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.
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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.”
Members: FREE
Personal/Standard Vehicle (up to 20′ long): $30
Large vehicles (21′-29′ long): $75
Busses and Oversize Vehicles (30′ long+): $150
Michelle Tway – fiber
Timothy Bridges – fiber
Martine House – mixed media
Noel Yovovich – metal
Deb Herman – fiber
The Focus Gallery is located on the second level of the Folk Art Center. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north of the Highway 70 entrance in east Asheville, NC.
This exhibition is hosted by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to cultivate the crafts and makers of the Southern Highlands for the purpose of shared resources, education, marketing, and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
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
The Annual Spring Herb Festival at the WNC Ag Center offers herbs and heirloom vegetables as well as products and soil additives and organic expertise.
Great regional herb growers, herbal product manufacturers, herbalists, and specialists in herbiculture, including growing herbs for culinary and medicinal uses join for two days of herb celebration.
Get ready to make that herb garden shine! Fruit trees, permaculture and everything herbal. Come later in the afternoon if you want to avoid crowds! Free workshops again in 2023. Food trucks! Handmade herbal products, garden ornaments and soil amendments too!
The largest herb festival in the United States and Canada — promoting WNC herbs and herbal products since 1990!
May 5th, FRIDAY 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
May 6th, SATURDAY 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
May 7th, SUNDAY 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
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!
Andrea Rich’s intricately designed, carved, and printed woodcuts draw viewers in for an up-close look.
Some of the artist’s earliest memories are of drawing animals. Childhood encounters with pets, livestock, and wildlife, including birds, deer, and toads, created a lasting connection to the natural world. Through encounters with creatures both tame and wild, Rich developed a fascination and a compassion for animals integral to her art.
“My prints are a visual record of the intriguing creatures that have enriched my life. The woodcut process challenges me to focus on the essence of my subjects. At the same time, I am drawn to the smell of the wood, its texture and grain, and the pleasure I experience while carving. I begin working on a block of wood and realize later that hours have passed without notice.”
Rich uses a centuries-old medium that requires one carved wood panel for each color – varying from one to sixteen – necessary to develop the composition. These panels are painstakingly aligned one atop another sequentially and pulled through a printing press to create the final woodcut.
The subjects of Rich’s woodcuts range from the wilderness of the Australian outback and the lush tropical Amazon forests to the roaring rivers of Yellowstone Park. Rich has traveled worldwide to study wildlife habitats and these varied firsthand experiences are reflected in her work.
Among Rich’s many achievements are international recognition for her woodcut prints, including a 2009 Award of Excellence from the Society of Animal Artists and a 2009 Medal of Excellence from the Artists for Conservation Foundation. She was named Master Artist by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in 2006. In 2010 her work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center, Canton, Massachusetts. Rich is a member of the California Society of Printmakers, Artists for Nature Foundation, the Society of Animal Artists, and Society of Wildlife Artists.
In 2000 Rich designated the Woodson Art Museum as the repository for her artistic oeuvre. An Abundance of Riches is drawn from these holdings, which include an example of each of her woodcuts created since the mid-1980s.
- Dig in the dirt and bring up some deep knowledge on soil health with UNCA’s Asst. Professor Jake Hagedorn
- Start off with
- Learn about our Holistic Land Management from Farm Director Virginia, and how our regenerative practices depend on a deep connection with soil and understanding of it’s indicators.
- Spotted on the farm by our farm crew, staff & neighbors: moles, voles, groundhogs, worms, toads, grouse, killdeer and all manner of creepy crawlies!
- Attendees will break for an included biscuit brunch* from butcher Brian’s kitchen, as birding is hungry work. When attending classes, you will receive a 5% discount in the Farm Store & Butchery!
Is your interest in soil health and farming deeper than dirt? Join us for a practical and in-depth course on regenerative practices and impact in a continuation of our Savory Hub courses, Introduction to Holistic Land Management with Virginia Hamilton.
Cost: $25/person, 2 pack for $40, biscuit brunch is included.
*If you have dietary restrictions, please reach out to [email protected] and we can accommodate.
- This will be a physical activity outside on farm grounds, and DIRT is involved! Wear appropriate footwear and outerwear.
- This class is not recommended for kids in middle school or younger for content comprehension.
- Our Farm Store will be open 10am-5pm. When attending classes, you will receive a 5% discount in the Farm Store & Butchery!
Featured Speakers & Guides:
Jake Hagedorn
Jake is an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at UNC Asheville. He received his BS in Environmental Studies from UNC Asheville, MS in Geosciences from Pennsylvania State University and PhD in Environmental Science from University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He teaches soil science, agriculture and energy courses at UNC Asheville. His research focuses on assessing how farm management decisions and best management practices impact water, soil, and air quality. Understanding the complex role soil has in the biogeochemical nutrient cycling is essential for examining environmental concepts like pollution tradeoffs or soil carbon sequestration potential. He also loves chatting about tiny houses.
