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.
ASAP has launched the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund to
strategically address the emergency needs of farms during COVID-19 disruptions. Funds will be used for public health preparedness grants to farmers markets, to subsidize essential farm product packaging, and to purchase unsold food for donation to hunger programs. Donations to the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund can be made online at asapconnections.org or by mail or phone.

Getting started gardening can be exciting, and it can feel daunting.
Your teachers, Natalie Bogwalker and Chloe Lieberman share experience-based, practical instruction for growing their top ten vegetables to really fill your plate, belly, and larder. We put together this class so that you can begin with the crops that are most likely to be successful and rewarding. Or, if you’ve got some experience gardening but want to expand your repertoire, this course will help you do so in a way that makes sense and yields abundantly.

Ready, set, snap! Connect with fellow nature lovers from around the world in the 2020 City Nature Challenge, a worldwide bioblitz held April 24 – 27 that encourages participants to get outside and celebrate their region’s biodiversity by taking photos of plants and animals found in their communities and uploading them to iNaturalist. This year, the Challenge will not be a regional competition but rather a four-day global citizen-science collaboration that embraces the healing power of nature and supports scientists worldwide. The Arboretum will be serving as the lead institution for the Western North Carolina region and will be offering a variety of online programming for adults and youth in conjunction with the Challenge.
How to Participate
1.) Download iNaturalist, a free mobile application on your iPhone or Android device.
2.) From April 24 – 27, get outside in your backyard or a nearby natural area (while practicing social distancing) and take pictures of wildlife, including plants and animals (no pets, please!).
3.) Upload your photos to iNaturalist and tell your friends to join in on the fun! **Children 12 & under can submit their photos via ecoexplore.net.
WELCOME TO THE FIRST-EVER NATIONAL ARTS ACTION DIGITAL SUMMIT!
Designed to bring advocates the latest updates in federal arts policy, compelling up-to-the-minute data, and successful advocacy techniques, the National Arts Action Digital Summit is the best way to prepare yourself to make key asks of your federal elected officials and to learn how to be the best arts advocate you can be.
Amid the health crisis of COVID-19 and wanting to prioritize the health and safety of our attendees, we made the difficult decision to cancel the traditional in-person gathering of the National Arts Action Summit originally planned for the end of March. Now we are delighted to bring advocates a brand-new experience to engage with one another digitally, and to have an entire suite of arts policy webinars at your fingertips!
Advocating for the arts is more important now than ever, and we’re excited to present over a dozen plenary and issue-specific breakout session webinars live from April 27 – May 1, 2020. Over these five days, you’ll gain a depth of knowledge from policy experts at Americans for the Arts and many of our National Partners. You’ll also be able to watch a recording of these webinars whenever you like to refresh your understanding of the issues.
Online Gardening School
Are you ready to grow some serious food? This six-month online video course will give you the skills and tools you need to be able to grow a garden for yourself, from the ground up. Begins EARTH DAY April 22, 2020!
Visit Us Virtually
Spring has sprung and we are excited to share with you all the wonderful blooms and plants that are awakening right now. Take a virtual tour of our gardens and see what’s beautiful today at The North Carolina Arboretum.
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What Angie will teach you:
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THREE vocal habits that listeners dislike the most, and what to do about them
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TWO ways to assess your own voice and make sure you’re not turning off your ideal audience
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ONE crucial technique to sound like the best version of yourself, and hook your listeners
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While staying at home and practicing safe social distancing are the best courses of action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn’t mean we have to miss out on cultural landmarks around the world. Thanks to the Google Arts & Culture Project, from New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, to Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, here are 6 museums you can tour right now from home.
MoMA, New York
The first museum founded to showcase modern art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York has been doing just that for more than 90 years. From Picasso to Van Gogh, the MoMA is home to incredible pieces of history from the world of contemporary art.
Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
Tour La Casa Azul, the former home of world-renowned artist Frida Kahlo – and current home to the museum honoring her life and legacy. Visible here are not only works from Kahlo, but also numerous personal belongings including her clothing and a body cast she famously painted while ill.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
On display at the Musée d’Orsay, you’ll discover famous works from French artists who lived and worked between 1848 and 1914. Paintings by Monet, Gauguin, and Cézanne – among others – are featured on this Parisienne art tour.
La Galleria Nazionale, Rome
With just about 500 of its approximately 20,000 artworks digitized for this virtual tour, La Galleria Nazionale in Rome features everything from antiquities to seminal pieces representing the Futurist and Surrealist art movements.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe
Honoring one of America’s preeminent artists, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum settled in the same New Mexican desert she once called home. It is dedicated to enriching visitors in the incredible legacy left by the late artist with its collection of her paintings; of which 30 can be viewed online.
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam
One of the more thoroughly digitized experiences is Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. With over 145,000 works available to view virtually, enjoy incredible works from artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Verspronck, to name a few.
ASAP has launched the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund to
strategically address the emergency needs of farms during COVID-19 disruptions. Funds will be used for public health preparedness grants to farmers markets, to subsidize essential farm product packaging, and to purchase unsold food for donation to hunger programs. Donations to the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund can be made online at asapconnections.org or by mail or phone.

