Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Are you ready to get your camp on? Buncombe County Recreation Services is hosting a Campout at Lake Julian Park on Saturday, June 25. This annual event is part of the Great American Campout and is a great way for families, friends, and youth groups to come together and connect with nature for a fun and memorable night sleeping under the stars. “There is no better way to inspire a lifelong appreciation of and relationship with nature than to spend a night outdoors beneath the stars,” says Recreation Services’ Mac Stanley. “Camping is traditionally part of the summertime experience for many families but can get overlooked in these days of indoor childhood. We’re thrilled to provide an experience for all generations to connect with the natural world and one another.”
Campout details
While Lake Julian Park does not usually allow overnight camping, for one night the park will serve as an inspiring location for this nocturnal event. No prior camping experience is required as the event is designed as a low-frill backyard campout. Attendees should bring their own tents and sleeping bags. Campers can participate in a handful of planned activities including demonstrations by Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards and REI Outdoor & Sporting Goods, a birding excursion (Sunday morning), a traditional campfire with some singalongs, and – of course – s’mores. Also, participants may try out some products provided by our friends over at ENO. Recreation Services will provide dinner on Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning for participants. Campsites will be available at 1 p.m. on Saturday with on-site check-in at 1:30 p.m. Campers should be packed up by 1 p.m. on Sunday. The cost is $20 per person, please see the link below for tickets and reservations:
Throughout the summer of 2022, ASAP will present a series of on-farm symposiums for healthcare professionals in Western North Carolina to highlight the principles of Farm Fresh for Health. Farm Fresh for Health addresses the real and perceived barriers that influence what we eat and determine health outcomes. ASAP and community partners are using strategies and initiatives built around:
- Produce Prescriptions
- Nutrition Security
- Workplace Wellness
- Wrap-Around Clinical Health Services
- Cooking Classes
- Farm to School
- Social Determinants of Health
Each symposium will introduce key strategies and highlight examples from ASAP and the community, including projects from ASAP’s Community in Action initiative. Attendees will take part in farm tours, hands-on activities, and facilitated discussion about how they can use Farm Fresh for Health tools in their own practices to improve health outcomes. A seasonally focused farm-to-table meal (lunch or dinner) will be provided by a local food partner. Space is limited at each symposium. A $20 registration fee offsets the cost of meals and materials.
LUNCH
Catered by Mary-Martin Steele, a former employee of Winding Stair and now the owner of Mary-Martin Meals.
TOPICS
Connecting local food to wrap-around clinical health services, creating social healthy food environments in the community, nutrition security, farm to school
PRESENTERS
Stacy Bredendieck is the co-owner of Winding Stair Farm & Nursery. Winding Stair Farm & Nursery offers a wide variety of Certified Naturally Grown vegetables through CSAs, retail store, and markets. A trailblazer for food security, the farm also proudly accepts SNAP/EBT and funds a SNAP match program.
Former owners of a farm-to-table cafe, Hannah and Alan Edwards opened Yonder Community Market in hopes of keeping traditional products, small farming businesses, and a culture of community care thriving in Macon County. The market stocks a huge selection of fresh, local, and regional foods and handmade goods. In addition, Yonder provides a community gathering space through events and classes.
Formerly the market manager for Jackson County Farmers Market, Lisa McBride founded WNC Farm to Table in order to provide healthy, local food at below retail prices for residents of Jackson County, while continuing to pay producers at market value. WNC Farm to Table plans to extend its reach to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the near future.
Jennifer Trippe, director of ASAP’s Growing Minds Farm to School program, is a Registered Dietitian with nearly two decades of experience working to improve the health and well-being of the Western North Carolina community. She has worked at MANNA FoodBank, Food Connections, and as a WIC Nutritionist and Diabetes Educator.
Molly Nicholie is the executive director of ASAP and has been part of the organization for 17 years. Prior to her current role, she served as director of ASAP’s Local Food Campaign and as a program coordinator for Growing Minds.
David Smiley is the program manager of ASAP’s Local Food Campaign. During the pandemic, he developed and implemented ASAP’s Appalachian Farms Feeding Families program, which connected farms with feeding sites across the region.
