We recently wrapped up our 21-Day Stand Against Racism Challenge in April. The conversation moves forward with continuing the challenge because the work is far from over! As we became aware of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, it is again evident that the systems in place that already harm young women of color the most can be regressed even more by those with power today. In these crucial moments and always, knowledge is a way to take back power.
WE CHALLENGE YOU TO…

2 mins
Watch Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice shares The History of Reproductive Justice (RJ), a powerful video clearly communicating the definition of RJ, watch here.

10 mins
Check out Planned Parenthood’s article, Roe v. Wade at Risk: Nationwide Legal Abortion May Be a Thing of the Past. Access the article here.

13 mins
Consider this from NPR, which featured an article titled, Roe’s Legal Fate is Unclear. But Studies already Show Who’d Likely Be Hit the Hardest, read here.

42 mins
Listen. Parenting and Politics host Monica Simpson, a North Carolina Native and Executive Director of Sister Song. Sister Song is a Southern-based, national membership organization; our purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. Listen to the podcast here.

For more Continuing the Challenge resources click below:

What is the Stand Against Racism Challenge?

Many people are becoming newly aware of how systemic racism and violence are impacting people of color. Even if you are new to the conversation, that is OK. Our STand against racism challenge, formerly the  21 Day Challenge is designed to create dedicated time and space to build more effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership. Participants who sign up for the Challenge will receive daily tasks via email to help foster their understanding and awareness, with activities such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, or reflecting on personal experience. If you’ve already completed this challenge with us in the past please know that our challenge is designed to be taken multiple times by selecting different daily challenges in order to expand what you have previously learned. Follow this link for the resources.

Current students, alumni, staff, faculty, and faculty emeriti of the UNC Asheville Department of Art & Art History are participating in THRIVE ! – an invitational exhibition of small works on paper.

“I wanted to express this idea that despite COVID, and despite our department’s relocation during renovation – art thrives here, it is the constant that cannot be disrupted,” says THRIVE ! curator Leisa Rundquist, professor of art history and curator of art collections at UNC Asheville.

The informal arrangement installation will be displayed in the hallway gallery next to the S. Tucker Cooke Gallery in Owen Hall through August 1.

Viewing is available during open Owen Hall hours. 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (M – F)

Community Expectations
As members of this community, we care about everyone. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors have a shared commitment to take the necessary precautions to avoid spreading COVID-19 while following all recommended health guidelines. Please see UNC Asheville’s Community Expectations. Be respectful of individual choice to wear or not wear a mask in any situation; wear a mask when and where encouraged, following guidelines and precautions outlined by the CDC.

Old Kentucky Home -The Thomas Wolfe Memorial

American Novelist Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)

Considered by many to be one of the giants of 20th-century American literature, Thomas Wolfe immortalized his childhood home in his epic autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Wolfe’s colorful portrayal of his family, his hometown of “Altamont” Asheville, North Carolina, and “Dixieland” the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse, earned the Victorian period house a place as one of American literature’s most famous landmarks.

House tours are offered daily at half past each hour. Last tour leaves at 4:30 pm.
Group tours by reservation.

Adult – $5.00
Student (ages 7-17) – $2.00
Adult Group (10+) – $2.50 each
Student Group – $2.00 each
6 & under – Free

Hours of Operation

Featured Artists: Jude Stuecker (fiber) Erica Bailey (jewelry) Mary Dashiell (clay) Steve Miller (wood) Rex Redd (clay)

The Garden Helpline is open March 2 through October 27 in 2022.

Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteers will be staffing the Helpline as indicated in the schedule below. You may send an email or leave a voicemail at any time and an Extension Master Gardener volunteer will respond during Garden Helpline hours. When emailing, please include a photo if it helps describe your garden question. Soil test kits can be picked up at the Extension office, 24/7, located in a box outside the front door.

Two ways to contact the Garden Helpline
Call 828-255-5522
Email questions and photos to [email protected]

Garden Helpline Hours
March:  Monday 12:00 – 2:00; Wednesday 10:00 – 12:00
April – September:  Monday and Wednesday 10:00- 2:00; Tuesday 10:00-12:00;
Thursday 12:00-2:00
October:  Tuesday 10:00-12:00; Thursday 12:00-2:00

We are here to help and support you! Please contact us; we look forward to answering your gardening questions.

“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.

