The Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) will hold a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. The City of Asheville declared a climate emergency when City Council approved and adopted Resolution 20-25 on Jan. 29, as endorsed by SACEE. In declaring this emergency, the City has recognized not only the importance of taking action to reduce the impacts of climate change but also the importance of incorporating social justice into those actions.

As stated by the NAACP: “Environmental injustice, including the proliferation of climate change, has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and low-income communities in the United States and around the world.”

In Asheville’s Climate Emergency Resolution, SACEE committed to organizing a public input session to engage the community and gather information for establishment of a Climate Justice Plan, explicitly focusing not only on the specific strategies to mitigate climate change but also on the social impacts those actions may have in our city. Because of COVID-19 and the uncertainty as to when in-person public meetings can again be conducted, the SACEE-moderated public input session on this topic is scheduled to be a virtual meeting.

Join the City of Asheville and SACEE for the live input session via the City’s Public Input Hub.  The session includes professionals on the intersectional topics of housing, energy, tree canopy protection, and transit, including:

• Jeff Staudinger, Community Development Director for the City of Asheville, Retired
• Sophie Mullinax, Blue Horizons Project Manager
• Amy Smith, Urban Forestry Commission, Professor, Purdue University Global
• Eunice Lovie, Transit Planning Manager

Interactive ways to participate include polls and a chat function in which participants can add insights beyond the polls. Please also see the additional questions available on the Public Input Hub. This work is ongoing and taking multiple pathways for input, including the City’s Climate Justice Initiative.

Our Fitness Center successfully reopened in September and is available along with our indoor pool to all of our members by reservation. With our facility operating at 30% capacity, we are able to provide you with the space needed for a socially distant, indoor workout, swim, or limited personal training. You may make a reservation to use our Fitness Center or pool by either downloading the Daxko App, by visiting our website or by calling us directly and speaking with a Guest Services Associate. YWCA Hours: Mon – Fri: 6 am – 6 pm | Sat: 7 am – 4 pm | Sun: closed  Pool Hours: Mon – Fri: 6 am – 6 pm | Sat: 7 am – 4 pm | Sun: closed

The Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) is a vital resource available to women and transgender individuals between the ages of 40 and 64 who are uninsured and underinsured, meet certain income requirements, and are residents of Buncombe County. The BCCCP program provides chest exams, pap smears, HPV testing, and mammograms, all at no cost. If results indicate that treatment is needed, patients may qualify for BCCCP Medicaid which covers the cost of treatment and our staff will assist in care coordination.

BCHHS also offers WISEWOMAN, a program aimed at helping women improve their health and reduce their chance of developing heart disease. WISEWOMAN offers free cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure screenings, as well as counseling, coaching, and education services that make it possible for women to get achieve their health goals and stay healthy. Our staff are trained to help you determine your personal health goals and support your progress through regular check in’s and encouragement.

While you can’t fully control your risk for developing breast cancer, you can take steps to ensure that you catch it early. Buncombe County offers free support services, screenings, and treatment programs that make healthcare accessible for many women in Buncombe County. To find out if you are eligible for BCCCP and WISEWOMAN, visit our website or call (828) 250-6006.

The Center is offering free, unguided visits and affordable tours of its exhibitions to the public. Guests can pre-register for a 30-minute visit to explore the current exhibitions, learn more about the Center’s national impact in their Craft Research Fund Study Collection, and enjoy interactive activities.

Sleight of Hand, curated by Center for Craft 2020 Curatorial Fellow Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, centralizes humor in the creative exploration of some of our most pressing contemporary social issues. On view beginning October 23 in the Bresler Family Gallery, the show highlights six artists of color currently working in mixed media, primarily clay, to approach issues like culture, race, tradition, and resilience through irreverent, absurd, ironic, cute, anthropomorphized, and eccentric objects.

In her statement about the show, Vizcarrondo-Laboy, includes two definitions for the phrase “sleight of hand”: “a cleverly executed trick or deception,” and “a conjuring trick requiring manual dexterity.” The show’s six artists draw viewers into their works through their use of whimsical forms, only to reveal deeply serious issues tied to current events and conversations. Vizcarrondo-Laboy explains, “For these artists, humor is not merely an aesthetic strategy; it is also a tool of resistance, resilience, and healing.”

“We are so pleased to have supported Vizcarrondo-Laboy through the Center’s 2020 Curatorial Fellowship program,” says Center for Craft Assistant Director and Curator Marilyn Zapf.  “Her visionary, thoughtful, and research-driven approach to Sleight of Hand presents and contextualizes current artistic strategies and timely conversations in craft that propels the field forward.”

The exhibition updates the irreverent approaches of anti-establishment Bay Area Funk artists like Robert Arneson and David Gilhooly with a new group of young, emerging artists shifting the field and future of ceramics to re-centralize makers of color within an ever-diversifying landscape of visual arts.

Artists in the exhibition include Chicago-based Salvador Jiménez-Flores, whose piece, La resistencia de los nopales híbridos (The Resistance of the Hybrid Cacti), explicitly references Arneson’s iconoclastic self-portraiture, while also commenting on Jiménez-Flores’ own Mexican heritage and issues facing the Latinx community. Los Angeles-based artist Diana Yesenio Alvarado slyly remixes symbols familiar from popular culture, like clowns and Disney characters, to explore the sometimes contradictory depths of human experiences, particularly in her hometown of East L.A. Iraqi-American artist Maryam Yousif’s Puabi Palms Pot playfully imagines a figure of ancient history, Queen Puabi of Sumer, as a famous modern-day pop star whose visage graces ceramic vessels festooned with iconography of the Middle Eastern landscape.

