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.
LINING: SHEATHING
Exhibition: January 16 – May 4
Reception: Thursday, April 19 from 5-7pm
Lining: Sheathing is a large-scale installation about the tactile and protective qualities of textiles by collaborators Denise Bookwalter and Lee Running. The artists have been working together for five years, creating installations and artist books that include printed fabric, handmade paper, woodblock prints, custom garments and embroidery. This installation has been developed in residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Penland NC, Constellation Studios, Lincoln NE, and Small Craft Advisory Press, Tallahassee FL. The focal point of the installation is a room-size tent suspended beneath a skylight. The tent is made from large printed and dyed textile panels which create a space that viewers can enter. Viewers are invited to try on one of the handmade garments and view the series of eight queen bed sized woodblock prints on handmade paper. For the exhibition at the WCU Fine Art Museum, Bookwalter and Running will also create a three-story site-specific window installation for the atrium of the Bardo Arts Center.
MUSEUM HOURS: Tues-Fri 10am-4pm/ Th 10am-7pm
Closed weekends & University holidays
828.227.ARTS
Image Caption: Detail: Denise Bookwalter, Lee Emma Running, “LINING:SHEATHING”, 2011

To mark the 10th Anniversary of the Windgate Fellowship, the Center for Craft awarded a total of ten, $10,000 Project Grants. This exhibition showcases how the next generation of craft artists used their funds to explore scale, installation, and community practice.
Artists: Andrea Donnelly (Richmond, VA), Josh Copus (Marshall, NC), Dustin Farnsworth (Montreal, QC), Brian Fleetwood (La Mesilla, NM), Ani Geragosian (Salem, MA), Adam Ledford (Philadelphia, PA), Rebecca Manson (Bedford Hills, NY), Rachel Mauser (Louisville, KY), Aaron McIntosh (Richmond, VA), and Mark Reigelman II (Brooklyn, NY).
School of Art & Design Alumni Invitational Exhibition
Exhibition: February 13 – May 4, 2018
Reception: February 15, 2018
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the College of Fine & Performing Arts, the WCU Fine Art Museum invites 12 accomplished alumni of the School of Art & Design back to campus for this exhibition. Exhibiting artists include Amy M. Anderson, Connie Bostic, Mary Charles Griffin, Luzene Hill, Sally Jacobs, Cole Johnson, Dakota Ling, Jeff Marley, Olivia Mears, Tom Pazderka, Byron Tenesaca, and Preston Tolbert.
Image Caption: Tom Pazderka, Angels of the New Light, 2017, ash, charcoal, and oil on burned panel, 43 x 43 in
Willie Cole: Soles and Boards
Exhibition: January 16 – May 4, 2018
Since 1989, Willie Cole has employed the image of the clothes iron in his work. Cole morphs this utilitarian object to represent and reference a range of associations from African masks to scarification to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. This exhibition presents prints from Cole’s time working at Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 2011-2012.
Image Caption: Image Courtesy of Highpoint Editions and Willie Cole

Asheville Gallery of Art’s March show features the work of Jane Molinelli. Known for expressive, colorful, non-objective paintings, the artist presents new works in a limited palette. The show runs March 1-31 during gallery hours, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. The gallery, located at 82 Patton Avenue in Asheville, across from Pritchard Park, will host a reception for the artist on Friday, March 2, from 5-8 p.m. Everyone is cordially invited to stop by.
“The idea for the show came when a collector wanted a commission in black, white, and shades of gray,” says the artist. “I hadn’t consciously worked in that way and was excited about the challenge.” Molinelli found it to be an incredibly rich world. She mixed her own blacks, rather than grab the standard tube of carbon or ivory black. “When I grayed the colors with white, I got a whole range of beautiful shades.”
As she painted, she focused on the expression and rhythm of the pieces. “It gave me time to reassess my values, in both an artistic and life sense, as I got to the core of the emotion I was hoping to convey.” The artist believes non-objective art is a spectrum of dialogue. “I start the dialogue by responding to the energy of the marks, lines, and colors I lay on the surface. I hope those who see my work start their own dialogues with the pieces and remain open to what each says during the encounter.”
The artist settled in Asheville after attending Penland School of Crafts where she studied weaving. “I spent years as a craft book editor, but realized my heart belonged back with the visual arts. Once I started painting, I knew I was truly home.” Molinelli lives in Asheville with her husband, Jim LaFerla. Her work is found both in private collections and corporate settings and can be found at Asheville Gallery of Art in downtown Asheville and at 310 ART in the River Arts District.
Molinelli’s work, as well as the paintings of the other 30 gallery members will be on display and for sale through the month of March. For further information about this show, you can contact Asheville Gallery of Art at (828) 251-5796, visit the gallery website at www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com, or go to the gallery Facebook page.