Getting started gardening can be exciting, and it can feel daunting.
Your teachers, Natalie Bogwalker and Chloe Lieberman share experience-based, practical instruction for growing their top ten vegetables to really fill your plate, belly, and larder. We put together this class so that you can begin with the crops that are most likely to be successful and rewarding. Or, if you’ve got some experience gardening but want to expand your repertoire, this course will help you do so in a way that makes sense and yields abundantly.

Ready, set, snap! Connect with fellow nature lovers from around the world in the 2020 City Nature Challenge, a worldwide bioblitz held April 24 – 27 that encourages participants to get outside and celebrate their region’s biodiversity by taking photos of plants and animals found in their communities and uploading them to iNaturalist. This year, the Challenge will not be a regional competition but rather a four-day global citizen-science collaboration that embraces the healing power of nature and supports scientists worldwide. The Arboretum will be serving as the lead institution for the Western North Carolina region and will be offering a variety of online programming for adults and youth in conjunction with the Challenge.
How to Participate
1.) Download iNaturalist, a free mobile application on your iPhone or Android device.
2.) From April 24 – 27, get outside in your backyard or a nearby natural area (while practicing social distancing) and take pictures of wildlife, including plants and animals (no pets, please!).
3.) Upload your photos to iNaturalist and tell your friends to join in on the fun! **Children 12 & under can submit their photos via ecoexplore.net.
Many farms across North and South Carolina have added on-farm pickups, home delivery & online pre-orders to accommodate for social distancing in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Please see the listings below for more information, and check out our interactive Google Map for farm locations near you!
Are you a farmer interested in being listed? Email [email protected]
Please:
- DO NOT show up at farms without prior permission.
- Follow specific instructions provided by each farm.
- Stay home if you are feeling ill.
WELCOME TO THE FIRST-EVER NATIONAL ARTS ACTION DIGITAL SUMMIT!
Designed to bring advocates the latest updates in federal arts policy, compelling up-to-the-minute data, and successful advocacy techniques, the National Arts Action Digital Summit is the best way to prepare yourself to make key asks of your federal elected officials and to learn how to be the best arts advocate you can be.
Amid the health crisis of COVID-19 and wanting to prioritize the health and safety of our attendees, we made the difficult decision to cancel the traditional in-person gathering of the National Arts Action Summit originally planned for the end of March. Now we are delighted to bring advocates a brand-new experience to engage with one another digitally, and to have an entire suite of arts policy webinars at your fingertips!
Advocating for the arts is more important now than ever, and we’re excited to present over a dozen plenary and issue-specific breakout session webinars live from April 27 – May 1, 2020. Over these five days, you’ll gain a depth of knowledge from policy experts at Americans for the Arts and many of our National Partners. You’ll also be able to watch a recording of these webinars whenever you like to refresh your understanding of the issues.
Online Gardening School
Are you ready to grow some serious food? This six-month online video course will give you the skills and tools you need to be able to grow a garden for yourself, from the ground up. Begins EARTH DAY April 22, 2020!
As the growing season ramps up and social isolation continues to define our days, gardening is the perfect way to get outside, ease your mind, and support our local ecosystem – all while maintaining appropriate social distance. Whether you’re nurturing a decade old garden or are using your quarantine time to put plants in the ground for the first time ever, our new program has the tools and certifications for all levels of expertise. Certified gardens receive an official certificate and have the option to purchase one of our Certified Pollinator Habitat signs!
Find more information about this program along with tons of resources about pollinators and plants that they love!
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Since 1930, the Guild has exhibited the handmade crafts of the people of North Carolina and the Southeast, and today is one of the strongest craft organizations in the country, representing just over 800 makers in 293 counties from 9 states. What started as a way to bring together the area’s creativity and arts while boosting income — during the Great Depression the Guild cultivated commerce for craftspeople in the Appalachian region — has become an iconic fixture of the craft revival movement.
https://www.facebook.com/shcraftguild/
VESSELS OF HOPE: A CALL FOR HELP FROM THE VILLAGE POTTERS CLAY CENTER
Sarah Wells Rolland is making 500 vessels in fundraiser for TVPCC.
Sustaining TVPCC through this season of closure has become my primary job. I have applied for multiple loans, EIDL, PPP, from my personal bank, and now we wait. I am filled with hope! I believe that what we began here in 2011 is just now becoming fully grown.
So, I asked myself, What can I do? Vessels of Hope came to me immediately and I knew I had to do it. I am personally embarking on a challenging labor of love, making 500 vessels, each unique just like you. I am asking you to become a vessel of hope with me and our wonderful community for The Village Potters Clay Center.”
Sarah will be at the wheel making these Vessels of Hope for the next 12 weeks, and glazing them using a broad palette. Every vessel will vary in shape, surface and color, each one unique. They will be fired regularly as there are enough for a kiln load, expecting at least 4 firings among the large gas kiln, the new Rolland kiln, and the Kazegama wood ash kiln at TVPCC to complete this project.
As this is written, Sarah has made 121 vessels, and 120 are already purchased. During this process, pictures and videos of Sarah making the vessels will be posted to social media and shared with benefactors, so we all feel connected and continue to nurture hope in this time. When the vessels are all completed, The Village Potters team and volunteers will gather and pack them, but there will be no specific allocation of pots to people. Locals will be welcome to come by and pick up their vessel, and whether for shipping or pick up, pots will be distributed from the packed boxes, so nobody will know which pot they receive until the box is opened .
Sarah’s goal is for 500 benefactors, people who believe in the mission at The Village Potters Clay Center, and who are in a position to help. A minimum donation of $100 is asked for each Vessel of Hope, which includes shipping. For those who are able and would like to purchase more than one as gifts, individual pick up or shipping may be arranged. *10% of the proceeds generated through this project will be donated to artists in the River Arts District who are also struggling to stay open.
More from Sarah Wells Rolland: “These “Vessels of Hope” are a joyous creative pursuit for me personally, and you can be a part. I thank you for your love and support!”
The Village Potters Clay Center Team: Sarah Wells Rolland, George Rolland, Lori Theriault, Judi Harwood, Julia Mann, Christine Henry, Tori Motyl, and Lindsey Mudge,
With classes and jobs moving online in the wake of COVID-19, the UNC Asheville community is missing being in each other’s company, and we’re missing being on our beautiful campus in the springtime. It’s an especially lovely time of year, and while photos can’t capture the smell of flower blossoms or the warm breeze in the new leaves on the trees, we hope you’ll enjoy this photo tour of our campus in bloom.
https://stories.unca.edu/springtime-on-campus

