River’s End Restaurant is an iconic spot for locals and visitors to Bryson City. Enjoy spectacular views of the gorge, with paddlers passing through as they complete their Nantahala River Rafting trip. Stop in for year-round lunch and dinner, with weekend brunch during the summer season, and choose from a wide range of appetizing entrees, burgers, salads, pizza, and sandwiches. Hang out for a while and enjoy a large selection of signature cocktails, wine, and beer, including local favorites.

In River’s End Restaurant, every seat has a view of the river! Enjoy music by the river and views of paddlers passing through as they complete their Nantahala River Rafting trip. Join our waitlist online to reserve a table or order online and grab your meal to go, for a sunny lunch right by the river!

Looking for a way to give back and support our mission of eliminating racism and empowering women? The YWCA is looking for volunteers. If you have a few hours here and there or would like a regular volunteer gig, we could use your help. Please follow this link to see our current openings or email our volunteer coordinator to discuss alternate opportunities.

Included with admission

Our fun-for-all-ages botanical model train displays invite you to experience our grounds in an engaging new way. Located in the Conservatory in the Walled Garden, the displays feature replicas of structures connected with Biltmore and its founder George Vanderbilt. Each beautifully executed piece was handcrafted from such natural elements as leaves, bark, and twigs.

In compliance with state and local mandates related to COVID-19, all guests must enter the Conservatory via the ADA entrance in the back and follow a one-way route.

Included with admission

A unique-to-Biltmore, large-scale outdoor sculpture will be crafted and installed in Antler Hill Village this spring by Patrick Dougherty. Over the last three decades, this internationally-acclaimed artist has combined his carpentry skills and love of nature to build over 300 of these wondrous works, captivating the hearts and imaginations of viewers worldwide.

Image: Close Ties (2006) Scottish Basketmakers Circle, Dingwall, Scotland. Photo: Fin Macrae
NOTE: This is an example of Patrick Dougherty’s work; the artist will create Biltmore’s unique structure in Antler Hill Village this spring.

Summer at Biltmore offers an abundance of opportunities to explore our 8,000-acre Blue Ridge Mountain backyard and create the kind of memories that last a lifetime. Wander through historic gardens, along winding trails, and within the spacious halls of America’s Largest Home^®. Enjoy extraordinary experiences and peace of mind in one spectacular setting: only at Biltmore.

DESCRIPTION

2021 West Fork, Tuckasegee River scheduled releases are brought to you by our friends at American Whitewater. Nantahala Outdoor Center is a proud sponsor of American Whitewater’s work to protect and restore river’s across the country- Learn more about becoming an American Whitewater member here.

The West Fork of the Tuck is 5.5 miles of class III- IV+ whitewater, from Thorpe Dam to Thorpe Powerhouse. From slides to boulder gardens, this section of the Tuckasegee River offers a wide variety of fun challenges for advanced paddlers.

Hendersonville yoga studio, YAM, is offering free outdoor yoga at The Park at Flat Rock on Thursdays and Saturdays. Get outside and get moving with these fun and refreshing classes. Click to learn more about YAM’s community yoga.

After a 17-year absence, the Historic Montford Garden Tour returns to Asheville  the Montford Neighborhood Association announced today.

A regional favorite, this year’s event features 12 gardens with a variety of distinct landscapes that grace some homes more than 120 years old and others more recently built.  The all-day tour also includes some of the area’s most coveted musicians, who will play a range of bluegrass, jazz, folk and classical styles in live two-hour concerts in various gardens.

Tickets, priced at $25, are on sale now online at the event’s website, and also available in-person (cash or check only) at the Asheville Visitor Center, 36 Montford Ave., beginning May 21 until sold out.  Children under 12 are admitted free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.  Proceeds raised will help fund community initiatives in Montford.

Music is a big part of the Montford and Asheville culture, so adding local musicians to the mix was only appropriate.  Playing at varying times throughout the day on the porches, decks and patios of many of the gardens on the tour, the all-star lineup includes:

–Local legend Kat Williams, whose extraordinary singing repertoire ranges from jazz, blues, Motown, R&B and pop

–Vocalist and harmonica player Kip Veno and guitarist/vocalist Erich Hubner of always-fun Pleasure Chest

–The Asheville Music School’s Fiddle Squad, a gifted group of music students of various ages.