Virginia Hamilton
Virginia is our Farm Director here at the home of the brand in Fairview. She received her BS in Environmental Studies from Warren Wilson College and her MS in Land Resources & Environmental Science from Montana State University. Prior to completing her MS, she was the assistant farm manager at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC for five years. She is interested in the ecology of working lands and any and all opportunities to invite landowners and community members to participate in the scientific process. She believes that working farms and forests are the key to thriving and resilient rural communities that are poised to support the communities around them. Virginia also spearheads our Ecological Outcome Verification efforts with the Savory Institute.
About the Savory Institute
The Savory Institute’s mission is to facilitate the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands and the livelihoods of their inhabitants great and small, through holistic land management. Savory Institute is working in collaboration with research institutions and partners, to measure the outcomes of managing holistically, by monitoring the health of ecosystem processes, levels of permanent soil carbon, quality of life of the people, as well as financial vitality. Hickory Nut Gap is a verified Savory Hub as of 2021- to equip our partner farmers, local farmers, ranchers, and pastoralist communities with the tools and knowledge to regenerate grasslands in a localized context. To learn more about the Savory Institute, click here.
- Dig in the dirt and bring up some deep knowledge on soil health with UNCA’s Asst. Professor Jake Hagedorn
- Learn about our Holistic Land Management from Farm Director Virginia, and how our regenerative practices depend on a deep connection with soil and understanding of its indicators.
- Spotted on the farm by our farm crew, staff & neighbors: moles, voles, groundhogs, worms, toads, grouse, killdeer and all manner of creepy crawlies!
- Attendees will break for an included biscuit brunch* from butcher Brian’s kitchen, as birding is hungry work. When attending classes, you will receive a 5% discount in the Farm Store & Butchery!
Is your interest in soil health and farming deeper than dirt? Join us for a practical and in-depth course on regenerative practices and impact in a continuation of our Savory Hub courses, Introduction to Holistic Land Management with Virginia Hamilton.
Notes for attendees:
- This will be a physical activity outside on farm grounds, and DIRT is involved! Wear appropriate footwear and outerwear.
- Bringing a pair of gardening gloves or work gloves is recommended.
- This class is not recommended for kids in middle school or younger for content comprehension.
- Our Farm Store will be open 10am-5pm. When attending classes, you will receive a 5% discount in the Farm Store & Butchery!
Featured Speakers & Guides:
Jake Hagedorn
Jake is an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at UNC Asheville. He received his BS in Environmental Studies from UNC Asheville, MS in Geosciences from Pennsylvania State University and PhD in Environmental Science from University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He teaches soil science, agriculture and energy courses at UNC Asheville. His research focuses on assessing how farm management decisions and best management practices impact water, soil, and air quality. Understanding the complex role soil has in the biogeochemical nutrient cycling is essential for examining environmental concepts like pollution tradeoffs or soil carbon sequestration potential. He also loves chatting about tiny houses.
Virginia Hamilton
Virginia is our Farm Director here at the home of the brand in Fairview. She received her BS in Environmental Studies from Warren Wilson College and her MS in Land Resources & Environmental Science from Montana State University. Prior to completing her MS, she was the assistant farm manager at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC for five years. She is interested in the ecology of working lands and any and all opportunities to invite landowners and community members to participate in the scientific process. She believes that working farms and forests are the key to thriving and resilient rural communities that are poised to support the communities around them. Virginia also spearheads our Ecological Outcome Verification efforts with the Savory Institute.
About the Savory Institute
The Savory Institute’s mission is to facilitate the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands and the livelihoods of their inhabitants great and small, through holistic land management. Savory Institute is working in collaboration with research institutions and partners, to measure the outcomes of managing holistically, by monitoring the health of ecosystem processes, levels of permanent soil carbon, quality of life of the people, as well as financial vitality. Hickory Nut Gap is a verified Savory Hub as of 2021- to equip our partner farmers, local farmers, ranchers, and pastoralist communities with the tools and knowledge to regenerate grasslands in a localized context. To learn more about the Savory Institute, click here.
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)
The largest herb festival in the United States and Canada — promoting WNC herbs and herbal products since 1990!
Ayurveda-Influenced yoga designed for the spring season.
Bring a mat and stay afterward for community
Avoid the fee by sending a venmo to @burning-sage-yoga and put Hillman 5/7 in the notes.
Your amazing instructor Claudia will lead you through a spring flow designed to help you detox your winter and energize your spring.
Stay at Hillman for a great time afterwards!
Asheville Gallery of Art’s May show, “Flower Power,” introduces three new Gallery members: Nick Colquitt, Jean-Pierre Dubreuil, and Yvonne McCabe. This delightful exhibition takes its audience on a journey through the mountains of North Carolina, showcasing the mysterious beauty they display within their natural terrain. The show runs May 1-31 during Gallery hours, 11am-6pm daily.
An enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Luzene Hill advocates for Indigenous sovereignty—linguistically, culturally, and individually. Revelate builds upon Hill’s investigation of pre-contact cultures. This has led Hill to incorporate the idea of Ollin, the Nahuatl word for the natural rhythms of the universe, in Aztec cosmology in her work. Before Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous societies were predominantly matrilineal. Women were considered sacred, involved in the decision-making process, and thrived within communities holding a worldview based on equilibrium.
