, Burnsville’s Town Square. About 250 artists, music, clogging on Friday, Parkway Playhouse children’s performance at noon Friday. Visit www.yanceychamber.com/crafts-fair

Considered the granddaddy of art shows in Western North Carolina, this juried event focuses on quality, handmade wares from local artists in the Toe River Valley and regional artisans across the southern Appalachians.

The fair, which began in 1956, retains its traditional Friday-Saturday format, with one small change. Friday will feature an extra hour, beginning and 9 a.m. and running through 6 p.m. Saturday’s hours remain 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A variety of bluegrass, country and gospel bands will perform on the main stage each day. Those acts include Asheville Junction Band, featuring an Americana/bluegrass sound; Tall Boys, a country/blues band from Asheville; Americana folk duo Admiral Radio of Columbia, S.C.; and the well-known gospel sounds of The Edwards Family of Burnsville.

Appalachian Performing Arts of Burnsville will provide a clogging demonstration Friday.

Returning for a second year is a children’s performance by the Parkway Playhouse at noon Friday on the main stage: “The Tale of the Pig.” It’s part of the Playhouse’s Reading is Alive program and all children present receive a free craft item from the Penland School of Craft.

Food Scraps Drop Off

The City of Asheville, in partnership with Buncombe County and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is offering a FREE Food Scrap Drop-Off program in

two locations for all Buncombe County residents.  This organic matter will be collected and turned into good clean compost, keeping it OUT of our landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Register for Food Scraps Drop Off

Need a handy kitchen countertop food scrap bin?  Let us know on the registration form! We’ll be having bin giveaways at city and county facilities and would love to give you one.

Locations

West Asheville Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the south side of the building

942 Haywood Road, Asheville

Library open hours

Stephens-Lee Recreation Center “Food Scrap Shed” next to the Community Garden on the North side of the parking lot

30 Washington Carver Avenue, Asheville

• • Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
  • Saturday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  • Sunday, 12 – 4 p.m.

Murphy Oakley Community Center and Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the east side of the parking lot

749 Fairview Road, Asheville

• • Dawn – Dusk

Buncombe County Landfill – Convenience Center85 Panther Branch Road, Alexander

• • • • Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
      • Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12:30 pm

Acorns’ Annual season of trunk shows highlights the talented creators of fine art, designer jewelry, and home goods.
Combining classic elegance with on trend shapes and styles, JudeFrances Jewelry offers something for women of all ages. The endless combinations of the JudeFrances categories including the signature earring hoop and charm concept, stackable gold bangles, layering chains and pendants, stylish cocktail rings and simple gold stackers, allow the JudeFrances collector to create a style distinct to her.

Learn Asheville’s history, discover hidden gems, and laugh at LaZoom’s quirky sense of adventure.

• Guided comedy tour bus of historical Asheville
• 90-Minutes – tours run daily
• 15-minute break at Green Man Brewing
• $39 per person (ages 13+ only)

Watch your favorite Dr. Seuss characters spring off the page and onto the stage in Seussical Jr.! From the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called Whos. The powers of friendship, loyalty, family, and community are challenged and emerge triumphant in this fantastical musical extravaganza!

“Shine and Dine” on the railway! We cordially invite you to hop on board The Carolina Shine, GSMR’s All-Adult First Class Moonshine Car! We will be proudly serving hand crafted, triple-distilled, craft moonshine. Some of the smoothest tasting moonshine in the Carolinas! Offered on the Nantahala Gorge excursion, this shine and dine experience begins in a renovated First Class train fleet car, The Carolina Shine. The interior features copper lined walls filled with the history of moonshining in North Carolina. Learn about the proud tradition that the Appalachians established when bootlegging was an acceptable way of life and local home brews were the best in town. Read about Swain County’s very own Major Redmond, the most famous mountain moonshine outlaw of the 19th century. Once your appetite for knowledge is satisfied, enjoy sample tastings of flavors like Apple Pie, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cherry, Peach, and Strawberry moonshine. If the samples are not enough, there will be plenty of Moonshine infused cocktails like Copper Cola or Moonshiner’s Mimosa available for purchase. GSMR is excited to feature multiple craft NC based distilleries to serve our guests only the best! Each jar is handcrafted and authentically infused with real fruit, the way moonshine was meant to be made. Passengers will also enjoy a full service All-Adult First Class ride with an attendant and our popular Cajun seasoned Pulled Pork BBQ with Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce cooked in our special spices and slow roasted to perfection! During the month of October, 9am departures will feature the option of a delicious Cheesy Shrimp & Grits or Cheesy Ham Hash Brown Casserole while 2pm departures will be served the popular BBQ meal.

