Artists are invited to create artworks with the theme of “Red, White and Blue.“  Apply these patriotic colors at the center of your subjects, however there are no limits to your creativity, your artworks don’t need to be primarily patriotic theme, but viewers should be able to spot the use of recognizable amount of red, white and blue colors.

A morning tour on select Wednesdays and Fridays going to 2 studios – which will always include 1 private glass studio and 1 art studio in a different medium (such as pottery, fiber, books, sculpture, etc).  These will be pre-arranged studio visits – not customized with the participant. Time frame: 9:30a to 12 ~ 12:15p.

Inspired by the Chihuly at Biltmore glass exhibit, this new tour will give participants a chance to meet a local glass artist along with another professional artist in a different medium.  Glass studios included will feature: cast glass, blown glass or cold formed glass.  Glass artists will be one of the following:  Alex Bernstein, Carl Powell, Brad Smith, Robert Stephan or Hayden Wilson.

Dates for the first half of the year are: April 5, 10, 19; May 8, 17, 22; June 12, 14, 21, 26; July 5, 10, 19, 24, 26.

AND If you are a glass collector, or have special interest in meeting more of the regions incredible glass artists, private customized tours are available to book.

Located on the second floor until September 18th, the show continues the historical relationship between the Southern Highland Craft Guild and Haywood, an educational center of the Guild. This new generation of craft is led by instructors Amy Putansu in fiber, Brian Wurst in wood, Emily Reason in clay, and Robert Blanton in metals & jewelry. Students of the Haywood program come from all over, with or without prior experience of craft, and sometimes pursuing it as a second or third career. The course of study is challenging, combining craft concentrations with supplemental classes in design, drawing, craft history, business, marketing and photography.

Haywood Community College and the Southern Highland Craft Guild share a history that documents the role of craft education in preserving traditional culture, creating economic opportunity and fostering professional practice. All of the artists represent the vitality and creativity of craft practice today, which is the ultimate purpose of both institutions. Many Haywood graduates have become individual members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and have served the Guild in various capacities.

Instructor Brian Wurst of the Professional Crafts Wood program says, “Our programs have thrived for nearly five decades, and our relationship with the Craft Guild has been a key part of that. We’re always thrilled to have work showcased at the Folk Art Center, and in turn scores of our alumni have gone on to become active Guild members. The Graduate Show is the capstone of two hard years by these students, and it’s a delight to share it in this beautiful space.”

Haywood Community College is located in Clyde, North Carolina, just west of Asheville. The college’s Professional Crafts Program began in recognition of the region’s strong craft heritage. It was envisioned that students would learn the basics of craft media and how to transform that craft into a business. The clay studio was the first to open in 1974. With the addition of jewelry, wood and fiber studios, a comprehensive curriculum was in place by 1977.

Anyone interested in taking courses at Haywood Community College can contact the success coach, Farrah Rodriguez [email protected] 828.627.4505.

The Haywood Community College Professional Crafts Program, Graduate Show, Class of 2024 is a free exhibit at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in East Asheville. For more information, visit www.craftguild.org or call 828-523-4110. For more information about the Professional Crafts Program, call 828-627-4674 or visit creativearts.haywood.edu.

Focus Gallery Exhibition featuring five members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, located upstairs at the Folk Art Center. May 24-August 19, 2024.

Featured Artists:

1. Billy Bernstein  – glass
2. Christine Smith – wood
3. Tamela Wells – jewelry
4. Robert Milnes – clay
5. Pam Grainger Gale – fiber

The Focus Gallery is located on the second level of the Folk Art Center. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north of the Highway 70 entrance in east Asheville, NC. Admission is free. Open Daily 10am-5pm. 

This exhibition is hosted by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to cultivate the crafts and makers of the Southern Highlands for shared resources, education, marketing, and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. 

In the early 1900s, travel by train and automobile became more accessible in the United States, leading to an increase in tourism and a revitalized interest in landscape painting. The relative ease of transportation, as well as the creation of National Parks, allowed people to experience the breathtaking landscapes of the United States in new ways. Artists traveled along popular routes, recording the terrain they encountered.

