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.
Wednesday, June
7, 2023
Wilderness Medicine + Survival Skills at Nantahala Outdoor Center
Work out for free at Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center
Work out for free at Stephens-Lee Community Center
Food Scraps Drop Off: Stephens-Lee Recreation Center
Food Scraps Drop Off: Buncombe County Landfill
Raleigh Legislative Visit
WNC Farmers Market
Biltmore Estate: Ciao! From Italy Sculptural Postcard Display
Lewis Creek Preserve Nature Walk
Pollinator Exploration Kit (Available for Loan)
77th Season at Asheville Community Theatre
Exhibition: NEO MINERALIA
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Exhibition: Something earned, Something left behind
Exhibition: Crafting Denim
Food Scraps Drop Off: West Asheville Library
Italian Renaissance Alive
LAZOOM: CITY COMEDY TOUR
Black Mountain College and Mexico (BMC/MX): Exhibition
Chamber Golf Classic
Kids Storytime at Barnes and Noble
Pulp Potential: Works in Handmade Paper
The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad
Asheville Art Museum Book Club: Fierce Poise
Kesha Young Scholarship Awards
Summer Animal Encounters
River Arts District Farmers Market
Weaverville Tailgate Market
Read to Puptart!
Ribbon Cutting for True Divine Accessories
Tenants Rights Workshop
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LEARN MORE THIS YEAR |
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Brush up on your wilderness medicine or learn new survival skills! SOLO Southeast & NOC are offering over 200 courses in 2023 and classes in locations across the southeast.
Find your next course with SOLO Southeast and be prepared for the unexpected! |
Asheville Parks & Recreation (APR) recently renovated fitness centers at Linwood Crump Shiloh and Stephens-Lee community centers – and community members can enjoy use of cardio equipment, exercise machines, free weights, open gym time, and more through June 30, 2023. During this time, APR will waive membership and daily pass fees so more people can access the necessities for a regular fitness routine. Locals can sign up online or at either community center to receive a fitness center key fob that can be scanned at either location.
“Our team is committed to creating spaces in which everyone feels welcome,” according to D. Tyrell McGirt, APR Director. “We are in the community building business. The gyms and fitness rooms at these two locations are filled with everything you’d expect from other top-notch fitness facilities and dedicated to body positivity and accessible wellness. By waiving the cost to use them for the first six months of the year, we hope more friends and neighbors will be able to connect with each other and maintain healthy lifestyles.”
Asheville Parks & Recreation (APR) recently renovated fitness centers at Linwood Crump Shiloh and Stephens-Lee community centers – and community members can enjoy use of cardio equipment, exercise machines, free weights, open gym time, and more through June 30, 2023. During this time, APR will waive membership and daily pass fees so more people can access the necessities for a regular fitness routine. Locals can sign up online or at either community center to receive a fitness center key fob that can be scanned at either location.
“Our team is committed to creating spaces in which everyone feels welcome,” according to D. Tyrell McGirt, APR Director. “We are in the community building business. The gyms and fitness rooms at these two locations are filled with everything you’d expect from other top-notch fitness facilities and dedicated to body positivity and accessible wellness. By waiving the cost to use them for the first six months of the year, we hope more friends and neighbors will be able to connect with each other and maintain healthy lifestyles.”
Food Scraps Drop Off
The City of Asheville, in partnership with Buncombe County and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is offering a FREE Food Scrap Drop-Off program in
two locations for all Buncombe County residents. This organic matter will be collected and turned into good clean compost, keeping it OUT of our landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Register for Food Scraps Drop Off
Need a handy kitchen countertop food scrap bin? Let us know on the registration form! We’ll be having bin giveaways at city and county facilities and would love to give you one.
Locations
Stephens-Lee Recreation Center “Food Scrap Shed” next to the Community Garden on the North side of the parking lot
30 Washington Carver Avenue, Asheville
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- Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Sunday, 12 – 4 p.m.
Murphy Oakley Community Center and Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the east side of the parking lot
749 Fairview Road, Asheville
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- Dawn – Dusk
West Asheville Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the south side of the building
942 Haywood Road, Asheville
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- Library open hours
- Buncombe County Landfill – Convenience Center85 Panther Branch Road, Alexander
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- Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12:30 pm
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Food Scraps Drop Off
The City of Asheville, in partnership with Buncombe County and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is offering a FREE Food Scrap Drop-Off program in two locations for all Buncombe County residents. This organic matter will be collected and turned into good clean compost, keeping it OUT of our landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Register for Food Scraps Drop Off
Need a handy kitchen countertop food scrap bin? Let us know on the registration form! We’ll be having bin giveaways at city and county facilities and would love to give you one.