Sue Ferguson, Ruby Begonia, c.1976, tapestry on mixed fiber, 60 x 57.5 inches. Museum Purchase with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.The Asheville Art Museum is excited to present Crafting Abstraction, a new exhibition opening Saturday, March 10 at the Asheville Art Museum On the Slope (175 Biltmore Avenue). The exhibition brings together a selection from the Museum’s Permanent Collection that highlights the importance of craft to the development of modernist abstraction in the United States. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, modernist artists have used abstract forms—geometric and organic—to express immaterial phenomena such as spirituality, gracefulness, vitality, speed, sensuality and emotion. In many of these artworks, the physical attributes of the materials and the processes of hand-making are integral to the ideas and experiences conveyed.
This exhibition was curated by Holly Gore, PhD candidate in art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara + the Museum’s Windgate Curatorial Intern 2018. This internship was supported by a Windgate Museum Internship Award administered by the Center for Craft.
As a complement to Crafting Abstraction, Turning Traditions is an installation of selected works by Ed, Philip and Matt Moulthrop. This family of Southern woodturners has created unique vessels for three generations.
Midday Music: Friday, March 16, 1:30 PM
Biltmore United Methodist Church
376 Hendersonville Rd, Asheville 28803
Free and open to the publicFor further exploration, join Pan Harmonia musicians for Midday Music. Peek behind-the-scenes into the experience of music-making – meet the musicians, learn about their process, inspiration, the music they love and more! This series will be a mix of talks and open rehearsals as professional players come together to discuss and shape the music from early sounds to polished beauty. Guaranteed to be interesting, insightful and humorous. Feel free to bring friends.

March 2-18, 2018
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm
Performed in 35below, ACT’s intimate black box theatreIt’s like a musical cocktail party – and you’re invited! Mark Jones has assembled a super fun cast of super great singers (Lyn Donley, Stephen Gonza, Candice Burchill and Charlie Burchill) for Putting it Together, which opens in March in 35below. This show is a compilation of songs by Stephen Sondheim from hits such as Follies, Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and others. An evening of drinks, laughs and love!
“Ricky Nelson Remembered” is a unique multimedia entertainment event featuring the live music of Ricky Nelson’s hit songs, including “Hello Mary Lou,” “Travelin’ Man” and “Garden Party” performed by Ricky’s own twin sons Matthew & Gunnar Nelson and includes never before seen big screen video footage of the Nelson family with interviews from celebrities, family and friends of Ricky Nelson. The show appeals to a wide audience and multiple generations of music lovers and celebrates Ricky Nelson’s life and rise as America’s original Teen Idol’ to his tragic passing in a New Year’s Eve plane crash.
March 16-18, 2018
Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 pm
Performed on the MainstageWhat begins as a peaceful summer on the River is soon disrupted by Toad and his obsession with motorcars. After crashing several cars, he then steals one and lands himself in jail. His friends Mole, Badger, and Water Rat make every effort to protect Toad’s residence, Toad Hall, but are instead ousted by the Ferrets and Weasels of the Wild Wood. Will Toad escape from jail and regain Toad Hall? Will he learn a lesson about his boastful and impetuous ways? A spirited adaptation of a timeless classic! Directed by Bradshaw Call and performed by students (ages 7-12) in our Youth Production Class.

March 16th 9:30am-2:30pm
Volunteer Opportunity with Conserving Carolina
Humphrey Farm Workday
Habitat Restoration; removing non-native invasive species to restore native habitat.
Meet at Conserving Carolina Office at 9:00am to carpool. Wear closed toe-shoes, bring lunch and plenty of water.
To RSVP please email [email protected] or call Olivia at 828-697-5777 ext. 211
What: March Art Madness, a month-long live action artist extravaganza
When: Thursdays-Sundays, March 3 – 31
Where: The Gallery at Flat Rock
How much: Free and open to the public
The Gallery at Flat Rock Presents March Art Madness
In a spirit of extreme non-competitiveness, the team of artists represented by The Gallery at Flat Rock will get focused on the inspiration that spring fever brings in a special month of “March Art Madness.” This first-ever month-long art obsession will launch March 3, with artists taking their respective art forms to the floorboards of the gallery in what promises to be a riotous display of creative activity.
Crafted as a stimulating cultural alternative to the endless mind-numbing basketball of that other March event, March Art Madness will get viewers involved with a free raffle offering a $150 prize for the art fan who clocks the most visits to witness artists in action as they show off their skilled finesse in paint, clay, wood and drawing media on the gallery floor.
Here’s how it works: March 3 through March 31, 2018, artists will be sweating out artwork from 1-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sundays, with pairs of artists stacked in two-hour time slots of jam-packed invention and creation. March Art Madness is free and open to the public.
The Gallery at Flat Rock represents finely curated art and craft, and is located in Flat Rock Square at 2702-A Greenville Highway in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; or by appointment. For more information on the gallery and March Art Madness please visit the website at www.galleryflatrock.com or call 828.698.7000.

