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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Join us for weekly workdays in the Sand Hill native tree nursery. Tasks vary and often include repotting, weeding, mulching, and other special projects to improve infrastructure and function.
Need to know
Please come dressed in work clothes with close toed shoes. Bring water and sun protection. All other gear and supplies are provided.
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.
Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.
And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!
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
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.
Experience the YWCA’s work firsthand through a tour of our building including stories that highlight how we are engaging nearly 3,000 community members annually in programs that advance racial justice, empower women, promote health, and nurture children.
After your Empower Hour Tour, we hope you will be informed, inspired, and ready to get involved!
Empower Hour takes place several times each month. Tours include a light vegetarian lunch. Below are the dates, times, and information on how to join upcoming tours open to the public. We look forward to connecting with you!
Upcoming Public Empower Hour Tours: All are from 12:00-1:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
If you are interested in joining a future Empower Hour Tour, please contact: [email protected] or call 828-254-7206 x 227
| with YMCA Begin Tuesday, March 19th |
| Join us for Chamber Challenge training designed for ALL fitness levels with YMCA Personal Trainer Suzanne Ion beginning next Tuesday, March 19th!
These free sessions will be held Tuesdays at 5:30 PM through April 23rd at the Asheville Chamber (36 Montford Avenue). The last session will be a preview run/walk of the actual Chamber Challenge 5k course beginning at the Chamber, winding through historic Montford and finishing in the parking lot once again. These training sessions are open to anyone – whether you’ve registered to participate in the event or not! We recommend you bring your own water bottle. The doors to the Visitor Center will be open 5:00 – 5:30 PM on training days so you can come in to get water and/or use the restroom! Meet in the parking lot in front of the building. Thank you to our Training Partner – the YMCA of Western North Carolina!
Our trainer for the second consecutive year is Suzanne Ion, a sixth generation native of Hawaii who grew up on the island of Maui and in the north Georgia mountains. Whether this is your first 5k or your 500th, you’ll be in good hands with Suzanne. No stranger to health challenges, she lost over 70 lbs. after a debilitating illness with a commitment to interval cross training and a determination to teach again. Her motto is “Someday I will not be able to do this. Today is not that day.” She was the only girl on an all-boys soccer team, ran track in high school, and was a basketball cheerleader and member of the drill team/dance corps in high school and college. Suzanne has Three Star Elite Instructor status for spinning and has continued her fitness education with group exercise certifications through AFFA, ACE, TRX, Silver Sneakers, Mat Pilates, and Tabata Boot Camp. An active participant in 5k’s, 10k’s, half and full marathons, she achieved a Top 20 overall women’s finish at the Lake Tahoe marathon. Whether it’s scuba diving, kayaking, sup, hiking, or glacier climbs, Suzanne is always ready for a challenge. |
Eclipses are one of the most spectacular wonders of nature and the total solar eclipse in April 2024 will be no exception. While the eclipse in western North Carolina will be partial, there will still be great interest in safely observing this unusual and beautiful event. In this timely and engaging class with Astronomer Stephan Martin, who has been involved in global eclipse studies over decades, we’ll explore why eclipses happen, what to look for during a total or partial solar eclipse, and how to observe them safely. Participants in the class will receive complementary NASA solar viewers (aka eclipse glasses) to view the eclipse and will learn about NASA eclipse participatory science projects. Weather permitting, we’ll head outside to get hands-on tips for safe viewing practices with naked-eye and telescope filters in preparation for a close-up look at our nearest star.
Spring Musical
Finding Nemo KIDS
2nd-4thGrades
Tuesdays
2:30pm-4:00pm
2/6, 2/13, 2/20. 2/27, 3/5, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/9, 4/16, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14
No Class: 4/2 Spring Break, 4/23 Early Release
Dress Rehearsal: 5/7 2:30-4:00pm
Performance: 5/14/2024 3:30pm
Tuition: $300
Students will learn all about teamwork as they work together with their classmates and a professional Teaching Artist to perform scenes and songs from a short musical. Each actor will receive their own part with lines and songs to learn. Class time will be used for rehearsal and a performance complete with costumes and props will take place on the final class day.
In Person at Glen Arden Elementary School
50 Pinehurst Cir, Arden, NC 28704
Confused about Medicare or new to Medicare? The Council on Aging will present an informational session on updates in 2024. Each year, Medicare updates prices for premiums, the cost of living is adjusted and prices change! This session will give you the ins and outs of what has changed for 2024.
Who should attend?
People that have been on Medicare, caregivers, and others who help Medicare beneficiaries.
This program is free. We ask that you register so the host knows how many people to expect.
How to register for this event
Go to: https://www.coabc.org/events/ and click on the Events tab at the top, scroll down the page to find this event and register. You can also call COABC and register by phone.
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West Asheville Library Book Discussion group will discuss The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. This is an online Zoom event. Please join us! Email [email protected] for the Zoom information. |
Trying out your new reading skills in front of other people can be intimidating! But dogs always listen and never judge, even when we make mistakes. Practice reading with a furry pal at the library every Tuesday afternoon and improve your skills with the listening ear of a certified therapy dog from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.
