Image Sterling E. Stevens

Join us as we explore the delights that watercolors offer.  It’s a medium as old as art itself and perfectly suited for this time of year.  Weather permitting we will work outside but the session can easily be moved indoors if need be.
The focus will be on various approaches to watercolor, some basic color mixing, and how to make your painting really “pop”!   This 90 minute offering is open to all, from the beginner to the more experienced watercolorist just looking to expand their skills and paint with others.  It will be led by James Cassara, who has almost 40 years experience as an art educator and artist.  James is also the director of the Asheville Plein Air painting group, and LOVES sharing his tips and experience with others.
All materials will be provided.
Class size is limited and registration is required. This class is for adults and teens 16 years old and up.

If you’ve been wanting to try a new and vibrant medium that works on a wide variety of materials and surfaces, you’ll love alcohol inks! As you drip, blow, and manipulate the brilliant colors of this art form, you’ll be amazed at the intricate patterns that emerge!

Veteran artist and teacher Robyn Crawford will show you how to create beautiful, professional-looking artwork with very little effort. You’ll leave with at least one print suitable for framing, a ceramic coaster(s), and one or two other home accessories. Only you (and your fellow classmates, of course!) will know how quick and easy your masterpieces were to make!

Oil paintings take on a new light in this collection of “scenes, objects and creatures that give meaning to my world”. The artist says “The more I paint…the more I’m interested in the synaesthesia of light and emotion. Take over-bright light, for instance, how its cold intensity can express with painful accuracy a sense of dislocation, anxiety and depression–Edward Hopper comes to mind. These days, I am so interested in light that I have taken to breaking it up. You can see puddles of light on a deck or shards of it in a person’s face. Light painted on the floor of a wooden bridge, behaving like mercury.”

Exhibits through July 30

Sarah Ross has lived in New York NY, Paris, Middletown CT, Cambridge MA, Munich, Ann Arbor MI, Cairo, Berkeley CA, Laguna Niguel CA, Chicago IL and Asheville NC, in that order. The daughter of an educator, she stumbled through 3 colleges before arriving at a BA degree and a fellowship to Brown. She has been married twice. She has 2 children and 3 dogs. A lapsed roman catholic, she prefers to look for the divine in the importance of little things: the mundane or overlooked. She reports that so far she has been protected from Covid-19 and is tremendously grateful for the mountain aerie where she lives with her husband and weathers the nightly news.

Featured Artists: Jude Stuecker (fiber) Erica Bailey (jewelry) Mary Dashiell (clay) Steve Miller (wood) Rex Redd (clay)

Gillian Laub, Amber and Reggie, Mount Vernon, Georgia, 2011, inkjet print, 40 × 50 inches. © Gillian Laub, courtesy of Benrubi Gallery.

American photographer Gillian Laub (born New York, 1975) has spent the last two decades investigating political conflicts, exploring family relationships, and challenging assumptions about cultural identity. In Southern Rites, Laub engages her skills as a photographer, filmmaker, and visual activist to examine the realities of racism and raise questions that are simultaneously painful and essential to understanding the American consciousness.

In 2002, Laub was sent on a magazine assignment to Mount Vernon, GA, to document the lives of teenagers in the American South. The town, nestled among fields of Vidalia onions, symbolized the archetype of pastoral, small town American life. The Montgomery County residents Laub encountered were warm, polite, protective of their neighbors, and proud of their history. Yet Laub learned that the joyful adolescent rites of passage celebrated in this rural countryside—high school homecomings and proms—were still racially segregated.

Laub continued to photograph Montgomery County over the following decade, returning even in the face of growing—and eventually violent—resistance from community members and local law enforcement. She documented a town held hostage by the racial tensions and inequities that scar much of the nation’s history. In 2009, a few months after Barack Obama’s first inauguration, Laub’s photographs of segregated proms were published in the New York Times Magazine. The story brought national attention to the town and the following year the proms were finally integrated. The power of her photographic images served as the catalyst and, for a moment, progress seemed inevitable.

Then, in early 2011, tragedy struck the town. Justin Patterson, a twenty-two-year-old unarmed African American man—whose segregated high school homecoming Laub had photographed—was shot and killed by a sixty-two-year-old white man. Laub’s project, which began as an exploration of segregated high school rituals, evolved into an urgent mandate to confront the painful realities of discrimination and structural racism. Laub continued to document the town over the following decade, during which the country re-elected its first African American president and the ubiquity of camera phones gave rise to citizen journalism exposing racially motivated violence. As the Black Lives Matter movement and national protests proliferated, Laub uncovered a complex story about adolescence, race, the legacy of slavery, and the deeply rooted practice of segregation in the American South.

Southern Rites is a specific story about 21st century young people in the American South, yet it poses a universal question about human experience: can a new generation liberate itself from a harrowing and traumatic past to create a different future?

