We recently wrapped up our 21-Day Stand Against Racism Challenge in April. The conversation moves forward with continuing the challenge because the work is far from over! As we became aware of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, it is again evident that the systems in place that already harm young women of color the most can be regressed even more by those with power today. In these crucial moments and always, knowledge is a way to take back power.
WE CHALLENGE YOU TO…

2 mins
Watch Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice shares The History of Reproductive Justice (RJ), a powerful video clearly communicating the definition of RJ, watch here.

10 mins
Check out Planned Parenthood’s article, Roe v. Wade at Risk: Nationwide Legal Abortion May Be a Thing of the Past. Access the article here.

13 mins
Consider this from NPR, which featured an article titled, Roe’s Legal Fate is Unclear. But Studies already Show Who’d Likely Be Hit the Hardest, read here.

42 mins
Listen. Parenting and Politics host Monica Simpson, a North Carolina Native and Executive Director of Sister Song. Sister Song is a Southern-based, national membership organization; our purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. Listen to the podcast here.

For more Continuing the Challenge resources click below:

What is the Stand Against Racism Challenge?

Many people are becoming newly aware of how systemic racism and violence are impacting people of color. Even if you are new to the conversation, that is OK. Our STand against racism challenge, formerly the  21 Day Challenge is designed to create dedicated time and space to build more effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership. Participants who sign up for the Challenge will receive daily tasks via email to help foster their understanding and awareness, with activities such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, or reflecting on personal experience. If you’ve already completed this challenge with us in the past please know that our challenge is designed to be taken multiple times by selecting different daily challenges in order to expand what you have previously learned. Follow this link for the resources.

Dates: July 11 – 16, 2022
Application: Available now through MyBMC
Cost: A $600 fee covers all housing, meals, classes, materials, and concert tickets. Spots are limited and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Please note: Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for all students, faculty, and summer staff for the 2022 season. Please see our FAQ page for more information.

Program Summary

Brevard Music Center (BMC) presents The Brevard Project: Reimagining the Future of Orchestral Programming, a six-day intensive seminar and think-tank on orchestral programming intended for professionals and influencers in the orchestral field. Presented by Brevard Music Center in partnership with Bard College, the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the South Dakota Symphony, the University of Michigan School of Music, and Project Director Joseph Horowitz, The Brevard Project takes place July 11-16, 2022. The central goals of The Brevard Project are to re-evaluate the artistic mission of the American orchestra and to share the skills needed to curate a more comprehensive, more inclusive American orchestral repertoire.

Curriculum

The Brevard Project: Reimagining the Future of Orchestral Programing complements Brevard Music Center’s week-long “Dvořák’s Prophecy” festival from July 11-16 and is inspired by Joseph Horowitz’s acclaimed new book Dvořák’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music. Part think-tank, part seminar, this inaugural Project gathering equips practitioners and scholars alike to begin to answer questions about the dense nexus of culture and race, of historical, political, and moral reckonings surrounding the story of American orchestral music. The central goals of this program are to re-evaluate the artistic mission of the American orchestra and to share the skills needed to curate a more comprehensive, more inclusive American orchestral repertoire. The Brevard Project is designed for conductors, artistic administrators, executive directors, community engagement specialists, conservatory students, and engaged orchestra Board members.

Moving forward requires a fresh and closer look at our musical past – and to the lagging formation of an American symphonic canon. A new narrative of American classical music will be proposed that explores timely and topical issues that impact present and future orchestral programming. Why did our repertoire remain so stubbornly Eurocentric? What can we learn from this history? What can be mined from the treasure trove of long-hidden indigenous and Black music that can help to pave the future?

Classroom sessions will be highly interactive, drawing upon first-hand accounts of humanities-infused approaches to programming and community engagement. Topics of exploration include creating a “new paradigm” for American orchestral repertoire, rethinking the concert experience, and redefining the role of the music director. Participants will be challenged to envision programming and organizational initiatives to promote symphonic events grounded in the American experience, past and present.