This exhibition explores the sublime natural landscapes of the Smokey Mountains of Western North Carolina and Tennessee. While there were several regional schools of painting around this time, this group is largely from the Midwest and many of the artists trained at the Art Institute of Chicago or in New York City. Through their travels, they captured waterfalls, sunsets, thunderstorms, autumn foliage, lush green summers, and snow-covered mountains—elements that were novel for viewers from cities and rural areas. Though some of these paintings include people, they are usually used for scale and painted with little to no detail, highlighting the magnificence of nature.

Rudolph F. Ingerle, Mirrored Mountain, not dated, oil on canvas, 28 × 32 inches. Courtesy of Allen & Barry Huffman, Asheville Art Museum.

Robert Turner (1913-2005) arrived at Black Mountain College in 1949 to establish the first studio pottery program at the College. He worked with student architect Paul Williams to design the Potshop and stayed until 1951 as a teacher and potter. There he formed lifelong friendships with M.C. Richards, Joe Fiore, and Natasha Goldowski Renner, and was part of the lively mix of art and ideas generated by Clement Greenberg, Katherine Litz, Kenneth Noland, Theodoros Stamos, and many others. Turner’s education prior to his arrival at Black Mountain included Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Barnes Foundation, Penland School of Crafts, and Alfred University.

After Black Mountain, Turner and his family moved to Alfred Station, NY where they bought a farm, and he established a successful studio pottery practice and actively exhibited his work in galleries across the U.S. In 1958 he began teaching pottery and sculpture at Alfred University where he would lead the ceramics program until his retirement in 1979. In addition to his influential teaching position at Alfred, Turner taught at Penland, Haystack, and Anderson Ranch helping a new generation of artists and potters develop their work and establishing his own reputation as a gifted teacher.

Robert Turner’s travels to Africa and to the American Southwest proved to be important life experiences and important to his growth as an artist. Over his lifetime he received many awards for his work, but his humble, gentle demeanor and Quaker background helped keep him centered while also remaining open to exploration and discovery in nature and life.

The exhibition will include work by some of Turner’s students and colleagues at BMC, Alfred University, and Penland as well as work by contemporary ceramic artists whose work fits within the context of the show. Artists include: Meredith Brickell, Cynthia Bringle, Marjorie Dial, Cynthia Homire, Bill C. Jones, Bobby Kaddis, Karen Karnes, Eric Knoche, Jeannine Marchand, Neil Noland, Daniel Rhodes, M.C. Richards, Gay Smith, Tom Spleth, Adele Suska, Lydia C. Thompson, Xavier Toubes, Jerilyn Virden, Peter Voulkos, David Weinrib, and Kensuke Yamáda.

I wanted to work with clay so that the way it moved, the vitality of clay, is not meeting something that’s been on the drawing board. It’s using clay with abstraction to start with and then seeing what it’s going to do, how it will move and change, and always surprise you.

Curated by Alice Sebrell, Director of Preservation

Bender Gallery Artists Featured in Asheville Art Museum Exhibition The New Salon: A Contemporary View The Asheville Art Museum will be opening their exhibit, The New Salon: A Contemporary View, on March 8 and it will run until August 19, 2024. The New Salon offers a modern take on the prestigious tradition of the Parisian Salon with the diversity and innovation of today’s art world. Guest-curated by Gabriel Shaffer, the show will include works from Pop Surrealism, Outsider Art, Street Art, and Graffiti genres.   Bender Gallery has been collaborating with the Asheville Art Museum to loan four paintings from three of our artists. The artists are Laine Bachman, Kukula, and Yui Sakamoto. Be sure to check out this special exhibition in downtown Asheville. Learn More Kukula, Impossible Voyage, oil on board, 48 x 24 inches Kukula (b. 1980, Israel) Nataly Abramovitch, better known in the art world as, Kukula, paints imagined worlds filled with elaborately dressed women in fanciful settings. The artist does extensive research on the layouts of paintings from the Renaissance and Rococo periods. Kukula subverts these images by depicting women characters in place of traditionally male positions and settings. Her characters are powerful, commanding, and have an air of indifference. Available Work Yui Sakamoto, Self Portrait, oil on canvas, 63 x 63 inches Yui Sakamoto (b. 1981, Japan) Our surrealist artist, Yui Sakamoto, will have two paintings featured including My Soul and Self Portrait. Self Portrait is still available from his recent solo exhibition at Bender Gallery. Standing in front of Self Portrait, one is immersed in the dual-worlds of Sakamoto’s Japanese and Mexican cultures. There is a sense of calm reflected in the repeating rose pattern, mixed with the uneasy realization that the coral, fungi, and otherworldly forms are what makeup the figure. Available Work Laine Bachman, Night Bloomers, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches Laine Bachman (b. 1974, USA) Our prolific Magical Realism artist, Laine Bachman, makes a feature in the exhibition with her painting, Night Bloomers. She has been hard at work making 17 new pieces for her solo exhibition at the Canton Art Museum in Canton, Ohio. The Canton show opens on April 28 and continues through to July 28, 2024. Available Work

