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.
It’s Spring Break Baby!!! We worked hard all winter and it’s time to let loose and just vibe. Lets rip some jello shots and laugh it up at DSSOLVR! Great comedians from Asheville and all over the country will be joining us for Spring Break Comedy
featuring: Julia Macias, Taylor Neely, and many more!
ages 21+
Doors at 10pm, show at 10:30pm
Tickets $15 advance, $18 day of
The Museum recognizes Western North Carolina youth for their original artworks
Award winners will be featured in a student exhibition in the Museum’s Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery and Multipurpose Space from January 24–March 25, 2024. All regional award recipients will be honored at a closing reception on March 21.
The Asheville Art Museum and the Asheville Area Section of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) are the Western North Carolina (WNC) regional Affiliate Partners of the National Scholastic Art Awards. This ongoing community partnership has supported the creative talents of our region’s youth for 44 years. The WNC regional program is open to students in grades 7–12, ages 13-18, across 24 counties.
“I’m thrilled to witness the incredible talent showcased in the 2024 Western North Carolina Scholastic Art Awards exhibition,” said Susan Hendley, School & Teacher Programs Manager at the Asheville Art Museum. “This is a celebration of original works by students across the WNC region and highlights the profound impact of arts education.”
The regional program is judged in two groups: Group I, grades 7–9 and Group II, grades 10–12. Out of more than 500 total art entries, over 200 works have been recognized by the judges; Gold and Silver Key awards are featured in this exhibition, with select Honorable Mentions displayed digitally. The 2024 regional judges include Victoria Bradbury, Associate Professor and Chair of New Media at UNC Asheville, Andrew Davis, Studio Technician and instructor at Winthrop University, and Jenny Pickens, a native Asheville artist and educator.
Those works receiving Gold Keys have been submitted to compete in the 101st Annual National Scholastic Art Awards Program in New York City. Of the Gold Key Award recipients, five students have also been nominated for American Visions, indicating their work is the Best in Show of the regional awards. One of these American Visions Nominees will receive an American Visions Medal at the 2024 National Scholastic Art Awards.
Visit the Museum’s website for more information about the student exhibition.
Thanks to our sponsors, Jon and Ann Kemske, Russell and Ladene Newton, and Frugal Framer.
Download Student Artworks
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| Images: Left: Minna Wright Citron, Squid Under Pier, 1948, color etching, soft-ground, and engraving on paper, edition 42/50, 15 x 17 7/8 inches, 2010 Collections Circle purchase, Asheville Art Museum. © Estate of Minna Citron/Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York. Right: Dorothy Dehner, Woman #2, 1954, watercolor and ink on paper, 22 3/4 x 18”, courtesy of Dolan Maxwell. |
The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition American Art in the Atomic Age: 1940–1960, which explores the groundbreaking contributions of artists who worked at the experimental printmaking studio Atelier 17 in the wake of World War II. Co-curated by Marilyn Laufer and Tom Butler, American Art in the Atomic Age which draws from the holdings of Dolan/Maxwell, the Asheville Art Museum Collection, and private collections will be on view from November 10, 2023–April 29, 2024.
Atelier 17 operated in New York for fifteen years, between 1940 and 1955. The studio’s founder, Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988) established the workshop in Paris but relocated to New York just as the Nazi occupation of Paris began in 1940. Hayter’s new studio attracted European emigrants like André Masson, Yves Tanguy, and Joan Miró, as well as American artists like Dorothy Dehner, Judith Rothschild, and Karl Schrag, allowing for an exchange of artistic ideas and processes between European and American artists.
The Asheville Art Museum will present over 100 works that exemplify the cross-cultural exchange and profound social and political impact of Atelier 17 on American art. Prints made at Atelier 17—including those by Stanley William Hayter, Louise Nevelson, and Perle Fine—will be in conversation with works by European Surrealists who were working at the studio in the 1940s and 1950s. The exhibition will also feature a selection of domestic mid-century objects that exemplify how the ideas and aesthetics of post-war abstraction became a part of everyday life.
Yoga Six is visiting Biltmore Park Town Square on Saturday, March 23 to host a free yoga class at 11 AM. Join in the grass square in front of Reuter YMCA and stretch into spring.
For more mind, body, and strengthening classes with the Reuter Family YMCA, register here.