The Faculty

A remarkable faculty has been assembled for this groundbreaking exercise.
*virtual participant

Joseph Horowitz, Project Director
Leon Botstein, President, Bard College; Music Director, American Symphony; Founder, Bard Festival and The Orchestra Now
Lorenzo Candelaria, Dean, Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University
Mark Clague, Music Historian, University of Michigan
JoAnn Falletta*, Music Director, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Christopher Gibbs*, Music Historian, Bard Conservatory; Artistic Co-Director, Bard Festival
Delta David Gier, Music Director, South Dakota Symphony
Blake-Anthony Johnson, CEO, Chicago Sinfonietta
Keith Lockhart*, Artistic Director, Brevard Music Center
Douglas McLennan, Founder/Editor, ArtsJournal
Jason Posnock, Chief Artistic Officer, Brevard Music Center
Jesse Rosen, Former CEO, League of American Orchestras
Larry Tamburri, CEO, Newark School of the Arts (former CEO, Pittsburgh and New Jersey Symphonies)

The Performers

Lara Downes, Pianist, producer, arts advocate
Sidney Outlaw, Baritone/pedagogue, Ithaca College
George Shirley, Tenor/pedagogue, University of Michigan

Enrollment Information

Conductors, artistic administrators, executive directors, community engagement specialists, conservatory students, and Board members are all encouraged to apply for The Brevard Project.

Capacity is limited. A $600 fee covers all housing, meals, classes, materials, and concert tickets for the week. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply now through MyBMC.

Current students, alumni, staff, faculty, and faculty emeriti of the UNC Asheville Department of Art & Art History are participating in THRIVE ! – an invitational exhibition of small works on paper.

“I wanted to express this idea that despite COVID, and despite our department’s relocation during renovation – art thrives here, it is the constant that cannot be disrupted,” says THRIVE ! curator Leisa Rundquist, professor of art history and curator of art collections at UNC Asheville.

The informal arrangement installation will be displayed in the hallway gallery next to the S. Tucker Cooke Gallery in Owen Hall through August 1.

Viewing is available during open Owen Hall hours. 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (M – F)

Community Expectations
As members of this community, we care about everyone. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors have a shared commitment to take the necessary precautions to avoid spreading COVID-19 while following all recommended health guidelines. Please see UNC Asheville’s Community Expectations. Be respectful of individual choice to wear or not wear a mask in any situation; wear a mask when and where encouraged, following guidelines and precautions outlined by the CDC.

Old Kentucky Home -The Thomas Wolfe Memorial

American Novelist Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)

Considered by many to be one of the giants of 20th-century American literature, Thomas Wolfe immortalized his childhood home in his epic autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Wolfe’s colorful portrayal of his family, his hometown of “Altamont” Asheville, North Carolina, and “Dixieland” the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse, earned the Victorian period house a place as one of American literature’s most famous landmarks.

House tours are offered daily at half past each hour. Last tour leaves at 4:30 pm.
Group tours by reservation.

Adult – $5.00
Student (ages 7-17) – $2.00
Adult Group (10+) – $2.50 each
Student Group – $2.00 each
6 & under – Free

Hours of Operation

April 1st through May 26th, 2022

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

The Garden Helpline is open March 2 through October 27 in 2022.

Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteers will be staffing the Helpline as indicated in the schedule below. You may send an email or leave a voicemail at any time and an Extension Master Gardener volunteer will respond during Garden Helpline hours. When emailing, please include a photo if it helps describe your garden question. Soil test kits can be picked up at the Extension office, 24/7, located in a box outside the front door.

Two ways to contact the Garden Helpline
Call 828-255-5522
Email questions and photos to [email protected]

Garden Helpline Hours
March:  Monday 12:00 – 2:00; Wednesday 10:00 – 12:00
April – September:  Monday and Wednesday 10:00- 2:00; Tuesday 10:00-12:00;
Thursday 12:00-2:00
October:  Tuesday 10:00-12:00; Thursday 12:00-2:00

We are here to help and support you! Please contact us; we look forward to answering your gardening questions.

May is Foster Parent Appreciation Month and Buncombe County is celebrating the incredible families who have stepped up to Foster Our Future. Becoming a Foster Parent is a big decision. “Many people begin their foster journeys with an idea of what being a foster parent should be,” says Amy Huntsman, Foster Care Supervisor for Buncombe County Health and Human Services. “But parenting, regardless of biological relation, is complex and encourages parents and children alike to grow in surprising and unexpected ways.” At Buncombe County, we like to refer to fostering as a journey; and if fostering is a journey, then social workers are the tour guides- supporting you supporting kids.

Buncombe County Foster Care Social Workers serve our foster parents in three categories throughout the fostering journey: preparation, placement, and maintenance.

Explore Options and Learn More!

The first step of the foster journey for any potential parent is training. The Foster Parent Training Class, or MAPP Class, combines storytelling with practical application techniques that offer a realistic, comprehensive understanding of what being a foster parent is like. Taught by our team of social workers and current foster parents, you can expect this course to be engaging and set you up for success on the licensure exam.