Downtown on Fridays, discover a delightful assortment of quality handmade goods from skilled makers at Asheville’s weekly street party. The Pack Square Artisan Market is produced by Places For Makers, an Asheville, NC based non-profit organization.

Plan to collaborate with other musicians at Sideways Farm & Brewery in Etowah. Bring your instruments and voices and enjoy making music and networking with other artists, while enjoying the beautiful scenery. Food truck is on site and beverages available for purchase from Sideways (small
batch craft beers, hard jun, ciders, wine, and non alcoholic drinks). Family, fans, friends, and leashed dogs are all welcome!
During winter months enjoy playing under the covered, sheltered, heated porch! And during the summer months enjoy
collaborating in the fields, on the stage, or under the patio

Downtown After 5 has become a staple of Asheville’s cultural calendar, offering residents and visitors alike a chance to experience live music in the heart of our vibrant city. This year, each event is centered around highlighting a nonprofit partner with a theme that celebrates diverse musical genres, food and beverage offerings, local makers, and community initiatives. Each Downtown After 5 event draws an enthusiastic crowd of between 5,000 to 6,000 attendees to North Lexington Avenue, transforming it into a vibrant hub of music, dance, and community.

July 19 | AVL Fest Kickoff
The official kick-off to AVL Fest, in support of Asheville FM, we’re bringing to the stage Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast as headliners, with The Greenliners opening.

August 16 | LEAF Downtown
In collaboration with LEAF Global Arts, we’re excited to bring back LEAF Downtown at Downtown After 5. Tito Puente Jr. will be headlining the event, with the LEAF Kono Band opening.

September 20 | Outdoor Rec Fest
Closing out the series is September’s Outdoor Rec Fest with Riverlink. Featuring headliner Oliver Hazard and opener Paul McDonald. Celebrate Asheville’s outdoor lifestyle by engaging with our outdoor recreation partners and vendors.

Downtown After 5 is more than just a concert series; it’s a community staple that celebrates the diversity and creativity of Asheville. Each event is free to the public, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and partners. Food and beverage vendors will be on-site, with a portion of proceeds supporting the nonprofit partners associated with each event.

The beats of the Friday Night Drum Circle have been rocking Pritchard Park for decades and the circle has become so popular that it is featured in magazines and TV commercials.

The Asheville Downtown Association is thrilled to announce the return of the beloved Pritchard Park Arts and Culture Series, made possible through a generous partnership with the Trina Mullen Foundation, City of Asheville Parks and Recreation, ArtsAVL, and Explore Asheville. This summer series will run from May 28 through August 30, featuring exciting activations every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM.

Drum Circle

The Asheville Downtown Association is proud to facilitate the return of Asheville’s iconic Drum Circle. Feel the rhythm and join the beat as the community comes together for an evening of drumming, dancing, and camaraderie.

Samba This plays Brazilian music at Gauchinho Brazilian Steakhouse this Friday from 6:00 to 8:00pm

The Texas sextet––bandleader and chief lyricist Cleto Cordero, guitarist Reid Dillon, bassist Jonathan Saenz, drummer Jason Albers, fiddle player Wesley Hall, and utility instrumentalist Adam Gallegos––continue to embrace their trademark sound while further pushing into the wild unknown. When it was time to embark on recording a new album, resting on their laurels was simply out of the realm of possibilities.