11am – 5pm Tuesday through Saturday
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Joseph Fiore (1925-2008) first enrolled at Black Mountain College for the Summer Session of 1946, the summer that Josef Albers invited Jacob Lawrence to teach painting at BMC. Over the next three years, Fiore also studied with Ilya Bolotowsky, Willem de Kooning, and Jean Varda. In 1949, after Josef and Anni Albers’ departure, Joe was invited to join the faculty, and he taught painting and drawing until 1956 when the college leaders decided to close.
After BMC closed, Joe and his wife Mary, whom he met and married at BMC, moved to New York City. There he became involved with the 10th Street art scene of the late 1950s and 1960s, a group of galleries that exhibited the work of young artists on the rise. Eventually he resumed his teaching career at the Philadelphia College of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, and the National Academy.
In May of 2001, Joseph Fiore was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in New York. The Carnegie Prize is awarded “for painting” at the National Academy’s Members’ Show.
This exhibition consists of paintings in our collection donated by the artist and by The Falcon Foundation. All of the paintings were made at Black Mountain College and show Fiore’s distinctive use of color and his ability to work comfortably in the spaces between abstraction and representation.
Curated by Alice Sebrell, Director of Preservation
Join us Saturday March 23rd for our next amazing festival…MARCH OF THE BLADES! Hosted by the Warriors Of Ash and Fae Nectar Meadery, our fighting arena will be ringing with the sounds of Sword and Axe fighting all afternoon, accompanied by both blood-pumping battle music and the merry sound of a medieval village upon our festival lawn.
As you wander our festive fantasy wonderland you’ll find working blacksmiths, artisan vendors selling enchanted garb and hand-crafted goods, armorers and jewelers, and even fortune tellers offering their services. And don’t forget to try your hand at Axe Throwing, or to visit our adorable Hobbit horse, Thistle!
And inside our comfortable and cozy Tavern you’ll find our Fae bartenders, happy to serve you our fine Mead, Cider, Wine, and local Craft Beer options, and we’ll be serving hot tasty comfort food to keep your bellies warm and full as you enjoy the festival.
This event is FREE! And open to all friends, families, Fae creatures, and friendly dogs on leash.
Artisan Market – 11am to 5pm
Sword Fighting & Battle Music – 1:00 to 2:30pm and 3:30 to 5pm
Thistle the Hobbit Horse – 12pm to 4pm
Bender Gallery Artists Featured in
Asheville Art Museum Exhibition
The New Salon: A Contemporary View
The Asheville Art Museum will be opening their exhibit, The New Salon: A Contemporary View, on March 8 and it will run until August 19, 2024. The New Salon offers a modern take on the prestigious tradition of the Parisian Salon with the diversity and innovation of today’s art world. Guest-curated by Gabriel Shaffer, the show will include works from Pop Surrealism, Outsider Art, Street Art, and Graffiti genres.
Bender Gallery has been collaborating with the Asheville Art Museum to loan four paintings from three of our artists. The artists are Laine Bachman, Kukula, and Yui Sakamoto. Be sure to check out this special exhibition in downtown Asheville.
Learn More
Kukula, Impossible Voyage, oil on board, 48 x 24 inches
Kukula (b. 1980, Israel)
Nataly Abramovitch, better known in the art world as, Kukula, paints imagined worlds filled with elaborately dressed women in fanciful settings. The artist does extensive research on the layouts of paintings from the Renaissance and Rococo periods. Kukula subverts these images by depicting women characters in place of traditionally male positions and settings. Her characters are powerful, commanding, and have an air of indifference.
Available Work
Yui Sakamoto, Self Portrait, oil on canvas, 63 x 63 inches
Yui Sakamoto (b. 1981, Japan)
Our surrealist artist, Yui Sakamoto, will have two paintings featured including My Soul and Self Portrait. Self Portrait is still available from his recent solo exhibition at Bender Gallery. Standing in front of Self Portrait, one is immersed in the dual-worlds of Sakamoto’s Japanese and Mexican cultures. There is a sense of calm reflected in the repeating rose pattern, mixed with the uneasy realization that the coral, fungi, and otherworldly forms are what makeup the figure.
Available Work
Laine Bachman, Night Bloomers, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
Laine Bachman (b. 1974, USA) Our prolific Magical Realism artist, Laine Bachman, makes a feature in the exhibition with her painting, Night Bloomers. She has been hard at work making 17 new pieces for her solo exhibition at the Canton Art Museum in Canton, Ohio. The Canton show opens on April 28 and continues through to July 28, 2024.
Available Work
Exhibition and Public Programming
Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams’ life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.