Locations Holidays call for hours
Buncombe County Landfill – Convenience Center
85 Panther Branch Road, Alexander
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- Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12:30 pm
Murphy Oakley Community Center and Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the east side of the parking lot
749 Fairview Road, Asheville
-
- Dawn – Dusk
Stephens-Lee Recreation Center “Food Scrap Shed” next to the Community Garden on the North side of the parking lot
30 Washington Carver Avenue, Asheville
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- Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Sunday, 12 – 4 p.m.
West Asheville Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the south side of the building
942 Haywood Road, Asheville
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- Library open hours
Join us in presenting a comprehensive voice of WNC business during our Raleigh Legislative Visit from Tuesday, June 6 to Wednesday, June 7!Registration for this event and the room block closes May 7, 2023.As a delegate on the trip, connect with business leaders from across our region and reinforce WNC business priorities to the North Carolina General Assembly. Together, we can have more impact on our region’s priorities.
About 50 representatives from eight regional chambers will participate in the two-day trip to discuss issues with legislators and state agencies vital to our regional business environment.
Events will include an evening reception at Whiskey Kitchen, presentations on important policy issues, and visits with members of the North Carolina General Assembly. Visits will be focused on local priorities, economic development funding for WNC and key workforce issues including childcare and medicaid expansion. Participants must make their own hotel reservations, with a discounted rate available at The Sheraton. Registration for this event and the room block closes May 7, 2023.
The WNC Farmers Market is the premier destination for buying and selling the region’s best agriculture products directly from farmers & food producers to household & wholesale customers in an environment that celebrates the region’s diverse culture, food & heritage.
House of Operation:
WNC Farmers Market: 24/7, 361 days a year market access for farmers
Office: Monday- Friday, 8am-5pm
Market Shops: 7 days a week, 8 am-5 pm
Wholesale and Truck Sheds: 7 days a week
Included with admission
Embark on a scenic journey across George Vanderbilt’s Italy with a large-scale outdoor display that combines brilliant botanical designs with authentic messages written by Vanderbilt himself.
Beautifully handcrafted of natural elements, each sculptural postcard depicts a location or landmark Vanderbilt visited more than a century ago. This captivating complement to Biltmore’s Italian Renaissance Alive exhibition reveals Vanderbilt’s passions for travel, culture, architecture, and art as well as his personal experience of such renowned Italian cities as Milan, Florence, Venice, Pisa, and Vatican City.
Adding to the charm and visual appeal of Ciao! From Italy—sure to be a hit among kids of all ages—is the G-scale model train that travels in and out of each postcard in this enlightening display!
Bob Gale, MountainTrue’s Ecologist & Public Lands Director, will lead a slow hike along the nature trail and boardwalk, interpreting plant life, wildflowers, a rare Southern Appalachian Bog ecosystem, and the value of pollinators on this property. From the community center parking lot, the group will go to Lewis Creek Preserve trailhead a short distance away. Suitable for all ages; children must be accompanied by an adult.
Presented by Bee City USA- Hendersonville and Bullington Gardens
For educators: teachers, camp counselors, home-school parents, childcare professionals, summer program leaders, and more, the Pollinator Exploration Kit provides excellent tools. Bee City USA – Hendersonville is eager to help you share the wonder of pollinators with children you teach. The kit includes sets of 12 sturdy child-size insect nets, special bug capture bubbles, bug boxes with magnifying lids, and magnifying glasses. Two pop-up insect habitats and two sets of laminated fold-out field guides (NC Trees & Wildflowers, NC Butterflies & Moths, Bees & Other Pollinators) are also included. The kit can be loaned for up to a week (as available) and may be picked up and returned weekdays 9am-4pm.
Pick-up location:
Bullington Gardens, 95 Upper Red Oak Trail, Hendersonville.
Cost: no charge
Reservation needed: contact [email protected] to check availability and reserve the dates to borrow the Pollinator Exploration Kit.
Photo credit:
Sae Honda. Courtesy of the Artist.