The synergy of vibrant outsider art created locally and shared with Tryon Fine Arts has resulted
in a one-of-a-kind art exhibit opening June 1, 2022. The Skateboard: Re-purposed includes
works from North Carolina, Oregon, California, England and Germany. Seven artists are
featured, including Tryon’s own Jonathan Caple, Nicholas Harding (England), Matt Mercurio,
George Rocha, Michael Mauney, Paris Evans and Folk Dunker (Gemany).
Skateboarding has been popular for over a century and is now experiencing a resurgence in both

the sports arena and the art world—it became an Olympic sport in 2020 and was part of a
successful 2019 Sotheby’s auction, with boards by, among others, Damien Hirst and Marilyn
Minter.
Skateboards re-purposed as art will be on exhibit in TFAC’s Parker Gallery beginning June 1,
2022. The exhibit will feature skateboard art in many sizes and forms including graceful
sculptures, nature art, chairs, wall art, a crocheted piece, photographs, and more. Several of the
exhibit pieces will be for sale, supporting both the artists and TFAC as the exhibit sponsor.
The public is invited to attend the opening reception on June 9 from 5 – 7 PM, where they can
also meet local skateboard artist, Jonathan Caple. The exhibit will be on display through to the
end of July 2022.
To access the gallery, plan to enter through the Pavilion at the rear of Tryon Fine Arts Center.
Free parking is available behind TFAC and on surrounding side streets. For more information,
call 828-859-8322 or visit www.tryonarts.org.

4th annual beer release Honig Gottin to raise funds for Pink Boots Society and women in beer.

Cook teams of 4-6 individuals are invited to bring ingredients and prepare meals onsite or bring meals that have been prepared elsewhere.  To meet our dietary standards, we ask that each meal provides a meat, vegetable and starch.

Requirements:

• Background Check
• Brief orientation prior to service
• Ability to Multi-Task
• Friendly Demeanor

Health & Safety:

• We are asking volunteers to wear/bring their own face mask if you have not been fully vaccinated
• Temperatures will be checked and a COVID-19 disclosure will be signed at the volunteer entrance

• Before you even begin thinking about volunteering, ask yourself – Am I well enough to volunteer?

  Your safety and limiting the spread of COVID-19 is everyone’s main priority. We encourage you to review and adhere to the recommendations on the Buncombe County readiness site on how best to avoid COVID-19 and what to do if you think you might have it.

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  ABCCM Transformation Village provides up to 100 beds of transitional housing and will provide emergency shelter beds, post Covid-19.  Transforming lives is through four developmental phases called Steps to Success including stabilization, life skills, education and reintegration.  We are honored to report that 8 out of 10 leave us with a living wage job and permanent housing.

  Transformation Village gives hope, healing, health and a home to single women, mothers with children, and female Veterans experiencing homelessness.  We provide residents a fresh start and a place to heal surrounded and supported by Christian love, trust, education and companionship.

  We are seeking energetic volunteers to prepare and serve meals for our residents for lunch and dinner. This opportunity provides you with the chance to prepare meals in our commercial kitchen alongside our trained staff while serving the women and children of Transformation Village. 

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.

Asheville’s newest downtown restaurant offers 1/2 off all drafts for the entire Asheville Beer Week! 10 local taps to choose from, all 1/2 off with purchase. Come cheers with us!

Mon: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM

Tue: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM

Wed: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM

Thu: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM

Fri: 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM

Sat: 10:30 AM – 12:00 AM

Sun: 10:30 AM – 10:00 PM

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.

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.

Start mentally preparing for the ceremonial start to the summer and your first dip in the pool! Buncombe County Recreation Services opens its five outdoor swimming pools on Saturday, May 28.

Pools are open Monday-Friday from 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. In the event of inclement weather, pools may close for a short period of time or the entire day. Follow individual pools on Facebook for the latest information on closings.

Cost to swim is $3.00 per day. Visitors are welcome to bring their own chairs and lounging towels.

For many local families, our pool openings signal the beginning of summer and more relaxing days. They’re an affordable, fun, and healthy way to beat the heat. Thanks to their locations, they’re also surrounded by stunning views of our mountains.

Pools are located across the county, ensuring easy access for all kids and families. The facilities are managed through an agreement with Swim Club Management Group of Asheville which oversees maintenance, hires staff, and handles daily operations. Community members can sign up for swim lessons and book private parties on the management group’s website, buncombepool.com.

Sun safety information is available at each location, but pool visitors are reminded to apply water-resistant, broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher before putting on a bathing suit and reapply every two hours or after swimming. Other tips to avoid the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays include wearing high-UPF swim shirts, wide brim hats, and wraparound UV-blocking sunglasses. More sun safety tips are available from the American Academy of Dermatology.

Pool Locations

Cane Creek Pool
590 Lower Brush Creek Road
Fletcher, NC 28732
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Erwin Pool
58 Lees Creek Road
Asheville, NC 28806
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Hominy Valley Pool
25 Twin Lakes Road
Candler, NC 28715
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North Buncombe Pool
892 Clarks Chapel Road
Weaverville, NC 28787
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Owen Pool
117 Stone Drive
Swannanoa, NC 28778
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Did you know our staff had a wild side? Join a Park naturalist to meet some of our live Animal Ambassadors and learn what kind of wildlife inhabits the Park and their important roles in the ecosystem. Some of our best teachers have feathers, fur, shells or scales!

From May 28 through June 4, daily, short, guided strolls will highlight Grandfather Mountain’s rhododendron species and blooms. The weeklong rambles culminate on Sunday, June 5, during which the park will host a special speaker and activities throughout the day. Included with admission.