Author and illustrator of 17 children’s books, including Caldecott medal winner, A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams always had a passion for the arts. Williams grew up in the Bronx, NY, and in 1936, when she was nine years old, one of her paintings, called Yentas, opens a new window, was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. While Williams is widely known for her children’s books today, this exhibition’s expansive scope highlights unexplored aspects of her artistic practice and eight decades of life. From groundbreaking, powerful covers for Liberation Magazine, to Peace calendar collaborations with writer activist Grace Paley, to scenic sketches for Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater, to hundreds of late life “Aging and Illness” cartoons sketches and doodles, Vera never sat still.
Williams arrived at Black Mountain College in 1945. While there, she embraced all aspects of living, working, and learning in the intensely creative college community. She was at BMC during a particularly fertile period, which allowed her to study with faculty members Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers, and to participate in the famed summer sessions with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, she graduated with Josef Albers as her advisor and sculptor Richard Lippold as her outside examiner. Forever one of the College’s shining stars, Vera graduated from BMC with just six semesters of coursework, at only twenty-one years old. She continued to visit BMC for years afterward, staying deeply involved with the artistic community that BMC incubated.
Anticipating the eventual closure of BMC, Williams, alongside her husband Paul Williams and a group of influential former BMC figures, founded The Gate Hill Cooperative Artists community located 30 miles north of NYC on the outskirts of Stony Point, NY. The Gate Hill Cooperative, also known as The Land, became an outcropping of Black Mountain College’s experimental ethos. Students and faculty including John Cage, M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Stan VanDerBeek, and Patsy Lynch Wood shaped Gate Hill as founding members of the community. Vera B. Williams raised her three children at Gate Hill while continuing to make work.
The early Gate Hill era represented an especially creative phase for the BMC group. For Williams, this period saw the creation of 76 covers for Liberation Magazine, a radical, groundbreaking publication. This exhibition will feature some of Williams’ most powerful Liberation covers including a design for the June 1963 edition, which contained the first full publication of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Williams’ activism work continued throughout her life. As president of PEN’s Children Committee and member of The War Resisters league, she created a wide range of political and educational posters and journal covers. Williams protested the war in Vietnam and nuclear proliferation while supporting women’s causes and racial equality. In 1981, Williams was arrested and spent a month in a federal prison on charges stemming from her political activism.
In her late 40’s, Williams embarked in earnest on her career as a children’s book author and illustrator, a career which garnered the NY Public Library’s recognition of A Chair for My Mother as one of the greatest 100 children’s books of all time. Infinitely curious and always a wanderer at heart, Williams’ personal life was as expansive as her art. In addition to her prolific picture making, Williams started and helped run a Summerhill-based alternative school, canoed the Yukon, and lived alone on a houseboat in Vancouver Harbor. She helped to organize and attended dozens of political demonstrations throughout her adult life.
Her books won many awards including the Caldecott Medal Honor Book for A Chair for My Mother in 1983, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award– Fiction category– for Scooter in 1994, the Jane Addams Honor for Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart in 2002, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2009. Her books reflected her values, emphasizing love, compassion, kindness, joy, strength, individuality, and courage.
Images:
Cover of Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother, published in 1982.
Vera B. Williams, Cover for Liberation Magazine, November 1958.
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Western North Carolina is important in the history of American glass art. Several artists of the Studio Glass Movement came to the region, including its founder Harvey K. Littleton. Begun in 1962 in Wisconsin, it was a student of Littleton’s that first came to the area in 1965 and set up a glass studio at the Penland School of Craft in Penland, North Carolina. By 1967, Mark Peiser was the first glass artist resident at the school and taught many notable artists, like Jak Brewer in 1968 and Richard Ritter who came to study in 1971. By 1977, Littleton retired from teaching and moved to nearby Spruce Pine, North Carolina and set up a glass studio at his home. Since that time, glass artists like Ken Carder, Rick and Valerie Beck, Shane Fero, and Yaffa Sikorsky and Jeff Todd—to name only a few—have flocked to the area to reside, collaborate, and teach, making it a significant place for experimentation and education in glass. The next generation of artists like Hayden Wilson and Alex Bernstein continue to create here. The Museum is dedicated to collecting American studio glass and within that umbrella, explores the work of Artists connected to Western North Carolina. Exhibitions, including Intersections of American Art, explore glass art in the context of American Art of the 20th and 21st centuries. A variety of techniques and a willingness to push boundaries of the medium can be seen in this selection of works from the Museum’s Collection. |
Burger Bliss:
Who is ready for the ultimate burger fest? Come savor all styles of burgers at Burger Bliss! Join us for a community-oriented event that welcomes burger enthusiasts of all ages.