NEO MINERALIA suggests that recent rock formations no longer fit within the traditional groups: Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary. Instead, the Anthropocene, the era of human influence on the climate and environment, has introduced two post-natural rocks: Synthetic and Digital.
NEO MINERALIA presents a selection of new geological specimens crafted by ten international artists exploring rocks as reflections of our effects on human and nonhuman ecologies. By embedding synthetic materials (plastics, e-waste) and layers of data points (critical, financial, social) into the craftsmanship of these artifacts, the artists transgress the definition of rocks, turning them from passive aggregates of minerals into metaphorical aggregates of data. Within their apparent “rockness” we can decode hopes, warnings, and speculative future scenarios.
The featured works stemming from places as varied as Mexico, Japan, Poland, and Australia (including a curated artists’ books library), collectively signal a new era of planetary and geological consciousness where we are asked to read, feel, and listen to rocks in new ways.
Photo credit:
J Diamond, “Pony II,” 2022. Courtesy of the Artist
Something earned, Something left behind is an exhibition of objecthood; a critical analysis of the transactional and political languages of everyday and culturally significant objects. This exhibition challenges a history of exclusion and inclusion of People of Color (POC) and their narratives from the canon of craft based on subject matter. It dissects this history’s origins and precedent as an economic transaction to gain access to white spaces.
Racial and ethnic identity influences the way individuals perceive themselves, the way others perceive them, and the way they choose to behave. For this reason, People of Color are expected to perform certain roles in order to fit into hegemonic institutions. These roles can be an active shrinking of themselves and the racialized part of them, or a personal exploitation of their racialized selves. This exhibition addresses and redresses the ways narrowed populations have been included, and the ways in which they have been asked to participate.
Together, this work creates space for and legitimizes POC narratives with depth and care. The exhibiting artists’ practices work against institutionalized expectations of POC work, expanding discourse and inserting new subjectivity into the canon of craft art. It engages with a community hungry for the revitalization and resuscitation of non-Western voices within art spaces. This exhibition challenges the expectations of art from artists of marginalized backgrounds and embraces a new subjectivity of interrogating one’s inherited experiences.
Photo credit:
Photograph by Bowery Blue Makers
Jeans – with their standardized pockets, rivets, and denim – are so much a part of everyday wardrobes that they are easy to overlook. Yet, in workshops across the nation, independent makers are reevaluating the garment and creating jeans by hand, using antiquated equipment and denim woven on midcentury looms. Crafting Denim explores how and why jeans have come to exist at the intersections of industry and craft, modernity, and tradition.
A product of industrial factory production for over a century, jeans are being recast by a new cohort of small-scale makers including craftspeople like Ryan Martin of W.H. Ranch Dungarees, Takayuki Echigoya of Bowery Blue Makers, and Sarah Yarborough and Victor Lytvinenko of Raleigh Denim, who favor choice materials and small-batch fabrication. The jeans they make merge craft traditions with industry and extend the conversation between hand and machine.
Each maker creates a distinctive product but shares a deep appreciation for materials, tools, history, and denim. These jeans are in dialogue with the past and in line with contemporary interests in sustainability. The small workshops featured here are sites of innovation and preservation, and visitors are invited to take a close look at an everyday item and imagine alternative contexts for making and living in our own clothes.
Food Scraps Drop Off
The City of Asheville, in partnership with Buncombe County and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is offering a FREE Food Scrap Drop-Off program in
two locations for all Buncombe County residents. This organic matter will be collected and turned into good clean compost, keeping it OUT of our landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Register for Food Scraps Drop Off
Need a handy kitchen countertop food scrap bin? Let us know on the registration form! We’ll be having bin giveaways at city and county facilities and would love to give you one.
Locations
West Asheville Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the south side of the building
942 Haywood Road, Asheville
Library open hours
Stephens-Lee Recreation Center “Food Scrap Shed” next to the Community Garden on the North side of the parking lot
30 Washington Carver Avenue, Asheville
-
- Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Sunday, 12 – 4 p.m.
Murphy Oakley Community Center and Library – “Food Scrap Bin Shelters” on the east side of the parking lot
749 Fairview Road, Asheville
-
- Dawn – Dusk
Buncombe County Landfill – Convenience Center85 Panther Branch Road, Alexander
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-
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- Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12:30 pm
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Explore Biltmore House with an Audio Guide that introduces you to the Vanderbilt family and their magnificent home’s history, architecture, and collections of fine art and furnishings.
