or charcoal clay)
* Wine and snacks
* 10-15% off retail all day long
* Enter to win a 30 or 60 minute treatment (100% proceeds go to local non-profit of choice)
* Get your holiday gift cards and gift baskets!

This event is in presented in support of two local charities, REACH of Haywood and Haywood Waterways, who will receive 100% of profits from the $1/min treatments, and 10% of profits from sales all day.

Please RSVP by December 4. For more information, contact [email protected].

https://www.facebook.com/events/265262127523238/

Saturday, December 8, 2018
Holiday Second Saturday
Dec 8 all-day
River Arts District

December on Depot – Depot Street- various locations
Studios all along Depot Street will be open for extended evening hours during this day-long annual holiday event. Visitors can meet the artists, see demonstrations, sample holiday snacks and beverages and find a perfect one-of-a-kind artistic gift. Participating studios include: Trackside Studios, Daniel McClendon LIFT Studios, Studio A & Holly de Saillan Clay & Collage at Pink Dog Creative, and EcoDepot Marketplace.

Trackside Studios – 375 Depot St – 5pm-7pm
Artists Reception: Nobody knows toys like grandmas. Three artists, grandmothers all, will show paintings of toys they have gifted to children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and children of friends at Trackside Studios.

NorthLight Studios – 357 Depot Street – 10am – 5pm
The artists at NorthLight Studios share creativity with you through their talents: landscape, streetscape, impressionist, abstract, still life and figurative paintings, animal art, functional furniture and home accessories. In celebration of the true meaning of the season, each of the artists are donating a percentage of sales to Homeward Bound of WNC.

362 Depot – 362 Depot St. – 2pm-5pm
Cindy Lou Chenard will be demonstrating her unique process – “Art Des Couches De Bois” Dimensional Landscapes. Also, see Jenny Ellis and her “Artful Chairs”, “Hanji Lamps” by Pamella O’Connor, Karen Noel’s watercolors, and more art! Join us for wine and light appetizers.

St. Claire Art – Pink Dog Creative – 344 Depot St. – 10am- 5pm
All day – Artist will be demonstrating various stages of his multi-layer technique called “dialuminism,” creating backlit oil paintings by capturing reflected light.

Studio A – Pink Dog Creative – 344 Depot St. Suite 100 – 12pm-7pm
Pysanky demos from 12-4, Studio A/Holly de Saillan Clay + Collage
Holiday party with refreshments and giveaways from 4-7pm

Eco Depot – 408 Depot St. – 11am-7pm
Holiday Cheer at it’s finest – food, wine, song, specials! Come meet the artists while you do your holiday shopping!

Mark Bettis Studios – 123 Roberts St. – 10am-5pm
Winter White Holiday Show and MarketPlace with guest artist.

Phil Mechanic Studios – 109 Roberts St. – 9am-7pm
Live music by Jimmy Paneda, Stained-glass weaving by the World’s Best Tape Artist, Stephen Lange. Painting with palette knives by Frederic Payet, cold wax and pastel art by Deanna Chillian, just to name a few!

Philip DeAngelo Studios – 115 Roberts St. – 10am – 4pm
Tanya Franklin will be demonstrating her stained glass technique of creating beautiful landscapes and Christmas trees.
Asheville artist Philip DeAngelo is celebrating 10 years in the Wedge Building of Asheville‘s historic River Arts District. Come celebrate with us on Second Saturday, December 8th from 4:00 – 6:30 pm!

Curve Studios – 9 Riverside Dr – 11am-4pm
Holiday Shopping at Curve! A festive shopping experience. Cassie Butcher will be making some special ‘soulmates’ for the event. We will have jewelry, ceramics, clothes and photographs! Come and see the makers making.

Wedge Studios – 111-129 Roberts St – 10am-6pm
Wedge Studios hosts Artisan Holiday Pop-up Marketplace, guest artists include Jewelry maker, Renee Gaudet Designs. Also spoon maker, Aaron Iaquinto, Many more guest artists hosted throughout Wedge Studios
Joyce Thornburg in Studio 2B2 will be hosting guest artist Samantha Rae, abstract and figurative artist from 1- AM to 5 PM.
North Carolina Glass Center – 140 C Roberts St – 10am-6pm
Come shop with us for this holiday season, we have various workshops, gift certificates, and handmade objects by 30 great artists!

Odyssey Co-op Gallery and Studio – 238 Clingman Ave. – 11am – 5pm
Featured artists Dyann Myers and Vivian Saich will be doing live demos along with live music and refreshments.

RAD South-Riverview Station and The Foundation – 191 Lyman St./Foundy St. – 10-7pm
Holiday Market involving over 80 Artists exhibiting original artwork. Including a scavenger hunt with prizes.
In studio painting demos of Asheville landscapes by Peter Roux at Studio #249, 2-8pm. Wine & snacks all day, and holiday discounts of up to 20% on all original artwork.
RAD South Holiday Market! South Entrance, Catherine Heaton, Upstairs Open Studio #213- Drawings & Paintings
Special edition artwork created for December Second Saturday Holiday Market. Still life botanical image by Karen Maugans Gallery and plant dyed, block printed silk scarf by Barbara Zaretsky.

310 Art – 191 Lyman St. at Riverview Station – 10am – 8pm
Come to a Festive Holiday Evening Arts Event. Lots of art, Demos, Refreshments and Libations, Scavenger hunt with prizes, and more. Get original one of a kind handcrafted gifts for that special person!!