Local printmaker Bill Hall makes his Asheville gallery debut in a show that plays his graphic works off those of the late Maltby Sykes (1911-1992), while landscape paintings on found metal by Drew Galloway are presented with works by renowned wood sculptor Christian Burchard. These two shows run March 4 through April 28, 2018 at Momentum Gallery, 24 N. Lexington Ave, Asheville, NC.
LINING: SHEATHING
Exhibition: January 16 – May 4
Reception: Thursday, April 19 from 5-7pm
Lining: Sheathing is a large-scale installation about the tactile and protective qualities of textiles by collaborators Denise Bookwalter and Lee Running. The artists have been working together for five years, creating installations and artist books that include printed fabric, handmade paper, woodblock prints, custom garments and embroidery. This installation has been developed in residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Penland NC, Constellation Studios, Lincoln NE, and Small Craft Advisory Press, Tallahassee FL. The focal point of the installation is a room-size tent suspended beneath a skylight. The tent is made from large printed and dyed textile panels which create a space that viewers can enter. Viewers are invited to try on one of the handmade garments and view the series of eight queen bed sized woodblock prints on handmade paper. For the exhibition at the WCU Fine Art Museum, Bookwalter and Running will also create a three-story site-specific window installation for the atrium of the Bardo Arts Center.
MUSEUM HOURS: Tues-Fri 10am-4pm/ Th 10am-7pm
Closed weekends & University holidays
828.227.ARTS
Image Caption: Detail: Denise Bookwalter, Lee Emma Running, “LINING:SHEATHING”, 2011

To mark the 10th Anniversary of the Windgate Fellowship, the Center for Craft awarded a total of ten, $10,000 Project Grants. This exhibition showcases how the next generation of craft artists used their funds to explore scale, installation, and community practice.
Artists: Andrea Donnelly (Richmond, VA), Josh Copus (Marshall, NC), Dustin Farnsworth (Montreal, QC), Brian Fleetwood (La Mesilla, NM), Ani Geragosian (Salem, MA), Adam Ledford (Philadelphia, PA), Rebecca Manson (Bedford Hills, NY), Rachel Mauser (Louisville, KY), Aaron McIntosh (Richmond, VA), and Mark Reigelman II (Brooklyn, NY).
School of Art & Design Alumni Invitational Exhibition
Exhibition: February 13 – May 4, 2018
Reception: February 15, 2018
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the College of Fine & Performing Arts, the WCU Fine Art Museum invites 12 accomplished alumni of the School of Art & Design back to campus for this exhibition. Exhibiting artists include Amy M. Anderson, Connie Bostic, Mary Charles Griffin, Luzene Hill, Sally Jacobs, Cole Johnson, Dakota Ling, Jeff Marley, Olivia Mears, Tom Pazderka, Byron Tenesaca, and Preston Tolbert.
Image Caption: Tom Pazderka, Angels of the New Light, 2017, ash, charcoal, and oil on burned panel, 43 x 43 in
Willie Cole: Soles and Boards
Exhibition: January 16 – May 4, 2018
Since 1989, Willie Cole has employed the image of the clothes iron in his work. Cole morphs this utilitarian object to represent and reference a range of associations from African masks to scarification to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. This exhibition presents prints from Cole’s time working at Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 2011-2012.
Image Caption: Image Courtesy of Highpoint Editions and Willie Cole

Asheville Gallery of Art’s March show features the work of Jane Molinelli. Known for expressive, colorful, non-objective paintings, the artist presents new works in a limited palette. The show runs March 1-31 during gallery hours, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. The gallery, located at 82 Patton Avenue in Asheville, across from Pritchard Park, will host a reception for the artist on Friday, March 2, from 5-8 p.m. Everyone is cordially invited to stop by.
“The idea for the show came when a collector wanted a commission in black, white, and shades of gray,” says the artist. “I hadn’t consciously worked in that way and was excited about the challenge.” Molinelli found it to be an incredibly rich world. She mixed her own blacks, rather than grab the standard tube of carbon or ivory black. “When I grayed the colors with white, I got a whole range of beautiful shades.”
As she painted, she focused on the expression and rhythm of the pieces. “It gave me time to reassess my values, in both an artistic and life sense, as I got to the core of the emotion I was hoping to convey.” The artist believes non-objective art is a spectrum of dialogue. “I start the dialogue by responding to the energy of the marks, lines, and colors I lay on the surface. I hope those who see my work start their own dialogues with the pieces and remain open to what each says during the encounter.”
The artist settled in Asheville after attending Penland School of Crafts where she studied weaving. “I spent years as a craft book editor, but realized my heart belonged back with the visual arts. Once I started painting, I knew I was truly home.” Molinelli lives in Asheville with her husband, Jim LaFerla. Her work is found both in private collections and corporate settings and can be found at Asheville Gallery of Art in downtown Asheville and at 310 ART in the River Arts District.
Molinelli’s work, as well as the paintings of the other 30 gallery members will be on display and for sale through the month of March. For further information about this show, you can contact Asheville Gallery of Art at (828) 251-5796, visit the gallery website at www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com, or go to the gallery Facebook page.