This course is taught over six weeks. Classes meet once a week for 3 hours per class. Completion of this course does not result in automatic licensure. Potential foster parents will have to seek licensure through the state of North Carolina. The Buncombe County social work team is here to educate and support you every step of the way and make sure that you are making the best possible decisions at every turn.

SIGN UP | CALL US: (828) 250-5868 | buncombecounty.org/foster 

Placement

Once our foster parents get licensed, the placement phase begins. Each foster parent is assigned a social worker who facilitates the placement process including; helping you complete licensure requirements, assessing the best types of children for your home and skill set, and assisting you in process of meeting a foster child and having them settle into your family.

Maintenance

Once a child has been placed in your home, that same social worker will continue working with you to ensure you and the child are supported throughout this experience. Our social workers help foster parents; learn about a child’s individual medical. Behavioral, or developmental needs, refer and assist families in gaining supports for the youth, and engage foster parents in ongoing training and advocacy to ensure both the youth and the foster family’s needs are met.

There are currently over 340 children in foster care in Buncombe County. A shortage of foster parents in Buncombe County has resulted in approximately 100 of those children being placed outside their communities, away from their homes, schools, families, friends, and anything familiar to them. We know that children who are placed in their home communities have a better foster experience and are more likely to be reunited with their biological families when compared to those who are placed far away. If you have ever thought about becoming a foster parent, now is the time. Click here to sign up for Foster Parent Training classes and help us bring the kids in care back to Buncombe County.

Contact Us:

Facebook: @fosterbuncombe
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (828) 250-5868
Website: buncombecounty.org/foster

“My work focuses on deteriorating architecture. These structures, designed to be huge forces of permanence, are continually being challenged, destroyed and forgotten. I see an inherent honesty in the face of my subject. Among all of the clutter—the shards of wood and layers of rubble—there remains a gentle resolve. As I work, I study these structures incessantly. The buildings, often on the brink of ruin, have something very energized and present trying to escape from their fragmented reality.”  –Seth Clark

This first solo show of Seth’s work at Momentum’s new space features large-scale works from his Barn, Ghost, and Aerial View Series.  The collection also includes some of the artist’s sculptural objects in wood.  Abstract works, which still reference weathered architecture, such as Lath Study and Vinyl Study, round out the exhibition.

Buncombe County Public Libraries will start offering in-person story times the week of May 24. There will be story times for all ages spread out across the library system so you can find one that works for your schedule. There will be two bilingual Spanish-English story times for any interested families.

Join us for a story time designed for children ages 3 to 5 years as we share books, songs, rhymes, and activities.

Buncombe County Public Libraries will start offering in-person story times the week of May 24. There will be story times for all ages spread out across the library system so you can find one that works for your schedule. There will be two bilingual Spanish-English story times for any interested families.

Join us for a fun and interactive story time designed for children ages 18 months to 3 years.

Buncombe County Public Libraries will start offering in-person story times the week of May 24. There will be story times for all ages spread out across the library system so you can find one that works for your schedule. There will be two bilingual Spanish-English story times for any interested families.

Join us for a fun and interactive story time designed for children ages 18 months to 3 years.

Cook teams of 4-6 individuals are invited to bring ingredients and prepare meals onsite or bring meals that have been prepared elsewhere.  To meet our dietary standards, we ask that each meal provides a meat, vegetable and starch.

Requirements:

• Background Check
• Brief orientation prior to service
• Ability to Multi-Task
• Friendly Demeanor

Health & Safety:

• We are asking volunteers to wear/bring their own face mask if you have not been fully vaccinated
• Temperatures will be checked and a COVID-19 disclosure will be signed at the volunteer entrance

• Before you even begin thinking about volunteering, ask yourself – Am I well enough to volunteer?

  Your safety and limiting the spread of COVID-19 is everyone’s main priority. We encourage you to review and adhere to the recommendations on the Buncombe County readiness site on how best to avoid COVID-19 and what to do if you think you might have it.

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  ABCCM Transformation Village provides up to 100 beds of transitional housing and will provide emergency shelter beds, post Covid-19.  Transforming lives is through four developmental phases called Steps to Success including stabilization, life skills, education and reintegration.  We are honored to report that 8 out of 10 leave us with a living wage job and permanent housing.

  Transformation Village gives hope, healing, health and a home to single women, mothers with children, and female Veterans experiencing homelessness.  We provide residents a fresh start and a place to heal surrounded and supported by Christian love, trust, education and companionship.

  We are seeking energetic volunteers to prepare and serve meals for our residents for lunch and dinner. This opportunity provides you with the chance to prepare meals in our commercial kitchen alongside our trained staff while serving the women and children of Transformation Village. 