Featured Artists: Jude Stuecker (fiber) Erica Bailey (jewelry) Mary Dashiell (clay) Steve Miller (wood) Rex Redd (clay)
Join Asheville GreenWorks and Connect Buncombe for a cleanup of Hominy Creek! We’re so excited for a day of our favorite things! We’re meeting up at the beach at French Broad Outfitters to clean up one of our favorite waterways AND our beloved Hominy Creek Trash Trout. There will be an option to work along Hominy Creek Road if you do not want to get wet. All supplies will be provided.
Did you know that Buncombe County Special Collections collects, preserves, and provides access not only to photos, documents, books, and letters but also to audiovisual materials such as event recordings and oral history interviews? In order to increase access to these materials, BCSC has been hard at work digitizing audiocassettes, migrating CDs/DVDs, and uploading digitized or born-digital recordings to a dedicated page on the Internet Archive.
Volunteers are needed to make sure that these resources are transcribed so that researchers can more easily find and search for the topics they need. Contact BCSC to learn how you can help by transcribing interviews from home!
Join Naturalist Scott Dean for an immersive nature walk along the trails of the Arboretum forest to explore the natural world as it thrives in summer. Flowers and trees are blooming and critters are out and about and providing participants the opportunity to observe and discuss nature in its prime. Scott brings over 25 years of guiding wildflower hikes in Western North Carolina. His wisdom, stories and folklore about our native flora are wildly entertaining as well as educational.
The “Kazegama Women” participating in this exhibit are Sarah Wells Rolland, Lori Theriault, Julia Mann, Katie Meili Messersmith, Judi Harwood, Christine Henry, Ruth Fischer Rutkowsky, Lindsey Mudge, and Karen Dubois. Our invited guest is potter Jim McDowell.
Kazegama means ‘Wind’ in Japanese, and the Kazegama kiln is an alternative to the traditional woodfire kilns. The kiln is fired with propane or natural gas, and introduction of wood ash and soda ash creates a strong atmospheric aesthetic. Many of the traditions of woodfire are followed: pots are wadded, side-stacked and/or tumble stacked for optimum ash results, and the wood ash and soda ash are sprayed into the kiln at 2300 degrees to create a magic result you would never know was not fired in a more traditional kiln. It really has to be seen to be believed!
The special exhibit will open the week of the Pre-Fire Conference and will remain up through June and is open to the public daily from 10am-5pm.
“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.
RiverLink is honored to be the beneficiary of the community giving program at High Five Coffee in June and July! Stop by for a beverage and add a $5 donation at the register—100% of your gift goes to RiverLink! In addition, 10% of branded merchandise sales will support our efforts to restore the French Broad. Three locations to serve you: 13 Rankin Ave., 190 Broadway St., or (our favorite) the 2000 Riverside Drive location in Woodfin, offering coffee drinks, pastries and smoothies plus outdoor seating and walking trails on the bank of the river. Now that’s a coffee stop!
Of course, you can always donate directly from this newsletter. Thank you for considering a gift today!
Simpson is an imaginist who has worked in nearly every medium, including woodworking, painting, printmaking, ceramics, bookmaking, jewelry, and writing. Whether it’s a painting or sculptural object, in each of Simpson’s works there is an identifiable style that puzzles together the artist’s personal and cultural references into a signature blend of joyfulness and subtle commentary. On describing Simpson’s sensibility, Karen S. Chambers comments, “It’s whimsical and wry, naive yet saavy, inteligent but not cerebral.” Edward S. Cooke, Jr. (Yale University) wrote, “Simpson is simply a maker who deftly blends utility, memory, irony, and spirituality in his accomplishments. Fundemental to his life has been a conviction that ‘art can be meaningful and still give joy.’ He makes faciful, whimsical objects that incorporate verbal and visual puns and probe the meanings of cultural icons, but undertakes such commentary wthin comfortable settings. His works possess an engaging tension that employs friendly humor or familiar details and conventions to inspire long-lasting thoughtfulness.”