While the Burgers are the highlight of the show, let the kids enjoy fun games, while taking in the sounds of Asheville and enjoying tantalizing cocktails, ice-cold beers, and refreshing non-alcoholic curated farm-to-table sodas served up by Devil’s Foot Beverage.
VIP access kicks off the festivities at 11:30 AM, followed by General Admission at 12:30 PM until 3 PM. With 10+ chefs showcasing their most delectable burger creations, you’ll embark on a burger-tasting journey like no other. From classic cheeseburgers to gourmet delights, each bite will transport you to burger bliss. Don’t miss this opportunity to immerse yourself in a world of flavor and fun at Burger Bliss!
If you are an interested Chef Click Here
Presented by Devil’s Foot Beverage at The Mule and Produced by Shay & Company
This is gonna be a REAL special time! It’s 23 Skidoo’s bday, and all he wants is to entertain YOU! Street Creature Puppet Collective will collaborate with the Skidoo crew for some next level hip-hop storytelling that breaks boundaries AND the 4th wall!
Dog Eggstravaganza: Kicking off the 2024 event calendar is the Dog Eggstravaganza, which will be taking place at Buncombe County Sports Park’s dog park on March 23 at 12 p.m. This event will offer some springtime fun for our four-legged friends, and will consist of a small and large dog division. Each division will have approximately 30 minutes to find as many hidden eggs (filled with treats) as possible. In addition to hidden treats, dogs who collect the most eggs will receive a special prize. While admission is free, pre-registration is required as there are limited spots available. Registration opens on March 4 and closes March 20.
Kicking off our 2024 event calendar is the Dog Eggstravaganza, which will be taking place at Buncombe County Sports Park’s dog park on March 23 at 12 p.m. This event will offer some springtime fun for our four-legged friends and will consist of small and large dog divisions. Each division will have approximately 30 minutes to find as many hidden eggs (filled with treats) as possible. In addition to hidden treats, dogs who collect the most eggs will receive a special prize. While admission is free, pre-registration is required as there are limited spots available. Registration opens Monday, March 4. Pre-register here.
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Join us for our 2024 Spring Workday on March 23rd from 12pm-4pm! We’ll need help with everything from gardening to painting to cleaning. Some tools will be provided, but bring your own with you have them! For every 3 volunteer hours, you’ll receive 1 free ticket. |
Do you need a summer job, internship, or first job out of high school and don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’re nervous about applying for an opportunity or preparing for your first interview? Pack Library will be having a free Teen Job Skills Fair on March 23 to help you get ready to work this summer.
Teens are encouraged to attend any or all of these job skills training workshops led by career development specialists:
- Noon: Dream the Job – Career assessment and job search skills training with Jordan Meeks, Faith Bischoff, and Kristin Kress of NC Works Next Gen.
- 1 p.m.: Apply for the Job – Teen resume and cover letter writing tips and tricks with Caroline Long, Buncombe County Recruiting Manager.
- 2 p.m.: Land the Job – Teen job interviewing skills and mock interview practice with Jimmy Knight, Director of the Cothran Center for Career Readiness at Mars Hill University.
Call the Library at 828-250-4720 to sign up for a 20-minute one-on-one consultation with a career development professional during the Fair.
Teen Job Skills Fair
OVER 70 WNC non-profits seeking volunteers
The core values of Pilobolus are creativity, collaboration, and communication. Their workshops are designed to give students an experience of the Pilobolus creative process and their signature techniques of improvisation, partnering and collaborative choreography. Current Pilobolus dancers will lead students through an improvisational warmup, movement-based problem-solving, weight-sharing techniques, and group dance-making. The class concludes with a choreographic project and performance for their peers. For advanced beginner/intermediate dancers ages 16+.
Note: This workshop is waitlist-only. Please email [email protected] to be added to the list.
Experimental. Artisanal. Inspired. Share a journey of musical exploration with artists and guests of the Greenville Symphony and be guided every step of the way.
Program:
Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercari
Franz Joseph Haydn: Menuetto. Presto from String Quartet in F major, Op. 77/2
Caroline Shaw: Plan & Elevation, for string quartet
Franz Schubert: Andante molto – Allegro from Octet for clarinet, horn, bassoon & strings in F major, D. 803
Terry Riley: In C
Mason Bates: Mainframe Tropics
Spring Awakening & Renewal Forest Bathing Retreat | ONSITE | Saturday, March 9, 2 – 5 p.m. Or Saturday, March 23, 2 – 5 p.m.