Sue Ferguson, Ruby Begonia, c.1976, tapestry on mixed fiber, 60 x 57.5 inches. Museum Purchase with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.The Asheville Art Museum is excited to present Crafting Abstraction, a new exhibition opening Saturday, March 10 at the Asheville Art Museum On the Slope (175 Biltmore Avenue). The exhibition brings together a selection from the Museum’s Permanent Collection that highlights the importance of craft to the development of modernist abstraction in the United States. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, modernist artists have used abstract forms—geometric and organic—to express immaterial phenomena such as spirituality, gracefulness, vitality, speed, sensuality and emotion. In many of these artworks, the physical attributes of the materials and the processes of hand-making are integral to the ideas and experiences conveyed.
This exhibition was curated by Holly Gore, PhD candidate in art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara + the Museum’s Windgate Curatorial Intern 2018. This internship was supported by a Windgate Museum Internship Award administered by the Center for Craft.
As a complement to Crafting Abstraction, Turning Traditions is an installation of selected works by Ed, Philip and Matt Moulthrop. This family of Southern woodturners has created unique vessels for three generations.

March 2-18, 2018
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm
Performed in 35below, ACT’s intimate black box theatreIt’s like a musical cocktail party – and you’re invited! Mark Jones has assembled a super fun cast of super great singers (Lyn Donley, Stephen Gonza, Candice Burchill and Charlie Burchill) for Putting it Together, which opens in March in 35below. This show is a compilation of songs by Stephen Sondheim from hits such as Follies, Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and others. An evening of drinks, laughs and love!
March 16-18, 2018
Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 pm
Performed on the MainstageWhat begins as a peaceful summer on the River is soon disrupted by Toad and his obsession with motorcars. After crashing several cars, he then steals one and lands himself in jail. His friends Mole, Badger, and Water Rat make every effort to protect Toad’s residence, Toad Hall, but are instead ousted by the Ferrets and Weasels of the Wild Wood. Will Toad escape from jail and regain Toad Hall? Will he learn a lesson about his boastful and impetuous ways? A spirited adaptation of a timeless classic! Directed by Bradshaw Call and performed by students (ages 7-12) in our Youth Production Class.
Featuring Itamar Zorman, violin
Nicholas Hersh, Conductor

Beethoven | Leonore Overture No. 3
Leshnoff | Chamber Concerto for Violin & Orchestra
Queen/Hersh | “Bohemian Rhapsody” for Violin & Orchestra
Rachmaninoff | Symphony No. 2
Joint winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Itamar Zorman has appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and the Tokyo Symphony in Japan’s Suntory Hall. He plays a Guarneri Del Jesu from 1734.
The Asheville Symphony Orchestra, established in 1960, performs and promotes symphonic music for the benefit, enjoyment and education of the people of Western North Carolina. Adult prices run $24 through $69, and are available at the Asheville Symphony Box Office, the US Cellular Center Box Office, charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000, or purchase online.
Please visit the Asheville Symphony website for more information, or call 828-254-7046.
Professional Development for Teachers: More than Math
Saturday, February 10, 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Grades 3 – 5
Saturday, March 17, 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Grades 6 – 8
Teachers: You are cordially invited to attend a FREE More than Math professional development workshopat the Museum!
More Than Math integrates the visual arts into problem-based mathematics units developed for grades 3 through 8, drawn from the context of works of art in the Museum’s Collection. More than Math focuses on the importance of each student’s unique perspective in both mathematics and art and explores analogous concepts including perspective, parallelism, symmetry, measurement, and geometric form.
This FREE workshop provides: lesson plans and student activities, resource and classroom materials, and CEU credits. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
The workshop will be led by Randy Harter, retired Math Specialist for Buncombe County Schools, and members of the Museum’s Education Department.
Raspy voiced shock rocker Alice Cooper brings the scares to The Event Center at Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Casino. Get spooky this St. Patrick’s Day at A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper. The pioneer of theatrical rock has a career that spans five decades but he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Famous for hits like “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out,” the band is sure to shock and entertain. Expect the over-the-top props Alice Cooper has become known for at this Harrah’s Cherokee show.