Southern Rites is curated by Maya Benton and organized by the International Center of Photography.

Every Sunday, Ashevillians and visitors from surrounding counties unite to enjoy one of the most unique Farmer’s Markets around!

Not only is Gladheart directly located on a community, organic farm, every vendor produces their own product.

Vendors offer organic produce, fresh made heritage grain breads, jewelry, grass fed tallow creams and broth, organic eggs and frozen quiche, chocolate, beef, and much, much more!

But wait! There’s More!

Gladheart Farm Fest Market is THE place to be on Sundays simply for it’s variety of hot, delicious, and nutritious food, Live music, and Kids Activities!

Wood Fired, Spelt Pizza
Nourish To Go Tacos
Vegan Sushi Rolls
Pasture Raised Scrambled Egg Bowls
(Don’t forget to bring a picnic blanket and an empty belly!)

Farm Tours and Hay Rides! Spend the day and visit with the goats!

Brighten your walls with with works from Artsville Collective’s upcoming exhibition, “In Living Color: At Home with Paint, Paper and Thread.”  Allow these abstract pieces, in varying sizes and mediums, to light up your life. Collectively, the artwork’s tonal range is of blended neutrals and ventures into spring and fall palettes. Suit your design pleasures with pure color or wabi-sabi textural designs in a range of perspectives from three uniquely talented artists: Betsy Meyer, fibers; Karen Stastny, painting, and Michelle Wise, mixed media. Also showing: the Retro pop art of Daryl Slaton, which can be activated on your phone to reveal an animated story. For a softer approach, consider the mixed media art of Louise Glickman using paint, textiles, and natural plant materials.

Useful and Beautiful: Silvercraft by William Waldo Dodge features a selection of functional silver works by Dodge drawn from the Museum’s Collection. Organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Whitney Richardson, associate curator, this exhibition will be on view in the Debra McClinton Gallery at the Museum from February 23 through October 17, 2022.

William Waldo Dodge Jr. (Washington, DC 1895–1971 Asheville, NC) moved to Asheville in 1924 as a trained architect and a newly skilled silversmith. When he opened for business promoting his handwrought silver tableware, including plates, candlesticks, flatware (spoons, forks, and knives), and serving dishes, he did so in a true Arts and Crafts tradition. The aesthetics of the style were dictated by its philosophy: an artist’s handmade creation should reflect their hard work and skill, and the resulting artwork should highlight the material from which it was made. Dodge’s silver often displayed his hammer marks and inventive techniques, revealing the beauty of these useful household goods.

The Arts and Crafts style of England became popular in the United States in the early 1900s. Asheville was an early adopter of the movement because of the popularity and abundance of Arts and Crafts architecture in neighborhoods like Biltmore Forest, Biltmore Village, and the area around The Grove Park Inn. The title of this exhibition was taken from the famous quotation by one of the founding members of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, William Morris, who said, “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Not only did Dodge follow this suggestion; he contributed to American Arts and Crafts silver’s relevancy persisting almost halfway into the 20th century.

“It has been over 15 years since the Museum exhibited its collection of William Waldo Dodge silver and I am looking forward to displaying it in the new space with some new acquisitions added,” said Whitney Richardson, associate curator. Learn more at ashevilleart.org.

Volunteer Docent Opportunities Beginning June 7, 2022 Overview & training provided. Docents will serve as hosts and share information about the art on exhibit in the lovely Parker Gallery. Current Opening for Volunteers 12 Noon – 2 PM &/0r  2 – 4 PM on the following days: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays and Fourth Fridays – June 24 & July 22 from 5 – 7 PM Click here to sign up by email or request details.

Join Show & Tell for a monthly Sunday Market celebrating and supporting local + indie craft, design, and vintage. Gather with friends and family in the open air at this one-of-a-kind outdoor venue in Downtown Asheville and shop vintage clothes, housewares, handmade jewelry, ceramics, apparel and more. Enjoy music, special activities, and drinks and bites by AVL Taco and AVL Brewing Co. Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave, Asheville. For more info, visit showandtellpopupshop.com.

In conjunction with Gillian Laub’s Southern Rites exhibition on view through July 4, 2022, join us to view Laub’s 2015 documentary. Please note, face coverings are required to view this film.

Southern Rites visits Montgomery County, Georgia, one year after the town merged its racially segregated proms, and during a historic election campaign that may lead to its first African-American sheriff. Acclaimed photographer Gillian Laub, whose photos first brought the area unwanted notoriety, documents the repercussions when a white town resident is charged with the murder of a young black man. The case divides locals along well-worn racial lines, and the ensuing plea bargain and sentencing uncover complex truths and produce emotional revelations. This timely film debuts the week of the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision 61 years ago. Executive produced by John Legend, Troy Carter and Mike Jackson; written and produced by Josh Alexander.

Click here to view the trailer.