The collection presented at Momentum spans the past 30 years, and focuses on Simpson’s sculptural furniture including cabinets, clocks, and benches, paintings, whimsical wood sculptures, pottery, and works on paper. Tommy Simpson’s work is included in numerous public collections including the Renwick Gallery and the American Art Museum at the Smithsonian Institute, DC; and the Museum of Art and Design, NY.
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Jessie B. Telfair, Freedom Quilt, 1983, cotton with pencil, 74 × 68 inches. Collection American Folk Art Museum, NY, gift of Judith Alexander in loving memory of her sister, Rebecca Alexander, 2004.9.1. © Estate of Jessie. B. Telfair, image Gavin Ashworth.
American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection showcases over 80 stellar works of folk and self-taught art including assemblages, needlework, paintings, pottery, quilts, and sculpture. Organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York, this exhibition will be on view in the Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall at the Asheville Art Museum from June 18 through September 5, 2022. Everyone has stories to tell from both the private and mutual experiences encountered throughout their lifetime. American folk and self-taught artists capture these stories in powerful visual narratives that offer firsthand testimonies to chapters in the unfolding story of America from its inception to the present. Beautiful, diverse, and truthful; the art illuminates the thoughts and experiences of individuals with an immediacy that is palpable and unique to these expressions. These artworks held meaning in the makers’ worlds filtered through their own perceptions.
The artworks are organized into four sections—Founders, Travelers, Philosophers, and Seekers—that respond to such themes as nationhood, freedom, community, imagination, opportunity, and legacy. Evocative visual juxtapositions and accessible contextual information further reveal the vital role that folk art plays as a witness to history, carrier of cultural heritage, and a reflection of the world at large through the eyes, heart, and mind of the artist.
“While the Asheville Art Museum exhibits many folk and self-taught artists, most are local to the Southeast,” says Whitney Richardson, associate curator. “American Perspectives adds a national voice to the conversation by adding New England, Midwestern, Southwestern, and West Coast artworks that the Museum could never achieve alone. The amount of creative output from folk and self-taught artists was (and still is) on a national level and this exhibition helps to put that into a clear context. Traveling to Asheville from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, this exhibition will complement and expand the Museum’s ongoing conversations around American history and storytelling through works of art.”
This exhibition has been organized by the American Folk Art Museum, NY, with support provided by Art Bridges. Originally curated for installation at the American Folk Art Museum February 11, 2020–January 3, 2021 by Stacy C. Hollander, independent curator. Tour coordinated by Emelie Gevalt, Curator of Folk Art and Curatorial Chair for Collections, the American Folk Art Museum.
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| Draped and Veiled: 20×24 Polaroid Photographs by Joyce Tenneson showcases Joyce Tenneson’s Transformations series, which she began in 1985 and engaged with through 2005. Transformations features partially or fully nude figures poetically presented; Tenneson’s photographs have always been interested in the magic of the human figure, contained within bodies of all ages and emotions in a broad range that are both vulnerable and bold. This exhibition features 12 large Polaroids from the poetic series. Draped and Veiled will be on view May 25–October 10, 2022. |
Join us for one hour of foraging followed by a cooking class using local findings mixed in with additional items to create a unique meal. Suitable for kids and adults.
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| 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.
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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.
French Broad River Park: Go to the parking lot off of Riverview Drive, which is off of Amboy Rd. Find the cobalt blue canopy tent!
We will be as close to as directly across the parking lot as we can, near the water, with the tent (go past the bathrooms and head to the water). So, you should be able to find us pretty easily if it’s your first time).
We’ll enjoy meditations/visualizations, psychic ability empowerment, chakra activations, and lively discussions about how we can participate in the evolution of the new earth… a world where truth and the ethos of love (e.g.: Law of One) are the guiding forces.
All who are interested in spiritual growth and evolution and getting to know others who are “on their wavelength” are welcome.
NOTE: Bring a chair, pillow, or towel to sit on, an open mind, and energies of love, receptivity, and curiosity.
We look forward to meeting you!