–Master fiddler Liam Thomas Bailey, a Berklee College of Music graduate and singer/founder of the Americana/World band, Two Bird Stone.  Bailey will also play banjo

–The Cafe´ String Quartet, which performs primarily classical music.

–Singer-songwriter Emily Martin with Wilder Lore, who plays lap steel, flute, guitar and sings harmonies

–In Flight, as guitar-and-piano duo featuring Bryce Robertson and Ian Taylor

–Guitarist John Logue, a jazz, classical and country music veteran

–Pianist Jason DeCristofaro and bassist Kevin Kehrberg, both faculty members of Warren Wilson College who play jazz classics and tunes from the American Songbook

–Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kylie Irvin, a jazz and folk specialist

–MAR, an instructor at the Asheville Music School and folk acoustic guitarist from Peru with a wide repertoire

–Cat Dragons, composed of Don Lewis (Sons of Ralph), Craig Kellberg (Firecracker Jazz Band) and Ben Scales, director of the Montford Music and Arts Festival

In addition, a silent auction will be held for a commemorative oil painting by Montford resident Mandy Kjellstrom at the artist’s own garden.  Kjellstrom, who has studied painting with Chris DiDomezio while living in Atlanta and taken painting trips to France and the Scottish island of Iona, continues to hone her skills with guidance from leading NC landscape artist, John Mac Kah.

Her original framed 18 by 24-inch oil painting, entitled June in Montford, will be available for silent auction on her front porch during the Garden Tour.  Commemorative note cards and posters featuring a reproduction of the painting will also be available in May for purchase on the tour website and the Asheville Visitor Center.

Community-minded business who are underwriting this year’s Garden Tour include garden sponsors Gretchen Lewis of Town and Mountain Realty, The Broadway and Caley Bowman of My Mosaic Realty; musician sponsors Bionic Man Painting Co. and Frugal Framer; promotional sponsors Lili and Joe Breiter of Beverly-Hanks Realtors, Jesse Israel & Sons Nursery & Garden Center, writer Nan K. Chase, Gardenology, Mantis Gardens, Susan Rhew Design, Reems Creek Nursery, Carol L. King & Associates; media sponsors Blue Ridge Public Radio and Montford & North Asheville Neighbors; and artist sponsor Mandy Kjellstrom.

On the day of the tour, attendees must bring confirmation of their purchase to the Asheville Visitor Center to pick up a tour guide that will also serve as your ticket to enter the gardens.  Check-in at the Visitor Center will begin at 9:30 a.m.  All patrons are required to follow COVID public health protocol, including wearing a mask and maintaining six-feet social distancing.

Looking to get involved, stay active, and meet some new friends? Sand Hill Community Garden workdays take place on Wednesdays (6-8 p.m.) and Saturdays (10 a.m.-noon) from Feb. 27-Oct. 30, 2021, at Buncombe County Sports Park. The garden is located on 16 Apac Dr. in West Asheville/Enka-Candler.

Join friends and neighbors as they come together on common ground to raise fresh, organic vegetables and fruits for the Enka community.

Expect to wear a mask and maintain social distance throughout. Tools and hand sanitizer are available, but any gloves, loppers, pruners, or gardening tools you can bring will decrease the amount of contact between volunteers. Please wear work clothes to get dirty and closed-toe shoes. Sunscreen, water, and a hat are also handy items to have on hand.

Sand Hill Community Garden has been growing fresh produce since 2011 and raised over 1,200 lbs. of organic produce last year.

NOTE: Community workdays are weather dependent. Please join the community garden email list (send your info to [email protected]) to stay up on workday tasks and other garden news.

To receive the I Heart Parks monthly newsletter, sign up online. Follow Buncombe County Recreation on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.

“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.

Featuring more than 40 paintings and works on paper, Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom examines the career evolution of modern painter Beauford Delaney (Knoxville, TN 1901–1979 Paris, France) within the context of his 38-year friendship with writer James Baldwin. The works in this exhibition bring into special focus Delaney’s intensified experiments with abstraction sparked by the artist’s 1955 move to the Paris suburb of Clamart, as well as the ways that the artist and Baldwin’s ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview from their first meeting in 1940 until Delaney’s death in 1979. This exhibition also calls attention to Baldwin’s role as “witness” to the painter’s evolution, which he deemed “one of the most extraordinary personal and artistic journeys of our time.”