Besides the ceramic works, the exhibition also features a video installation from Colombian-American artist Natalia Arbalaez, as well as a two-dimensional painted work from Mexican-American artist Yvette Mayorga, which also incorporate the history and uses of ceramics, both traditionally and experimentally.

This is the second exhibition from this year’s 2020 Curatorial Fellowship recipients. Each year, the Curatorial Fellowship recognizes up-and-coming curators working at the cutting edge of craft. Three recipients organize shows at the Center for Craft as part of the Center’s larger conversation around craft and its evolution. Learn more at centerforcraft.org.

2020 A YEAR OF COVID, TURMOIL, UNCERTAINTIES, HEROES & HOPE

The year 2020 for better or worse will go down in American history as a pivotal moment. It has been often said that history is written for and by the victors.

But nowadays in a world overwhelmed with 2-second tweets, forgettable social media, conspiracy theories and online rages; modern history seems to be written by the distracted, the delusional and the destructive.

Mountain Made, a local arts & crafts boutique in Grove Arcade, is taking a different approach. We are creating a public history journal of poetry, personal musing, thoughtful insights and yes, rants on “The Year 2020”. They could be funny or serious.

We have setup two interactive art stations inside the gallery:

* The first one is where you can quickly put down your thoughts on some blank paper (the original “i-pad”) and leave it with us.

* The other is a shared, public painting series where you can lay brush to canvas if you are more a visual person.

COVID-19 Visiting Policy

Masks are required when entering the museum. This is for the safety of our visitors and our docents. Exceptions will be made according to ADA instructions. Visitors must make a reservation to visit the museum. Self Guided tour reservations are available Thursday – Saturday from 10am – 5pm. To make a reservation you can call (828) 669- 9566, register at the front desk, or click here. 

ACCESSIBILITY
The first floor houses our traveling exhibit gallery and our second floor houses “Our Pathways” exhibit.  The first and second floor are accessible by ADA standards.  A lift is available to take visitors to the second floor.

James D. & Judith S. Moore have been collecting studio glass from Western North Carolina for the past 40 years. In honor of our reopening, the Moores have generously donated or promised much of their stunning collection to the Museum. This inaugural exhibition in the Judith S. Moore Gallery highlights the beauty of their collection and illustrates the depth with which they have collected certain foundational artists in the Studio Glass Movement.

50 Years of Western North Carolina Glass is organized by the Asheville Art Museum. This exhibition is supported in part by the Judy Appleton Memorial Fund.

Beginning October 7, the three-hour documentary-styled art installation Question Bridge: Black Males will be on view at the Asheville Art Museum. This innovative transmedia project facilitates a dialogue between Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds, and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine Black male identity in America. The work will be on view during regular public hours from October 7, 2020 through March 15, 2021.

Question Bridge: Black Males is a project that explores critically challenging issues within the African American male community by instigating a transmedia conversation among Black men across geographic, economic, generational, educational, and social strata of American society. Question Bridge provides a safe setting for necessary, honest expression and healing dialogue on themes that divide, unite, and puzzle Black males today in the United States.

Adonna Khare, Pool Party, 2015, carbon pencil on paper, 6 × 20 feet. Collection of the Artist. © Adonna Khare, image Phil Hatten.

An exhibition highlighting the works of John James Audubon juxtaposed with the work of 21st-century artists who continue his tradition of animal allegories and metaphors is currently on view at the Asheville Art Museum. The exhibition features more than 40 works and will be on display in the Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall through November 30.

Best of all, Porch Portraits by Suzanne will donate $15 of every session to our great friends at Flat Rock Playhouse. My goal is to raise $15,000 for the Playhouse by the end of the year so any money over and above the price of $65 will go straight to them.

Perhaps most exciting, an extremely generous Playhouse donor has agreed to a MATCHING GIFT CAMPAIGN up to $36,000.18! This incredibly generous donation draws on the magic of Chai, the Jewish belief that multiples of 18 bring good luck. Meaning that every session booked will result in at least $30 for the wonderful folks at Flat Rock Playhouse.

For decades, Flat Rock Playhouse has been opening their collective hearts and sharing their fabulous talents to bring joy and entertainment to western North Carolina. This is an opportunity to show our gratitude at a time when they really need our support.

Together, let’s make magic happen! Help us kick off this campaign by contributing today.

Yet another reason to love fall in WNC! The front window display of Woolworth Walk will come alive with wildlife as imagined by 17 local artists. Mark your calendars and visit Woolworth Walk in October to purchase your favorite, these works are sure to sell out fast! Not only will you go home with a beautiful piece of art, but you will be supporting the wild ones and the mission of Appalachian Wildlife Refuge!

Virtual Visits for Students

Groups of pre-K–12 students are invited to schedule an interactive Virtual Visit to the Museum! Led by volunteer docents with Museum staff, our inquiry-based, conversational Virtual Visits introduce the Museum’s galleries with a 3D tour and challenge students to hone their observation skills. All pre-K–12 Virtual Visits make connections to the NC Standard Course of Study.

Virtual Visits for pre-K–12 groups are $50 for 5–25 participants from one or multiple devices through Zoom or Google Meet. Virtual Visits are available Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, and last 30–45 minutes. At least two weeks’ advanced notice is required.

For more information about Virtual Visits for adults, college, and university students, click here. For Virtual Visits for family and friend groups with children, click here.