PLUS: Immersive, multi-sensory Italian Renaissance Alive exhibition created by Grande Experiences
PLUS: FREE next-day access to Biltmore’s Gardens and Grounds
This visit includes access to:
- Italian Renaissance Alive at Amherst at Deerpark®
- 8,000 Acres of Gardens and Grounds for two consecutive days
- Antler Hill Village & Winery
- Complimentary Wine Tastings at the Winery
- Tastings require a Day-of-Visit Reservation, which can be made by:
- Scanning the QR Code found in your Estate Guide
- Visiting any Guest Services location
- Complimentary parking
Art Exhibition: Italian Renaissance Alive
This fascinating experience takes you on a spellbinding tour of Italy, fully immersing you in the beauty and brilliance of iconic masterworks from the greatest artistic period in history
Learn Asheville’s history, discover hidden gems, and laugh at LaZoom’s quirky sense of adventure.
- Guided comedy tour bus of historical Asheville
- 90-Minutes – tours run daily
- 15-minute break at Green Man Brewing
- $39 per person (ages 13+ only)
Black Mountain College and Mexico (BMC/MX): Exhibition, Publication, and Public Programming
Black Mountain College (1933–1957), a small but remarkably influential liberal arts school in rural North Carolina, had important links to Mexico that until now have been little investigated. A crucible of twentieth-century creativity, BMC galvanized and inspired artists and intellectuals from around the world, while Mexico’s innovations and age-old traditions—in fine and applied arts, architecture, poetry, music, performance, and more—dovetailed with, and indeed drove, global impulses toward modernism and beyond. Among the many key BMC figures whose lives were importantly touched by experiences in Mexico were Anni and Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, John Cage, Jean Charlot, Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Carlos Mérida, Robert Motherwell, Charles Olson, Clara Porset, M.C. Richards, and Aaron Siskind. In turn, engagements with BMC and its legacy have played a significant role in shaping contemporary approaches to art in Mexico, evident in the works of Jorge Méndez Blake, Iñaki Bonillas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jose Dávila, Gerda Gruber, Lake Verea, Gabriel Orozco, and Damián Ortega, among others.
The exhibition BMC/MX features works by these and other prominent contemporary Mexican artists alongside a selection of historic works by BMC artists, highlighting the ways in which ideas and modalities are translated across materials, space, and time.
Related programming, planned in collaboration with Mexican artists, features a series of public events, including a performance by artist (and BMC/MX co-curator) David Miranda to take place at Different Wrld; an exhibition visit (in Spanish and English) with BMC/MX Project Director Eric Baden; and a series of experiential art events in the BMCM+AC library.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book Black Mountain College and Mexico (forthcoming late summer 2023), which investigates the people, ideas, and practices linking BMC and Mexico during the life of the school, as well as resonances between BMC and the work of contemporary Mexican artists. With contributions by BMC/MX’s curators, as well as by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, design scholar Ana Elena Mallet, and author and activist Margaret Randall, this fully illustrated volume brings new light to this complex and underexplored subject.
BMC/MX is an investigation into modes of communication—the arenas in which new ideas and alliances may come to be—between Black Mountain College and Mexico, between past and present, between form and idea.
About the Curators
BMC/MX’s Project Director Eric Baden is a photographer and from 1994 to 2022 was professor of photography at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He is the founding director of photo+, a multidisciplinary arts event held in Asheville, North Carolina.
Artist and educator David Miranda is curator at the Museo Experimental El Eco (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM), and teaches at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City.
Diana Stoll is an editor, writer and curator who works with institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has served as an editor at Aperture and Artforum magazines, and contributes writings to prominent arts publications.
Come out for a round of golf with the Chamber!
Each year, our annual Golf Classic raises funds for our Chamber of Commerce Foundation and its workforce development efforts. Programs under the Foundation include, Teacher of the Year Reception, Junior Leaders Program, Apprenticeships programs and more!
Please reach out to Amy at [email protected] to register for a team, to sponsor a hole, or both! All registration forms are below.
Team Registration Form
Hole Sponsorship Form
Individual Player Form
All registrations are due no later than May 31st!