Following the release of 2019’s critically-acclaimed Homeland Insecurity and their 2016 full-length debut Humble Folks, they’ve been on a healthy trajectory rising through the country ranks. After years of working with Lubbock stalwart Scott Faris in the friendly confines of Amusement Park Studios, Flatland decided a change of scenery was necessary. Despite some hesitation and a mix of emotions, they instantly knew recording at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio A with rising producer Jake Gear was the right move.

Since its release, Welcome To Countryland has garnered critical praise from Rolling Stone, Wall Street Journal, Holler, Whiskey Riff, BrooklynVegan and many other outlets. The band concluded their hugely successful Welcome To Countryland Tour by selling out Billy Bob’s Texas in December 2021, and kicked off 2022 with the release of the Far Out West Sessions. These stripped-down, one-take acoustic performance videos of their 2021 hits recorded on-site in the vast deserts and mountain ranges of Far West Texas were an instant hit with fans, so the band released the tapes on streaming platforms and embarked on the Far Out West Tour.

With tour dates from Seattle to London, festival debuts from C2C to Stagecoach, and coveted support slots with Luke Combs, Eric Church and more, the Far Out West Tour brought Flatland Cavalry to new corners of the globe. As 2022 neared its end they surprise-released the highly anticipated single “Mountain Song” and announced an EP to arrive in the Fall.

With more new music on the horizon, 17 upcoming stadium shows with Luke Combs, and a stacked touring calendar for 2024, Flatland Cavalry is approaching global influence in the Country & Folk music world.

Cabaret

Book by Joe Masteroff

Based on the play by John Van Druten

and Stories by Christopher Isherwood

Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Willkommen to the Kit Kat Klub! A Berlin Nightclub at the end of the 1920s. Hitler’s totalitarian regime and the Nazi Party are on the rise. Be transported back in time and welcome for the first time at Flat Rock Playhouse, Kander and Ebb’s Broadway sensation, Cabaret! Dark and sensual, it will break your heart and lift your spirits more wildly than anything else you’ll see this season.  “Cabaret is one of the great Broadway musicals and musical scores of all time–an exhilarating, harrowing masterpiece.” –Time Out New York

*Adult language and content. Parental discretion is advised.

Brevard Sinfonia
Delta David Gier, conductor
Terrence Wilson, piano

GEORGE GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F
CHARLES IVES Symphony No. 2

Tickets go on sale to the general public on May 1. To receive early access to tickets for this event, become a donor today! Donor presale begins March 25.

America’s favorite blonde, Elle Woods, is ready to prove who’s in charge in this fabulously fun, award-winning musical based on the adored movie. In the ultimate tribute to girl power, Legally Blonde follows Elle’s transformation from the UCLA sorority house to the Harvard halls of justice as she tackles stereotypes and scandal to pursue her dreams. Action-packed and exploding with pink, memorable songs, and dynamic dances – this musical is so much fun, it should be illegal!

The Montford Park Players is pleased to announce auditions for its 52nd  Season: 

Muse of Fire: Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses

Jason Williams, Artistic Director

5/10/2024 5/24/2024   Edward III, directed by Mandy Bean
5/31/2024 6/23/2024   Richard II, directed by Jason Williams
6/28/2024 7/21/2024   Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, directed by Dr. George Brown, Callista Brown and Elizabeth DeVault
7/26/2024 8/25/2024   Henry V, directed by David Doersch
8/30/2024 9/22/2024  Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3, directed by Glenna Grant, Ariel Robinson and Adam Kampouris
9/27/2024 10/27/2024 Richard III, directed by Kristi DeVille

Conveniently located in the heart of the Historic Montford District of Asheville, North Carolina, the Outdoor Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre is easy to get to and accessible from I-240 and I-26. And, it’s just a short drive down Montford Avenue from downtown.

In 2024, Jay Beckenstein and band observe the 50th anniversary of what started as a diversion, something that was just for fun (and twenty-five cents at the door). It began inauspiciously when Beckenstein and a few musician friends in Buffalo NY organized a get together on their shared night off from working in bands that actually made money. It was a simple, humble idea with a name that was likewise simple and humble, “Tuesday Night – Jazz Jam”. Fast forward 50 years and this jazz super group has released over 30 albums, garnering gold and platinum along the way. They’ve played over 10,000 concerts on six continents. Spyro Gyra has maintained its standards of excellence and that has sustained them on the “A list” of live attractions in jazz for 50 years.