A plan for everything

Late last month, Asheville City Council passed the Haywood Road Vision Plan, a years-long effort by community members and city staff to outline the future of the corridor. It’s not a one-time event either: Such plans for different areas of the city are a main way city leaders hope to shape the Asheville of tomorrow, and it’s a plan they want to extend to more neighborhoods. Sometimes, however, these plans can also prove controversial.

Street view

“Just Looking: New Portrait Street Photography,” an exhibition of works by Asheville photographer Anthony Bellemare, is on view at PUSH Gallery through April 14. The opening reception is today — Friday, March 7, from 7-10 p.m. Image courtesy of the artist.

The funny side of the bar

Man v. Liver is a book by Asheville native and illustrator Neil Hinson and author Paul Friedrich that centers around a simply drawn figure called “man” and his Dean Martin-esque one liners. Hinson describes the book as “a 100-page collection of sayings that we wish we remembered saying at the bar.”

Together we grow: How gardens are raising food and creating community

Feeding America estimates that 100,000 people in Western North Carolina are experiencing food insecurity. Winter heating bills, new restrictions to food stamp eligibility and rising medical costs may be increasing situational poverty.  But if a lack of access to food is a growing problem, some across the region are working on a growing solution. Read more in part two of our series looking at how community gardens are fighting hunger — from the ground up.

Smart bet web extra: OFF THE MAP Artist Talk

Both projects featured in The Media Arts Project’s upcoming OFF THE MAP Artist Talk — Severn Eaton’s “Cooperative Instrument” and Michael Luchtan and Kehren Barbour’s “Post Piano Project” — challenge and twist the way we experience and interpret sound. Both projects are also wonderfully strange enough to make us want to know what was going on inside the respective artists’ heads.