Read with Flora the Golden Retriever every first and third Tuesday from 4 – 5 p.m.
Read with Rascal the King Charles Spaniel every second and fourth Tuesday from 3 – 4 p.m.
All participants must register and sign a waiver to take part. Call the library at 828-250-4738 or e-mail [email protected] for more information.
Join us every Tuesday for some sweet sweet deals as a way for us to thank you and all of our fellow service industry friends!
Join us for a lively language enrichment story time designed for children ages 4 to 18 months.
Join us for a lively language enrichment story time designed for children ages 4 to 18 months.
Come down the Pack Memorial Library and play with LEGOs!
Show off your building skills and make new friends with other LEGO maniacs.
Please leave your personal LEGOs at home, because we’ve got plenty.
Diana McCall managed the Dr. John Wilson Community Garden from 2007 until 2022. She began volunteering at the garden and working with Dr. John Wilson August of 2005. She continues to volunteer and advocate for the well being of the garden and our community, which includes its people, plants and land
For Kids Ages 10-18
Learn basic breakdancing moves in an action-packed, pop-up workshop for youth at the Wortham Center in Asheville! This high-energy class allows young movers to learn choreography, techniques, and tricks from internationally renowned dancers Bboy Sette (AUS) and Bboy Leerok (NZ) – company members of 360 ALLSTARS. Kids will have fun expressing themselves as they try out one of the most physical and fresh styles of dance today. Space is limited.
PLEASE NOTE:
All youth must be walked in and checked in by a parent or guardian.
A consent and liability form must be completed for every student at check-in by a legal guardian.
Parents and guardians are welcome to wait in the Wortham’s lobby during the workshop.
Come and learn about how our Buncombe County Primary election went with the NEW Voter Photo ID requirement, and the NEW voting machines! Elections are now more important than ever, so let’s all get educated on the rules and changes!
Jake Quinn, the Chair of the Buncombe County Board of Elections, will provide all your answers. For those who haven’t yet experienced the new machines, there will be a video to show you how to use it so that you will feel comfortable with voting using this method in November. Consider this important education for the General Election. There are still some issues around the State Board of Elections, and Jake will give us the updates on several election lawsuits that may affect us.
These events have become very popular and headcount is critical for organizing. Please register or you may be turned away if over the limit.
If you’re bringing your spouse, register them, but if you have the same email address, put both names under the one address.
Look for us in the 2nd movie theater to the right of the building. You can order food and drink from the front lobby bar or the bar in our theater. Extra parking in the back.
Who should attend: North Buncombe / North Asheville Cluster Dems & Left-Leaning Unaffiliated Voters
Nichelle Nichols’ daunting task to launch a national blitz for NASA, recruiting 8,000 of the nation’s best and brightest, including the trailblazing astronauts who became the first Black, Asian and Latino men and women to fly in space.
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Melanie Brooks, author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All in conversation with Laura Carney, author of My Father’s List: How Living My Dad’s Dreams Set Me Free. Melanie Brooks is the author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All (Vine Leaves Press, September 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She recently completed a Certificate of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Psychology Today, the HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and chocolate Lab. Laura Carney is a writer and copy editor in New York. Her work as a copy editor has been primarily in magazines, for 20 years, including Good Housekeeping, People, Guideposts, Vanity Fair, and GQ. As a writer, she has been published by the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Runner’s World, Good Housekeeping and many other publications. Her book My Father’s List: How Living My Dad’s Dreams Set Me Free was published by Post Hill Press in June 2023. To talk about her book, Laura has appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning, NPR, the BBC, Tamron Hall, the Drew Barrymore Show, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, among many other TV programs. My Father’s List has been covered by the Washington Post, AARP, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Woman’s Day, the Daily Mail, the New York Post, and Shondaland, among many other publications. My Father’s List was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2023 by Real Simple magazine. |
Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.
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The UNCA Bluegrass Band is a highly energetic and entertaining ensemble made up entirely of university students and their instructor, Wayne Erbsen. The band features red hot instrumentals on banjo, 3 fiddles, mandolin, guitar dobro, cello and bass, along with powerful and heartfelt vocals. Their rich repertoire includes traditional bluegrass, western swing, blues, old-time fiddle tunes and gospel. They have performed at many venues in western North Carolina and at the World of Bluegrass festival in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is a free performance sponsored by the Friends of Pack Library. |
Teacher: Allison Starling
Class Cost: $150
Min Students: 3
Max Students: 5
Class Dates: Tuesdays, February 6 – March 26 (8 weeks)
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Location: Hendersonville Theatre’s Costume Shop
Must be 14+ to attend. Parents are encouraged, though not required, to participate with minor students.
Refund Policy: The last day to receive a full refund* is January 9, 2024. After January 9, 2024, no refund will be issued.