The Asheville Art Museum announces Meeting the Moon, an exhibition featuring prints, photographs, ceramics, sculptures, and more from the Museum’s Collection. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s McClinton Gallery February 3 through July 26, 2021.

2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Apollo space program at NASA, but its inception was hardly the beginning of humankind’s fascination with Earth’s only moon. Before space travel existed, the moon—its shape, its mystery, and the face we see in it—inspired countless artists. Once astronauts landed on the moon and we saw our world from a new perspective, a surge of creativity flooded the American art scene, in paintings, prints, sculpture, music, crafts, film, and poetry.

This exhibition, whose title is taken from a 1913 Robert Frost poem, examines artwork in the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection of artists who were inspired by the unknown, then increasingly familiar moon. Meeting the Moon includes works by nationally renowned artists Newcomb Pottery, James Rosenquist, Maltby Sykes, Paul Soldner, John Lewis, Richard Ritter (Bakersville, NC), and Mark Peiser (Penland, NC). Western North Carolina artists include Jane Peiser (Penland, NC), Jak Brewer (Zionville, NC), Dirck Cruser (Asheville, NC), George Peterson (Lake Toxaway, NC), John B. Neff (NC), and Maud Gatewood (Yanceyville, NC).

“Meeting the Moon offers the opportunity to combine science and popular culture with works of art in the Museum’s Collection,” says Whitney Richardson, associate curator. “I think all visitors will find something that draws them into this exhibition, whether it’s the artwork, poetry, music, or science of space travel. It’s such an affirmation of humanity to find these mysteries, like the moon, which enchant us all.”

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Whitney Richardson, associate curator. Visit ashevilleart.org for more information about this and other exhibitions.

11am–6pm. Late-night Thursdays until 9pm; closed Tuesdays.

Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Lands presents works drawn from the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection by artists looking both regionally and nationally at lands that are either state or federally managed or have become so. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery May 19 through August 30, 2021. 

“The Asheville Art Museum’s growing collection of photography features a variety of artworks that consider humankind’s impact on our environment and world,” said Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator. “The imagery featured in Public Domain reminds us of the critical role that artists play in environmental activism and preservation, affecting change at a range of levels”. 

Through images capturing the beauty, changes, and even devastation to the American landscape, photographers have played a vital role in advocating for the preservation of nature via the establishment and maintenance of state parks, national parks and monuments, and other federally protected lands. From George Masa and Timothy McCoy’s photographs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park to a selection of works from Robert Glenn Ketchum’s Overlooked in America: The Success and Failure of Federal Land Management series, these artworks provoke contemplation of both nature’s beauty and a calling to protect it. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Bureau of Land Management whose mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. 

Photographers include Robert Glenn Ketchum, George Masa, Timothy McCoy, Benjamin Porter, Sally Gall, and more. 

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator. 

KEY FACTS: 

• In the past few days, hospital partners are reporting they are using blood at a much higher rate than normal. When demand is high, and the supply is critically low – that is a dangerous equation for the community.
• Because of the critically low supply, The Blood Connection (TBC) is now having to back-order blood products. This has affected 12 hospital partners so far.
• 48% of days this month, TBC DID NOT collect enough blood to cover hospitals’ needs. For comparison, in May of 2020 (during the pandemic) TBC collected enough to cover those needs 84% of the days.
• There is a high likelihood that TBC will have to start rationing blood by the end of the weekend.
• Heading into a holiday weekend – hospitals are stocking up their blood supply. TBC has already not been able to provide those products.
• The community is the ONLY solution to this dangerous problem. The blood supply for local hospitals is in the community’s hands. 

This insider excursion provides you with tips and local secrets about the best way to do Asheville on a budget! You will have a better understanding of how Asheville became the unique, quirky city you see now and learn everything we are doing to “Keep Asheville Weird.” This is the only walking tour provided that allows you to choose how much you think a walking tour is worth and pay whatever you like. We will follow the urban trail, stop along the way for some free honey tastings and finish the tour with some special beer tastings at one of the best local breweries in South Slope! At the brewery, you will also be able to participate in a free raffle where you receive gifts donated from local businesses like free salsa classes, local theatre performances, books and more! I want you to know and love my city as much as I do and I am excited to share this experience with you!

Pay what you want at the end!