Online or in-print, you can’t avoid all the hype around the new AIs like ChatGPT. They are going to take over the world! But first they are going to replace lawyers, doctors, accountants, marketing departments, script writers… and on…

Or maybe… they are yet another tool that will help – in powerful ways – but not replace any of those groups or replace you. In fact, they are already helping in many fields and have been before all the press coverage started. But they are also getting people into trouble. And they can get you into trouble, or hurt your business results, if you don’t understand their limits and uses.

In this class you will learn how Large Language Models (like ChatGPT) work (and how they don’t). You will learn how they can get people into trouble so you will have a better chance to avoid that. And you will learn a few, basic, ways they can be used, after all, to help you with your small business.

If you can, please bring a laptop or tablet so you can setup a free ChatGPT account (if you don’t have one) and can tailor some of the class examples to your own business interests. However, a computer is not required to benefit from the class – we will be running examples and results on the projector screen as well.

This is not a technical class. We will not get into APIs and will only talk about the model parameters as part of showing, in a non-technical way, how the models work. We will also not debate whether they will replace all those professional groups “in a few years” because a) they won’t because they can’t by their very nature and b) we’re going to spend the class time talking about how small business owners can safely and productively use the tools today.

Instructor: Michael Truffa

Michael Truffa has been involved in a range of technology roles starting in the 1970s continuing on to today – doing application scripting, web & back-end programming, data science, error analytics, team management, and more. He also has a wide range of non-computer experience including roles in direct & b2b sales, as a mechanical & electrical technician in the oilfield, retail, and more that help inform his pragmatic view of how computers can, and sometimes can’t, help people do real-world jobs.

Black Mountain College and Mexico (BMC/MX): Exhibition, Publication, and Public Programming

Black Mountain College (1933–1957), a small but remarkably influential liberal arts school in rural North Carolina, had important links to Mexico that until now have been little investigated. A crucible of twentieth-century creativity, BMC galvanized and inspired artists and intellectuals from around the world, while Mexico’s innovations and age-old traditions—in fine and applied arts, architecture, poetry, music, performance, and more—dovetailed with, and indeed drove, global impulses toward modernism and beyond. Among the many key BMC figures whose lives were importantly touched by experiences in Mexico were Anni and Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, John Cage, Jean Charlot, Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Carlos Mérida, Robert Motherwell, Charles Olson, Clara Porset, M.C. Richards, and Aaron Siskind. In turn, engagements with BMC and its legacy have played a significant role in shaping contemporary approaches to art in Mexico, evident in the works of Jorge Méndez Blake, Iñaki Bonillas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jose Dávila, Gerda Gruber, Lake Verea, Gabriel Orozco, and Damián Ortega, among others.

The exhibition BMC/MX features works by these and other prominent contemporary Mexican artists alongside a selection of historic works by BMC artists, highlighting the ways in which ideas and modalities are translated across materials, space, and time.

Related programming, planned in collaboration with Mexican artists, features a series of public events, including a performance by artist (and BMC/MX co-curator) David Miranda to take place at Different Wrld; an exhibition visit (in Spanish and English) with BMC/MX Project Director Eric Baden; and a series of experiential art events in the BMCM+AC library.

The exhibition is accompanied by the book Black Mountain College and Mexico (forthcoming late summer 2023), which investigates the people, ideas, and practices linking BMC and Mexico during the life of the school, as well as resonances between BMC and the work of contemporary Mexican artists. With contributions by BMC/MX’s curators, as well as by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, design scholar Ana Elena Mallet, and author and activist Margaret Randall, this fully illustrated volume brings new light to this complex and underexplored subject.

BMC/MX is an investigation into modes of communication—the arenas in which new ideas and alliances may come to be—between Black Mountain College and Mexico, between past and present, between form and idea.