Every April, American Folk Art honors a wild pottery tradition that began regionally in the early 1800’s. No one knows for sure when the first face jug was created, but around the mountain region of North Carolina, face jugs began to be created for the storage of moonshine around 1810. The faces, snakes and other foreboding additions were added to the clay jugs to scare the children, so they would not drink the contents. In the unadorned world of the 1800’s, the face jug was remarkable and the tradition allowed for much creativity and fun amongst potters. Face jugs continue to be created in the same fashion as of old, which includes hand digging and mixing regional soils to make the clay, using regional materials to make the glazes, in many cases using broken plates for the teeth, and wood-firing the jugs to 2300 degrees. They are still in use, holding moonshine, but not necessarily scaring the kids.
MEET AT VISITOR CENTER (Outdoor Class)
Enjoy a walk through the gardens with a focus on spring wildflowers, plant communities and the various habitats found in the garden. Discussion will include the ecologically focused management and design techniques we use in the garden. Bring along a loupe and binoculars for more intimate views of the garden and wear weather appropriate clothing. We will walk rain or shine.
Kaita Collier is the Horticulture Assistant and Office Administrator at the Botanical Gardens. She grew up in upstate NY and moved south to attend Warren Wilson College where she earned a degree in Environmental Science and Forest Resource Conservation. Kaita lived in the Florida Keys, the Virgin Islands and Charleston, South Carolina working in the horticulture and environmental science fields before returning the Asheville. She recently earned a Masters Certificate in Horticulture from NC State University.
Participants must pre-register and pre-pay for classes: 828-252-5190.
Limit 12
https://www.ncnonprofits.org/events/crisis-management%C2%A0five-steps-equip-and-fortify-your-nonprofit%C2%A0-thrive-during-crisis
Crisis Management: Five Steps to Equip and Fortify Your Nonprofit to Thrive During a Crisis
Individuals on a nonprofit team are likely to cope and react differently to a crisis. For some, a crisis is a challenge to be conquered; they enjoy being tested, working under pressure, and the opportunity to experiment and innovate. For others, a crisis causes panic and decision paralysis; their short attention spans grow shorter and nerves are on edge. This webinar presents five strategies to equip your diverse team to weather an active or future crisis.