Regal provides a safe space for children to experience summer movies with the lights turned up and the volume turned down. Enjoy singing, crying, dancing, walking around, talking or shouting while watching Lightyear. Saturday, June 25 at 1 p.m. & Tuesday, June 28 at 1 p.m. Buy tickets today!
$125.00 per person
Limited seating. A $50 deposit is required at time of reservation. All final payments & reservations are due by May 15th.
Be sure to print and save your receipt, it will serve as your ticket.
Have you been trying to start or re-start a journaling practice but can’t seem to get motivated? The issue may be your journal! If you’re using an ordinary, off-the-shelf book, it’s no wonder you’re not inspired. In this NEW workshop, you’ll learn how to turn an old or damaged book into a one-of-a-kind keepsake that you won’t be able to resist filling with your art or thoughts!
The uber-talented Amanda Smith will teach you everything you need to know about the process. She’ll start by explaining how to select an appropriate book to upcycle. Then, using an old hardcopy Reader’s Digest, you’ll learn how to prepare a book by gutting it and reinforcing the spine. Next, Amanda will show you how to create pages for your book and hand-stitch them into the spine. Finally, she’ll suggest ways to use your new journal, including ideas you may not have thought of.
You’ll leave the class with a beautiful 7-3/4” x 5-1/2” journal and a basic bookbinding kit so you can make additional journals at home.
No previous bookbinding experience necessary.
Hosted by: The Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/daily-meditation/
When his husband dies, Remy Washington, a Black man, finds himself both the owner of a drive-in movie theater and a caregiver to his late husband’s straight, white teenage son, Peter, who goes by “Pup”. United by their love of classic American monster movies, the two have developed a warm and caring familial chemistry – but their relationship fractures when Remy discovers Pup and his friends have been bullying a gay teen at his school. Told through dueting monologue and playful dialogue, “Monsters of the
American Cinema” is a haunting and humorous tale about fathers and sons, ghosts, and the monsters we battle in the world and within ourselves.
Proud Mary Theatre Company presents the Upstate premiere of the bold new musical comedy Head Over Heels by The Go-Go’s, the Musical Comedy of the Summer for seven performances only June 24-July 2, 2022.
This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980’s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s (2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee), including the hit songs, “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” “Head Over Heels,” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and “Mad About You.”
Take a bus ride to heaven in C.S. Lewis’ imaginative The Great Divorce!
C.S. Lewis’ mesmerizing fantasy about heaven, hell and the choice between them comes to life with Lewis’ signature wit, amazing actors and dazzling, state-of-the-art stagecraft!
Lewis’ brilliantly drawn characters take a fantastical bus trip from hell to the outskirts of paradise. Each receives an opportunity to stay . . . or return to hell, forever divorced from heaven. The choice proves more challenging than imagined.
A 90-minute theatrical joyride filled with C.S. Lewis’ wit and wisdom!
Saturday, June 25th at 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 26th at 3:00 PM
Tickets $49 – $75
Premium $99 (best seats in the house)
$30 under 30 – if you are under 30 show ID at box office.
BIG SAVINGS for groups of 10 or more:
Email [email protected]
Take a bus ride to heaven in C.S. Lewis’ imaginative The Great Divorce!
C.S. Lewis’ mesmerizing fantasy about heaven, hell and the choice between them comes to life with Lewis’ signature wit, amazing actors and dazzling, state-of-the-art stagecraft!
Lewis’ brilliantly drawn characters take a fantastical bus trip from hell to the outskirts of paradise. Each receives an opportunity to stay . . . or return to hell, forever divorced from heaven. The choice proves more challenging than imagined.
A 90-minute theatrical joyride filled with C.S. Lewis’ wit and wisdom!
Get Involved with FEED ME!
FEED ME! is a fun opportunity to meet the apprentices and interns who come to study under the staff of Flat Rock Playhouse. On days that there are both afternoon and evening performances they are very busy between the shows and have little time to eat dinner.
This is where you come in!
FEED ME! volunteers select date(s) they would be willing to provide dinner in the Dan Dee Gift Shop and Dining Hall on the Playhouse property. A second-year Apprentice will be there to help you set up.