Ollin emphasizes that we are in constant state of motion and discovery. Adopted as an educational framework, particularly in social justice and ethnic studies, Ollin guides individuals through a process of reflection, action, reconciliation, and transformation. This exhibition combines Hill’s use of mylar safety blankets alongside recent drawings. Capes constructed of mylar burst with energy and rustle with subtle sound, the shining material a signifier of care, awareness, displacement, and presence. Though Hill works primarily in sculpture, drawing has increasingly become an essential part of her practice as she seeks to communicate themes of feminine and Indigenous power across her entire body of work. The energy within her drawings extends to the bursts of light reflecting from her capes or the accumulation of materials in other installation works.
Luzene Hill was born in Atlanta, GA, in 1946. She received her bachelor of fine art and master of fine art from Western Carolina University. She lives and works on the Qualla Boundary, Cherokee, NC.
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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.
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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.
In the past 50 years in the United States and beyond, artists have sought to break down social and political hierarchies that include issues of identity, gender, power, race, authority, and authenticity. Unsurprisingly, these decades generated a reconsideration of the idea of pattern and decoration as a third option to figuration and abstraction in art. From 1972 to 1985, artists in the Pattern and Decoration movement worked to expand the visual vocabulary of contemporary art to include ethnically and culturally diverse options that eradicated the barriers between fine art and craft and questioned the dominant minimalist aesthetic. These artists did so by incorporating opulence and bold intricacies garnered from such wide-ranging inspirations as United States quilt-making and Islamic architecture.
Too Much Is Just Right: The Legacy of Pattern and Decoration features more than 70 artworks in an array of media from both the original time frame of the Pattern and Decoration movement, as well as contemporary artworks created between 1985 and the present. The artworks in this exhibition demonstrate the vibrant and varied approaches to pattern and decoration in art. Artworks from the 21st century elucidate contemporary perspectives on the employment of pattern to inform visual vocabularies and investigations of diverse themes in the present day.
Artworks drawn from the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection join select major loans and feature Pattern and Decoration artists Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, and Miriam Schapiro, as well as Anni Albers, Elizabeth Alexander, Sanford Biggers, Tawny Chatmon, Margaret Curtis, Mary Engel, Cathy Fussell, Samantha Hennekke, John Himmelfarb, Anne Lemanski, Rashaad Newsome, Peter Olson, Don Reitz, Sarah Sense, Billie Ruth Sudduth, Mickalene Thomas, Shoku Teruyama, Anna Valdez, Kehinde Wiley, and more.
This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and guest curated by Marilyn Laufer & Tom Butler.
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
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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About Southside Community Farmers Market
Southside Community Farm hosts a farmers market featuring all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) vendors on the first Sunday of every month, May-Oct. from 12-3 PM. The market is EBT accessible. Come enjoy delicious patties, hot sauces, veggies, fruit, flowers, medicines, crafts and more!
“Once upon a time, there was a little ogre named Shrek….” And thus begins the tale of an unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue. Throw in a short-tempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude and over a dozen other fairy tale misfits, and you’ve got the kind of mess that calls for a real hero. Luckily, there’s one on hand… and his name is Shrek.
Shrek presents a treasure trove of creative opportunities, including costumes, sets, puppets (there is a fire-breathing dragon after all) and more! Irreverently fun for the whole family, Shrek proves that beauty is truly in the eye of the ogre.
Shrek is produced by our APAA Company members. This production is double cast. If you are interested in seeing a specific performer, please consult with them before purchasing tickets. Tickets will not be refunded or exchanged to see a specific performer.
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The Perspective Café is kicking off 2023 with a classic bang! Grab your friends and join us each Sunday from 2pm to 5pm in the Perspective Café to play an assortment of board and card games. You can even bring your own favorite games from home to share with new friends.
The Perspective Café will be offering special snacks and cocktails to savor while you play and make a memorable afternoon! Enjoy the galleries and then head up to the rooftop.
Music, Book, & Story by Steve Martin; Music, Lyrics, & Story by Edie Brickell
Set in our very own Blue Ridge Mountains, Bright Star tells the story of Alice at two different points in her life: as a young girl in the mountains, and 22 years later as the well-to-do editor of a successful Asheville magazine. A serendipitous encounter inspires Alice to face her past, and a stunning realization changes her life forever. Bright Star is based on the Grammy Award-winning bluegrass album, Love Has Come for You, and centers particularly on the song “Iron Mountain Baby.” Be sure to listen also for the song with our namesake – “Asheville”!
Content Warning: Bright Star contains swearing, language that some may find blasphemous, incidental drinking and smoking, and kidnapping.
Accessibility:
All performances: Accessible wheelchair/scooter seating available.
Saturday, May 6, 2023: ASL-Interpreted Performance
Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session
Sundays
1 till who knows when?
Traditional Irish music is kept alive at Jack of the Wood with our unplugged Sunday session.
Jack of the Wood
95 Patton ave
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 252.5445