About the Curators

BMC/MX’s Project Director Eric Baden is a photographer and from 1994 to 2022 was professor of photography at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He is the founding director of photo+, a multidisciplinary arts event held in Asheville, North Carolina.

Artist and educator David Miranda is curator at the Museo Experimental El Eco (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM), and teaches at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City.

Diana Stoll is an editor, writer and curator who works with institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has served as an editor at Aperture and Artforum magazines, and contributes writings to prominent arts publications.

Every Friday from April through November (weather permitting),
check out the Hike and Sip Tour at Souther Williams Vineyard, a unique opportunity to hike our scenic rolling vineyards and enjoy
five different wines along the way, led by a private tour guide who will share the history of the farm and while you hike through the
vines, This educational experience will delight as you live the life of grape throughout its annual pilgrimage to the glass, This 1
hour tour requires moderate walking through hillside vineyards and appropriate farm/field attire, and can accommodate up to 12
people and reservations are required 2 days in advance, $50 per person, Souther Williams Vineyard, Hendersonville,

Sandburg Home Tours – Thursday to Sunday at 11am, 1pm, 2pm.

*As of April 2022, tours are free until further notice. See rates below if they change before your visit. Online reservations are available at recreation.gov.

The Sandburg Home is a great place to start your visit! The ground floor of the home contains visitor information, exhibits, tour ticket sales, the park store, and you can watch the park video. The main and top level of the home are furnished with the Sandburg family belongings. Visitors may only access the furnished ares of the home on a guided tour.

• Tour Reservations: Reserving in advance lets you pick your preferred house tour time. Tours fill up quickly. Last-minute, in-person tickets may not be available on the day you visit. Plan ahead and reserve house tour tickets at recreation.gov.

• Passes: The park does not currently sell the America the Beautiful– National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes.
  *These passes do not waive the house tour fee, but do provide a discount.
  *You can purchase a pass online at America the Beautiful – National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass | USGS Store.
• 30-minute house tours are offered year-round, schedule varies by season. Visit recreation.gov for the current schedule.
• Visitors may only tour the Sandburg Home on a guided tour.
• Tours are limited to 6 persons.
• Strollers are not permitted on the house tour, but there is a place to leave them for storage. Infants and small children should be carried through the house while on tour.

  Sandburg Home Guided Tour Fee
  *Tours are free until further notice, this chart is the rate when fees resume.
  (credit card only)
  $10.00 for Adults 16 and older
  $6.00 for Adults age 62 and older and all interagency pass holders
  Free for Children age 15 and under

The Art of Food features works from important postwar artists, like Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, John Baldessari, Wayne Thiebaud, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, and Jasper Johns, alongside the work of contemporary artists, like Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, Enrique Chagoya, Rachel Whiteread, and Jenny Holzer, among others. The Art of Food features more than 100 works in mediums that include drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and ceramics by 37 artists. Each artist has a unique means of depicting food in their work that, when seen alongside others, creates a nuanced representation of the complex place food holds in everyday life. Cross-historical resonances between artists in the exhibition spark novel meditations on food and its discontents, while speaking to a broad range of audiences.

Included with admission

Back by popular demand, The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad exhibition offers guests:

• An opportunity to view rarely-seen treasures from the Biltmore collection
• A first-hand look at the Vanderbilts’ lifestyle
• Deeper insights into George, Edith, and Cornelia’s personalities, both at home and on their extensive travels

Access to exhibitions at The Biltmore Legacy is included with Biltmore daytime admission.

Young Professionals of Henderson County offer opportunities for those under the age of 40 to meet and greet with others who work/ or live in the county. Join us each quarter as we tour industries in our area. During our 3rd quarter of the year, we are touring Spectrum Reach. Throughout the tour, we will have the opportunity to engage with industry experts, asking questions and seeking advice in media advertising.

Gather bathing suits and sunscreen, Buncombe County’s outdoor pools are getting ready to open. The County’s five outdoor pools will open for the 2023 season on May 27. This includes the pools at Cane Creek, Erwin, Hominy Valley, North Buncombe, and Owen.

Outdoor pools will be open on weekends only until area schools are out for the summer. Starting on June 10, Pools will be open seven days a week.

Pool hours are Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Cost for pool entry is $3 per person.

Private lessons at the outdoor pools are available for different age groups from 3-year-olds and up. For more information on lessons or to register for a class, click here.