Jonas Gerard – 191 Lyman St. – 2pm
Experience the energy of a Painting Performance as Abstract Expressionist artist Jonas Gerard paints to loud, rhythmic world music, allowing his subconscious to guide him to create art filled with light, color and warmth.

Hatchery Studios – 1 Roberts St. – 10am – 8pm
Studio Open House & print raffle at Irene Flores Studio!

In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 8 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 8 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.

A Matter of Taste Exhibit
Dec 8 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
The Bascom...A Visual Arts Center

As Virginia Woolf said, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food and water are essential for survival, but mankind’s relationship to food has transformed over time from one of sustenance to one laden with personal and cultural significance.

A Matter of Taste explores depictions of food and drink in art and reveals how images of fruits and vegetables can function as complex metaphors for excess, status, memory, and politics. Drawn from southern museums and private collections, this exhibition showcases over 35 paintings, decorative arts, and works on paper by artists such as Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Claes Oldenburg.

This show spans 400 years and multiple continents, revealing the evolving role of food and drink in various media and cultural contexts. While depictions of fruit and vegetables appeared in ancient times, still life painting as an independent genre dates to 16th-century Holland.

In 19th-century America, still life paintings remained popular but evolved in terms of subject matter, media, and message. Painters such as Thomas Wightman, George Forster, and De Scott Evans embraced Dutch still lifes and used food as commentary on the current political climate and the transient state of the human condition.

Illustrated newspapers led to an increase of cartoons by artists such as Winslow Homer and William Hogarth, who utilized food and drink as social satire. The 20th-century modern art movement further changed the perception of food. The culture of mass production enabled Pop artists to elevate seemingly mundane foodstuffs to high art. Yet, other contemporary artists explored the symbolic and nostalgic role of food seen in works by Tim Tate, Linda Armstrong, and Laquita Thomson.

Visitors will also experience an elaborately set dining table fit for a sumptuous feast. Dining became its own art form over time and communicated one’s social standing and wealth. Each of the table’s six place settings represent a different culture and offer a glimpse into global dining customs. Selective drinkware will accompany this section revealing how tea sets and even punch bowls reflected an owner’s prestige.

Carver & Carmody at Burntshirt in Chimney Rock!
Dec 8 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Burntshirt Vineyards Tasting Room & Bistro

Join Carver & Carmody at Burntshirt Vineyards’ new Tasting Room and Bistro…a stunningly beautiful venue with great wine and a tasty bistro menu!

https://www.facebook.com/events/192170218395035/

Nathan Hefner
Dec 8 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
The Grind Cafe

A Holiday Event with Nathan Hefner
Come up and enjoy some festive music, special entree’s and fine wine. Show starts at 7:30 and wine bar opens at 6:30. Make sure and call The Grind for your plans.

https://www.facebook.com/events/328786227913601/

Sunday, December 9, 2018
In Times of Seismic Sorrows
Dec 9 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft

When reflecting on the current state of the environment, it seems that we have entered into times of seismic sorrows. Carbon emissions, water pollution, fracking, and changing climate patterns all point to a troubling reality with serious consequences for human and non-human populations. Through weavings, installations, sculpture, and print, artists Rena Detrixhe and Tali Weinberg (Tulsa, OK) explore the complex relationship between humans and the planet, offering insights, expressing grief, and creating space for resilience and change.

In Time of Seismic Sorrows is curated by Marilyn Zapf and organized by the Center for Craft. The Center for Craft is supported in part by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Interweaving Southern Baskets
Dec 9 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Bascom - A Center For The Visual Arts

The South has always been home to a blend of cultures — from Native Americans here by 14,000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago, followed by Africans forced to migrate. By 1500, cultures in the South included Creek, Cherokee, Catawba, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Coushatta, from Europe English, Scottish, Irish, and German, and Africans from Senegal to Congo. Baskets were integral in daily life, as agricultural equipment for gathering, sifting, storing, and serving the finished product or as receptacles for tools, clothes, sacred objects, and even infants.

Initially each culture had its own preferred basket material and method of manufacture — twilled rivercane for Native Americans, plaited oak for Europeans, and coiled grasses for Africans. Interaction between groups spurred adaptations to changing circumstances, such as the use of white oak by the Cherokee in the 1800s, as rivercane stands were decimated by European settlements. Native Americans also adopted the European picnic, flower, egg, and market baskets to sell in the 20th-century art market. Native and European Americans wove honeysuckle into baskets after 1854, when introduced from Japan. By the 17th century African Americans discovered bulrush along the coasts, coiling it into large, round “fanners” to winnow rice. Later bulrush was one medium among sweetgrass, pine needles, and palmetto, giving rise to the name “sweetgrass baskets” along the coast.

Baskets were woven not only for use in the fields and homes or for sale in art galleries but also as a connection to ancestors and spirits, as designs were said to come from inside one’s head, from memories of one’s mother’s motifs, or from the Creator. Indeed, working with one’s hands in nature to gather materials and to form them into a basket was considered spiritually and physically healthy, becoming a part of the practice of occupational therapy around World War I.

Today, basketweavers in the South from all three traditions are teaching the next generation to continue this art. Artists from across the region work with old and new materials in old and new forms, innovating for their legacy, for art’s sake, and for political causes, as embodied in the varied vessels in this gallery and epitomized in the virtuosic miniature examples in the case at right.