Margaret works at Pack Memorial Library. Currently, she is at home with the rest of us trying to flatten the curve by social distancing. The wonderful thing about Margaret is she is multi-talented!
We decided we should feature her art skills throughout the week with evening art programs! Video lessons will be featured every three days and in between, we’ll post the supplies needed. If you have any questions, about a certain class or material needed, let us know, send a comment or DM. We’re also interested in what you’ve been making, so please share if you want to!
Live Zoom classes for adults will be coming up as well, so if you have immediate questions, you can ask her directly by attending a class! (Dates will be posted soon.)
For most of these lessons, we advise there be a parent supervising young children. Most of the projects are kid friendly with adult supervision.
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While staying at home and practicing safe social distancing are the best courses of action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn’t mean we have to miss out on cultural landmarks around the world. Thanks to the Google Arts & Culture Project, from New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, to Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, here are 6 museums you can tour right now from home.
MoMA, New York
The first museum founded to showcase modern art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York has been doing just that for more than 90 years. From Picasso to Van Gogh, the MoMA is home to incredible pieces of history from the world of contemporary art.
Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
Tour La Casa Azul, the former home of world-renowned artist Frida Kahlo – and current home to the museum honoring her life and legacy. Visible here are not only works from Kahlo, but also numerous personal belongings including her clothing and a body cast she famously painted while ill.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
On display at the Musée d’Orsay, you’ll discover famous works from French artists who lived and worked between 1848 and 1914. Paintings by Monet, Gauguin, and Cézanne – among others – are featured on this Parisienne art tour.
La Galleria Nazionale, Rome
With just about 500 of its approximately 20,000 artworks digitized for this virtual tour, La Galleria Nazionale in Rome features everything from antiquities to seminal pieces representing the Futurist and Surrealist art movements.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe
Honoring one of America’s preeminent artists, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum settled in the same New Mexican desert she once called home. It is dedicated to enriching visitors in the incredible legacy left by the late artist with its collection of her paintings; of which 30 can be viewed online.
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam
One of the more thoroughly digitized experiences is Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. With over 145,000 works available to view virtually, enjoy incredible works from artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Verspronck, to name a few.
ASAP has launched the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund to
strategically address the emergency needs of farms during COVID-19 disruptions. Funds will be used for public health preparedness grants to farmers markets, to subsidize essential farm product packaging, and to purchase unsold food for donation to hunger programs. Donations to the Appalachian Grown Farmer Relief Fund can be made online at asapconnections.org or by mail or phone.

Blue Ridge Eco-Gardener Certificate of Merit
Ecological gardening is a way of thinking about gardens and landscapes in which gardens are no longer seen as a collection of plants, but a community with complex interdependencies between plants, animals, soils and the environment. This certificate program explores ecological principles for creating and managing a healthy, self-sustaining garden and landscape in a changing climate. Students enrolling in the Certificate of Merit program will work to complete 120 hours in core classes on topics including principles of ecological gardening, seasonal plants and tasks and sustainable landscape design along with electives on hardscape, edibles, seed saving and other subjects of interest to participants. View current class offerings for credit in the Blue Ridge Eco-Gardener program here.
To begin your program, complete an application and return it to the Education Center along with a one-time, non-refundable $55 application fee.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts is closed, but as it notes on its homepage, it’s “digitally open.”
That includes livestreaming performances and an expanded lineup of digital learning activities and workshops, which are all available for free online.
https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/center-for-puppetry-arts-livestream-performances-for-free/KuBGQBiqLKxYs2l0WORhWO/?fbclid=IwAR17Ds6ftqLlyHEMda-rNXz3a9PHlERNkHuILTYJON58mQ005dZtC-DkUSc
FREE Video Course by Wild Abundance
Discover delicacies growing right outside your door.
Your guide through this course is seasoned Wild Abundance instructor Luke Cannon, who has practiced wild food foraging for over two decades. More than a botanist, Luke is a long-time pursuer and teacher of the magic and medicine of plants. An avid naturalist, Luke draws from a diverse pool of knowledge, combining his natural history studies with his life experience in organic farming, natural building, permaculture, nature-based mentoring, and rural homesteading.