The pools can also be booked for private parties 14 days in advance and must have a minimum of 50 patrons. Pool bookings are available Monday through Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Click here for more information on booking pools.

Buncombe County Pool Locations:

• Cane Creek Pool – 590 Lower Brush Creek Road, Fletcher
• Erwin Pool – 58 Lees Creek Road, Asheville
• Hominy Valley Pool – 25 Twin Lakes Road, Candler
• North Buncombe Pool – 734 Clarks Chapel Road, Weaverville
• Owen Pool – 117 Stone Drive, Swannanoa

In addition, lap swimming is available year-round at the Buncombe County Schools Aquatics Center, a 10-lane pool managed by the YMCA of Western North Carolina and Buncombe County Schools.

For more information on outdoor pools, visit the County’s pool website or call (828) 348-4770.

Watch your favorite Dr. Seuss characters spring off the page and onto the stage in Seussical Jr.! From the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called Whos. The powers of friendship, loyalty, family, and community are challenged and emerge triumphant in this fantastical musical extravaganza!

Join us for a relaxing ride through quiet countryside on your way to small town life in western North Carolina on the Tuckasegee River Excursion. Departing from Bryson City, this 4 hour excursion travels 32 miles round-trip to Dillsboro and back to the Bryson City Depot. Pass by the famous movie set of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford!

The Tuckasegee (tuck-uh-SEE-jee) River Excursion includes an 1 hour and 20 minute layover in the historic town of Dillsboro, where you’ll find more than 50 shops, restaurants, a brewery, and country inns. There is time to shop, snack, and visit the many unique shops before returning to Bryson City.

Here’s what we plan on doing. Refer to this train’s schedule for departures times.

Given the nature of railroading, durations are approximate and subject to change without notice.

2022 Market Season: Every Friday April – October

Watch your favorite Dr. Seuss characters spring off the page and onto the stage in Seussical Jr.! From the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called Whos. The powers of friendship, loyalty, family, and community are challenged and emerge triumphant in this fantastical musical extravaganza!

The free workshop will be an open-house format where attendees can drop in anytime between 4 – 7 p.m. on August 4th at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center’s Banquet Hall (87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801). Attendees will learn more about missing middle housing and how it can help to expand housing choice, increase entry-level home ownership opportunities, help homeowners to build generational wealth and passive income, and enable local ownership and neighborhood-driven investment.
The workshop is a family-friendly event that will include a series of stations for participants to learn and discuss specific housing-related topics. At each station there will be an opportunity to give feedback that will help guide the final Missing Middle Housing report. This report will ultimately make recommendations to help Asheville prioritize next steps for regulatory changes and strategies that support more housing choices in Asheville. Topics that will be highlighted at the workshop include:

• Project Overview: Timeline, engagement opportunities, and next steps
• Asheville’s Housing Needs: What are the most significant housing challenges facing Asheville?
• Missing Middle Housing Outcomes:  What are the benefits of missing middle housing and how have other cities implemented these housing strategies?
• MMH Building Types: What are the types of housing included in the study and which missing middle housing types would fit into your neighborhood?
• What We’ve Heard So Far: What are the concerns and barriers that exist in Asheville today?

  For those who cannot attend the in-person event, all workshop materials and accompanying surveys will be available on the City’s project website.

Asheville Gallery of Art invites you to Margie Kluska and Kathy Goodson’s Open Reception titled “In a Perfect World.” Everyone is welcome to view their masterful and magical artworks, Friday, August 4 from 5 to 8 pm where beverages and lite snacks will be served. Margie Kluska and Kathy Goodson’s works will be featured throughout the month of August at the Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Avenue in the heart of downtown Asheville.

From Friday, July 21 through Sunday, August 6, 2023, D & J Amusements is bringing the Summerfest Carnival to Asheville Outlets! Enjoy carnival rides and games for all ages along with favorite fair foods including funnel cakes, fried Oreos, turkey legs and more. Operating hours are Monday through Thursday from 5pm to 10pm; Fridays from 5pm to 10pm; Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm and Sundays from 1pm to 10pm. Tickets are $20 Monday – Thursday, and $25 Friday -Sunday. For more information, visit AshevilleOutlets.com.