THERE IS ONLY ONE.
HER VOICE IS UNDENIABLE. HER FIRE IS UNSTOPPABLE. HER TRIUMPH IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER.
An uplifting comeback story like no other, TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL is the inspiring journey of a woman who broke barriers and became the Queen of Rock n’ Roll. Set to the pulse-pounding soundtrack of her most beloved hits, this electrifying sensation will send you soaring to the rafters.
One of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, Tina Turner has won 12 Grammy Awards and her live shows have been seen by millions, with more concert tickets sold than any other solo performer in music history.
Featuring her much loved songs, TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall and directed by the internationally acclaimed Phyllida Lloyd.
Recommended for ages 14+.
Motown Remixed! From New York City, the epicenter of Soul and R&B, these young men of ‘UPTOWN’ will sing and dance their way into your hearts, and out of your seats in STYLE. With the class of young Temptations, moves like the Jackson 5, vocals like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and the contemporary feel of Bruno Mars … “Everybody’s Going UPTOWN!” It’s old school soul for a new generation!
Follow the Terriers on Twitter at @WoffordBaseball
Based on a story by Daphne du Maurier and made famous by Alfred Hitchcock, four strangers grapple with birds who have been transformed from creatures of beauty into terrifying, menacing predators.
In this beloved cult classic, chaos erupts in small-town Texas when the elderly family matriarch, an upstanding member of the community, accidentally dies during a clandestine meeting in a seedy motel room with her married lover. The woman’s family must deal with more skeletons coming out of the closet while preparing for what could be an embarrassing funeral. In this ‘coming out’ story, the hilarious, sad, trashy truth about their lives runs amuck.
Beginning in January 2024, ASAP (Appalachian
Sustainable Agriculture Project) will partner with Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture and MountainWise
to expand Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables programs to more farmers markets, farmstands,
and groceries in Western North Carolina. This group has established the WNC Double SNAP Network
in order to bring together existing programs and expand to new sites, making SNAP incentives more
accessible throughout the region.
SNAP programs that center local food and farms can significantly improve individual and community
health. They make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible, keep food dollars in the local
economy, and connect participants with positive food and social environments in their communities.
“ASAP, Mountainwise, and Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture currently operate successful SNAP
incentive programs at 26 sites, which connect participants with fresh food and farms in their
communities,” said Mike McCreary, ASAP’s Farmers Market Program Manager. “By combining efforts
and resources, we’ll not only be able to deepen the impact of our existing programs, but also create
adaptive programs that meet the needs of communities that don’t currently have access.”
The first phase of the project focuses on strengthening existing programs across sites operating
January through March, including:
● Asheville City Winter Market, 52 N. Market St., Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● Winter King Street Market, 252 Poplar Grove Rd., Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● Columbus Winter Market, 35 Locust St., 1st and 3rd Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● High Country Food Hub, 252 Poplar Grove Rd., Boone, online ordering with Wednesday pick-up,
12–6:30 p.m.
● Jackson County Winter Farmers Market, 110 Railroad Ave., Sylva, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● Jarrett Brothers IGA, 191 Main St., Rosman, daily, 7 a.m.–9 p.m.
● North Asheville Tailgate Market, 275 Edgewood Rd., Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● River Arts District Farmers Market, 350 Riverside Dr., Asheville, 3–5:30 p.m.
● Rutherford County Winter Farmers Market, 146 North Main St., Rutherfordton, 1st and 3rd
Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● Saluda Winter Market, 64 Greenville St., 2nd and 4th Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
● Transylvania Farmers Market, 200 E. Main St., Brevard, Saturdays, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
● Weaverville Tailgate Market, 60 Lakeshore Dr., Saturdays, 3–6 p.m
Live on the Legends Plaza Stage: Jennifer Allsbrook, the Hendersonville based singer/songwriter and guitarist sharing a blend of rock, folk, and originals.
There is no ticket needed for this FREE performance. Grab dinner on the grounds and enjoy!
Join us for an online community training on Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) and Bystander Intervention Techniques. Learn how to identify and prevent DFSA incidents, and gain the skills to intervene as a bystander. This training aims to create a safer community by equipping individuals with knowledge and strategies to combat sexual assault. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a difference!