Please note: Nature Connects^®: Art with LEGO^® Bricks has been postponed until July; however, the exhibit will have an extended schedule and will be open until November 1. We look forward to seeing you!

The Arboretum is excited to welcome back the widely popular traveling exhibit, Nature Connects^®: Art with LEGO^® Bricks by Sean Kenney. Featuring 14 larger-than-life-size sculptures place created with nearly 500,000 LEGO Bricks, this family-friendly exhibit draws inspiration from the living world and combines art, play and science to create an inspiring intersection of education, entertainment and the environment. New sculptures include a 5-foot tall colorful peacock, giant dragonfly, bonsai tree and more!

See where the cougars and otters sleep overnight, meet black bears that are not commonly on display, learn the ins and outs of what it takes to care for the animals year-round, observe a training session and find out why the animals call Grandfather Mountain home.

Offered on weekends, April – October.

Each day, you can pre-purchase tickets during for a specific time slot, allowing us to maintain safety and limit the number of people at the maze at once.

Time slots to choose from:

• 9-11am
• 11:30am-1:30pm
• 2-4pm
• 4:30-6:30pm

• General Safety Guidelines

  • Masks must be worn at all times, except for children under the age of four years old.
  • Maintain social distancing with those outside your family.
  • There will be a maximum number of attendees at the event at a time. Attendees will register and pre-purchase tickets. You will be able to select the 2-hour block of time you want to attend with your family. Time slots will automatically close once the max limit is reached.
  • Please promptly leave the corn maze when your 2 hour time slot is up, so we can do a cleaning before the next group arrives.
  • Minimize time indoors. You may use the indoor restrooms, and check-in indoors. We will give you a map for the maze and offer pumpkins, t-shirts, and other fun merchandise. But we won’t let you linger! Time to get outside, stay safe, and have fun!
  • Hand sanitizer will be available throughout the event.
    

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We raise all of our turkeys from baby chicks to adulthood directly on Hickory Nut Gap Farmland in Fairview, NC. They spend their entire lives rotationally grazing on pasture, free from antibiotics and added hormones. We offer a limited supply each year and a deposit must be paid in advance to secure your bird.

Price: $6 / lb
Range: 14 – 25 lbs
Please choose an approximate weight and we will tag a turkey with your name and send an invoice for the remaining balance.

Pick ups will start November 19th and run through November 25th.

Welcome to Sky Top Orchard!

We are asking guests to visit on weekdays whenever possible. We offer the same items you love on those days as we do on weekends plus it helps keep crowds down on weekends. Thank you!

The mountains of western North Carolina are full of pick your own u-pick orchards. We offer more. In addition to a long list of apple varieties, visit Sky Top Orchard and you’ll enjoy panoramic mountain views, orchard ponds with ducks and geese, a barnyard area with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks and more, a bamboo forest to explore, lots of picnic areas and, of course, a mountaintop of fragrant apple and fruit trees. View our downloadable map to see all that we have to offer and visit our picking schedule to find out what’s available now.

When you purchase a bushel of apples, a wagon load of pumpkins or a cooler full of apple cider you’ll take home more than the makings for delicious fall recipes, you’ll take home a mountain of memories too. And don’t forget our famous apple cider doughnuts. They’re an autumn tradition. We bet you can’t eat just one.

Ready to join us on top of our mountain? Plan Your Visit Today!

To keep guests and our staff safe, we require face masks (covering both nose and mouth) by employees and guests in any area where social distancing is difficult so plan to wear them in the fruit stand, in line for doughnuts, in any areas that are not out in the orchard where you are picking. You must also maintain a distance of 6 feet in all lines and areas where you encounter others.

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

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.

Upon reopening, the Nature Center will be open seven days a week, from 10 am until 4:30 pm.  Asheville residents receive a discounted rate with local ID and children under the age of 3 are free.

Bluegrass Brunch
hosted by Aaron Woody Wood & The Sufi Brothers

Pickin’ on the Porch w/ Chicken Coop Willaye 1030AM
Bald Mountain Boys 11AM – 12:30PM
Sufi Brothers 12:45PM – 3PM

Be sure to check out our Bloody Mary Bar, the BEST selection of pickled products and other additions in Asheville. The MOJO Kitchen will be serving a special Brunch menu until 3PM as well.

Food & music start at 10:30am
ADULT beverages at Noon.

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.

Please note the updated date for this event!

We are excited to announce that Asheville Veganfest 2020 is now open to vendors! It’s October 10 for Education at the YMI Theater and October 11 for the festival in Pack Square so save the dates!!

Want to be a vendor? Email us at [email protected].

More information at www.ashevilleveganfest.com

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.

Bears Bees + Brews Festival is back this fall, partying for wildlife and pollinators for a second year. Show your support for wild creatures large and small–from bears to bees–by joining us at Salvage Station on October 11th from noon to 5pm.

Enjoy family-friendly entertainment, learn + mingle with experts from wildlife and environmental organizations, enjoy sweet + savory bites, and tasty brews, all in one place.

Save and share the date 👉 October 11!

* We began this project to establish and nurture wildlife coexistence, wildlife corridors and conservation trusts, and bring together the work of a wide variety of wildlife, pollinator and environmental organizations, and present it all together to the community via an annual festival, events, educational programs and more.

On exhibit Saturdays and Sundays from 12 – 4 p.m. (weather permitting), Rocky Cove Railroad is a G-Scale (garden scale) model train that demonstrates the coming of trains to western North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibit is located below the Grand Garden Promenade.