Join us at Eliada Home’s campus for a small group guided walking Farm Tour. Tours last approximately 1 hour. Participants will learn about outdoor and greenhouse growing practices, aquaponics, hydroponics, market gardening, corn maze production, and learn about our Animal Therapy program.

We will be meeting at the PARC building and walking to the different greenhouses, garden site, and a visit with our animals. Reservations required, tickets are $10 each visitor (to be collected at the time of the tour).

We recommend bringing the following: comfortable shoes for walking on pavement and grass, hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.  This tour is not handicap accessible and will require participants to climb stairs and walk on uneven ground.

We will begin out tour promptly at the starting time, so please arrive 5-10 min early to allow for parking and check-in. If you are running late or cannot make your tour, please email [email protected] or call #828-348-2287.

All proceeds from ticket sales from your farm tour go directly back to helping the Campus Farm Program grow more food for the children of Eliada!

Click above photo to sign up for a time slot and number of people in your group. Payment for tour will be collected when you arrive. Cards accepted.

This tour is best suited for school age children ages 10+ and adults.

During the month of May, buy one entrée and get a free dessert at Brixx Wood Fired Pizza in Biltmore Park. Mention that you saw this offer in the Town Square Reminder email newsletter and enjoy warm, friendly service over scratch made wood fired fare either in the dining room or on the spacious patio.

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.

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.

N. C. Wyeth, Eight Bells (Clyde Stanley and Andrew Wyeth aboard Eight Bells), 1937, oil on hardboard, 20 × 30 inches. Bank of America Collection

The Wyeths: Three Generations | Works from the Bank of America Collection provides a comprehensive survey of works by N. C. Wyeth, one of America’s finest illustrators; his son, Andrew, an important realist painter; his eldest daughter, Henriette, a realist painter; and Andrew’s son Jamie, a popular portraitist. Through the works of these artists from three generations of the Wyeth family, themes of American history, artistic techniques, and creative achievements can be explored. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall February 12 through May 30, 2022.

N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945) has long been considered one of the nation’s leading illustrators. In the early 1900s, he studied with illustrator Howard Pyle in Delaware. In 1911, he built a house and studio in nearby Chadds Ford, PA. Later, he bought a sea captain’s house in Maine and in 1931 built a small studio, which he shared with his son, Andrew, and his daughters, Henriette and Carolyn. The exhibition includes illustrations for books by Robert Louis Stevenson and Washington Irving as well as historical scenes, seascapes, and landscapes.

Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) is one of the United States’ most popular artists, and his paintings follow the American Realist tradition. He was influenced by the works of Winslow Homer, whose watercolor technique he admired, as well as by the art of Howard Pyle and his father, N. C. While Andrew painted recognizable images, his use of line and space often imbue his works with an underlying abstract quality. The exhibition includes important works from the 1970s and 1980s as well as recent paintings.

Henriette Wyeth (1907–1997) was the eldest daughter of N.C. Wyeth and an older sister to Andrew Wyeth. Like other members of her family, her painting style was realist in a time when Impressionism and Abstraction were popular in the early 20th century. She studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was an acclaimed portraitist, though perhaps not as widely known as her father and brother. Most notably she painted the portrait of First Lady, Pat Nixon, which is in the collection of The White House.

Jamie Wyeth (born 1946), like his father and grandfather, paints subjects of everyday life, in particular the landscapes, animals, and people of Pennsylvania and Maine. In contrast to his father—who painted with watercolor, drybrush, and tempera—Jamie works in oil and mixed media, creating lush painterly surfaces. The 18 paintings in the exhibition represent all periods of his career.

This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program.

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.

WNC Bridge Foundation is excited to welcome the local community to our new facility on Thursday, May 26 from 11:00am – 4:00pm. The Open House will be in conjunction with a Community Blood Drive in partnership with The Blood Connection. We look forward to seeing our neighbors and friends for a tour our facility and to learn more about our Community Initiatives and regional impact, while presenting an opportunity to give back to the local community through the on-site Blood Drive.

Each blood donation saves up to 3 lives!  Donors need to be at least 16 years old (16-year-old need a permission slip), weigh at least 110 pounds, have ID and be in general good health. Walk-ins are welcome but appointments are honored first! Please schedule an appointment by clicking on this link:

https://donate.thebloodconnection.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/192357

A $20 eGift card will be given to individual donors for each blood donation collected. For any questions regarding the Open House or Blood Drive, please contact Morgan Bradley at: [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there!