*Be advised: Refunds are for tuition only and are at the discretion of the Class Teacher and Education Director. All taxes and fees are final and cannot be refunded.
Class Description:
Sewing 101 is an eight-week class for beginners with little sewing experience. Whether that means you have never even SEEN a sewing machine or have explored a little and are ready to learn what all the switches and buttons do! Allison will help you master the basics, from threading your machine and blowing a bobbin to making projects using zippers! Join this exciting new class and impress your friends with your new sewing prowess.
For more information and to register, visit https://hendersonvilletheatre….
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Free. Doors open at 6 p.m. Join Blue Ridge Audubon member Tom Tribble for a presentation about birds of western North Carolina. Topics will include the value of birds, food requirements, the importance of native plants, migration, bird identification tips and interesting facts about some of our local birds. The presentation will conclude with pictures and songs of more than 2 dozen birds found in our region. Tom Tribble served six years as President and is now an At-Large Director of Blue Ridge Audubon Chapter, which covers Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and several adjacent counties in western North Carolina. Tom has been an Audubon member and avid birder for more than 45 years. Tom worked for 30 years at the NC Center for Geographic Information & Analysis, the State’s Geographic Information System, retiring in 2013. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a Master’s degree from Duke University. |
Join us for a stitch n’ bitch fiber arts group! Featured in Bold Life Magazine, Alicia Borga owner of @linen_circus, is knowledgeable in knitting, crochet, embroidery, and historical fiber techniques including spinning yarn and traditional darning. Ideal for beginners that need guidance or for the seasoned professionally looking for a social group to craft with!
*potluck snacks and beverages always welcome!
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Join us for an evening conversation with local gardening expert Susan Sides as we discuss all things gardening. Susan served as Executive Director and Garden Manager of The Lord’s Acre, now Root Cause Farm, for many years. Their mission is to grow community solutions to end hunger. This program is financially supported by the Friends of Fairview Library |
Almost 50 years ago — on July 6, 1974 — Garrison Keillor hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, and the perennially popular weekly radio show remained on the air until July of 2016, with its music, comedy sketches, and accounts of life in tiny Lake Wobegon (where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average). Since the show ended, the author and humorist has continued to take the stage at venues nationwide — much to the delight of legions of fans.
In the coming months, Keillor takes A Prairie Home Companion’s 50th Anniversary Tour across the U.S. Joining Keillor are charming singer-actor Christine DiGiallonardo, dazzling vocalist Heather Masse, the ever-popular Royal Academy of Actors (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and sound-effects wizard Fred Newman), music director/keyboardist Richard Dworsky, and others to be announced.
Born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, Garrison Keillor developed a love of writing in childhood. “I started out with a No. 2 pencil and pads of paper, then acquired an Underwood manual typewriter with a faint F and a misshapen O,” he says. Five years after getting a job in public radio “doing the 6 a.m. shift Monday to Friday, because nobody else wanted to get up so early,” he wrote a piece for The New Yorker about the Grand Ole Opry and got the idea to launch A Prairie Home Companion.
These days, his in-person humor-filled shows are a treat for folks young and not-so-young. He has written dozens of books —including novels, a book of sonnets, a collection of limericks, a memoir, a political homily, and most recently, Cheerfulness. His biweekly online column can be found on Substack.
Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion brings out the best in composers through their unwavering dedication to artistry in contemporary chamber music. Brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning.
Sandbox Percussion’s 2021 album Seven Pillars was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards — Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Sandbox Percussion will perform Seven Pillars over 15 times in the 2022-23 season, with sold-out stops throughout the United States and Europe. In October, Sandbox Percussion will perform the work live with the LA Dance Project and choreographer Benjamin Millepied at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
In addition to maintaining an international performance schedule, Sandbox Percussion holds the position of ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School’s College of Performing Arts, where they have created a curriculum with entrepreneurship and chamber music at its core. In 2016, Sandbox Percussion founded the annual NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar — a week-long seminar that invites percussion students from around the globe to rehearse and perform today’s leading percussion chamber music repertoire.
ALL AGES
STANDING ROOM ONLY
TREDICI BACCI
New York-based large ensembleTredici Bacci was formed by composer Simon Hanes as a vehicle to bring his unique musical vision to the stage, and to seduce the ears and minds of audiences around the country. The instrumentation of vocals, string quartet, horns, accordion and rhythm section is specifically designed to capture the musical qualities of Hanes’ initial inspiration – the music of Italian films from the 1960s-70s. From giallo to spaghetti-western, Morricone to Rota to Cipriani, Hanes has made it his duty to absorb it all, and allow it to inform his original, very personal compositions.
Since its impetus, Tredici Bacci has performed in bars, galleries, warehouses, and concert halls, leaving a trail of Campari bottles, confetti, and whipped cream in their wake. Each performance is a celebration – the audience revels as the band deftly performs technically demanding and cinematic music.
SHAM
Songs of Shane Justice McCord expanded in collaboration with Mikey Powers, other friends & magnetic tape.