Kids Storytime at Barnes and Noble
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Paul Wong, Carbon, silver and gold, 2016, pigmented linen and cotton pulp, publisher: Dieu Donné, New York, edition 3/25, 18 × 11 inches. Gift of Dieu Donné, New York, 2022.27.06. © Paul Wong. |
On View March 8 through July 24, 2023
The Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery • Level 1
Paper is an essential part of the art-making process for many artists, serving as the base for drawing, painting, printmaking, and other forms of art. As a substrate, paper can vary in weight, absorbency, color, size, and other aspects. Since industrialization, paper has primarily been produced through mechanical means that allow for consistency and affordability.
What happens, then, when an artist chooses to return to the foundations of paper, wherein it is made by hand using pulps, fibers, and dyes that reflect the human element through variations, inconsistencies, flaws, and surprises? Certain artists have sought out these qualities and embraced them, making paper not just a support on which to work, but fully a medium in and of itself.
Pulp Potential: Works in Handmade Paper is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, former assistant curator, with assistance from Alexis Meldrum, curatorial assistant. Special thanks to Dieu Donné, New York, NY.
Included with admission
Back by popular demand, The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad exhibition offers guests:
- An opportunity to view rarely-seen treasures from the Biltmore collection
- A first-hand look at the Vanderbilts’ lifestyle
- Deeper insights into George, Edith, and Cornelia’s personalities, both at home and on their extensive travels
Access to exhibitions at The Biltmore Legacy is included with Biltmore daytime admission.
Fierce Poise is a dazzling biography of one of the 20th century’s most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, as she came of age as both an artist and a woman in the vibrant art world of 1950s New York. Brought to vivid life by acclaimed art historian Alexander Nemerov, this book comprises a portrait as bold and distinctive as the painter herself.
Read Fierce Poise in advance and join museum staff for a book conversation followed by a gallery talk featuring Frankenthaler’s artwork Book of Clouds, on view in SECU Collection Hall, level 3. Books are available at your local library as well as Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café for a 10% discount.
For the 26th year, the Kesha Young Scholarship is being presented to 15 graduating high school seniors to ease their college financial burden and help under represented students advance their education in the field of healthcare. The scholarship is named in honor of Kesha Young, a 22-year-old, bi-racial woman who was born with mental and physical disabilities and underwent multiple surgeries at Mission Hospital. Kesha died just months before she was scheduled to earn her high school diploma. Despite her health struggles, Kesha was described by her adoptive parents as embodying the characteristics that are vital to how healthcare team members engage with patients, families and visitors, with a strong spirit, warm smile and positive encouragement.
Weekdays only at 2pm
Do you know our staff has a wild side? Join a Park naturalist to meet some of our live Animal Ambassadors and learn about the types of wildlife in the area and their jobs. Some of our best educators have feathers, fur, shells or scales!
Located in the River Arts District, and surrounded by art galleries and breweries, come find out about Asheville’s favourite mid-week market!
Proudly serving the Weaverville community since 2009
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Puptart is a tail wagging robot dog who sits and stays, pants when listening, and responds to someone talking to and petting it. It will not jump up or run away, plus it’s fur free, so no sneezes and runny noses coming your way! Every Wednesday afternoon, Puptart will be available for reading practice in the children’s picture book room. Help establish a joy of reading and develop early literacy skills. Sign up at the front desk, pick a book and practice reading for up to 15 minutes. |
Please Join the Chamber to Celebrate the Ribbon Cutting for True Divine Accessories!
True Divine Accessories is an inexpensive way to accessorize your lifestyle and will make you look like you just walked off the Runway.
Everything is $5, so why not try it. Your wrist, neck, fingers, ears and wallet will be happy! There will be a drawing for a free gift, you don’t want to miss it!
Just Economics and Pisgah Legal Services are co-sponsoring a workshop for renters to learn their rights as tenants in NC. There will be a presentation and question and answer session with Pisgah Legal Services followed by a discussion with Just Economics about the Tenants’ Network. The goal of this workshop is to educate tenants about their rights as renters in North Carolina and begin connecting tenants to resources and to each other.
Through these workshops, Just Economics will facilitate the formation of a local Tenants’ Network. The purpose of having a Tenants Network is to build solidarity among tenants and between renters and the community, to organize mutual aid networks and to empower renters and community supporters to come together for projects to improve our neighborhoods. Additionally, the Tenants Network will be a way for renters to collectively advocate for public policies that favor the interests and rights of tenants and to take collective action to fight back when tenants face injustice.