This year, Independence Day falls on a Saturday, which leaves you with more freedom to explore what this historic day has to offer.
Art that begins in the landscape: Local artists build their palette from nature
Artists in Asheville are turning to the earth beneath their own feet to fuel their artistic expression. They are alchemists who can blend clay with egg whites and crushed stone to make paint, and they are advocates for the land with which they interact.
Chairlift: Silver River Center for Chair Caning adds school and museum
Silver River Center for Chair Caning will be the nation’s first chair caning school and museum, bringing a centuries-old craft to Asheville’s modern-day riverside.
Smart bets: Asheville Art in the Park
Asheville Art in the Park, entering its seventh year, not only takes place in both summer and fall, but runs for three consecutive Saturdays in both June and October.
Craft as mindset, REVOLVE as dialogue
REVOLVE, a new theory-minded artist collective and think space in the River Arts District, offers a venue for artists and craftspeople to share ideas and develop concepts.
Michael Kane brings Shibori to West Asheville
Michael Kane Studio is where Kane creates his clothes by using the Japanese dyeing technique Shibori, a method of binding and/or stitching a fabric so that the restricted areas absorb the dye to make irregular patterns and shapes.
Articulture turns farmsteads into outdoor galleries
This Sunday, May 31, local artists and farmers will come together at Articulture’s first annual Art & Farm Tour. Art will be displayed in all different types of outdoor settings to give attendees a completely different experience than that of the normal “white wall gallery.”
Smart bets: Kenilworth’s Art Studio Tour
The self-guided, art-themed block party takes visitors on a 15-location stroll and features the paintings, sketches, ceramics, wood crafts, tiles, sculptures, clothing, jewelry and other works of two dozen makers.
State of the Arts: RAD Studio Stroll moves to a new weekend
Each spring and fall, thousands of art and craft collectors and enthusiasts converge on the River Arts District for the biannual studio strolls. Now, as the stroll enters its 21st season, the River Arts District Artists organization has moved the two-day event previously scheduled in June to Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10.
Heavy metal: Sourcing the slow craft movement
Craft isn’t something most people commonly associate with performance, much less activism. But the two couldn’t be a better fit for Gabriel Craig, a Detroit-based metalsmith, jeweler, writer and, most importantly, a craft activist.
All together now: {Re}HAPPENING invades Lake Eden
On a summer evening in 1952, a handful of people at Black Mountain College forever changed the course of modern art with a single performance — the world’s first happening. On Saturday, April 4, the sixth annual {Re}HAPPENING will aspire to recapture that mythic spirit at the long-defunct school’s former grounds at Lake Eden, now the home of Camp Rockmont.
“From Hair to There” artist talk at CCCD
Hair is both subject and medium for artist Sonya Clark. She’ll discuss that intersection — and its relationship to fiber art — in the artist talk “From Hair to There,” held at The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design on Friday, March 27. Born in Washington, D.C., Clark earned an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy […]
Décorum: What the Arts & Crafts Conference offers to locals and their homes
The DIY aesthetic is not just a product of indie craft shows. Asheville residents, always in close proximity to mountain handicrafts, were primed for the Arts and Crafts movement more than a century ago. That trend toward quality and craftsmanship came about in response to the industrialization that gripped the end of the Victorian era. […]
The evolution of the Asheville Mardi Gras Parade
Back in 2001, such a level of popularity and public acceptance seemed unlikely. But if the weather cooperates on Sunday, Feb. 15, Asheville Mardi Gras will draw an estimated 5,000 people to line Wall Street, Battery Park Avenue, Haywood Street and Page Avenue for the annual parade.
Vandercooked Poetry Nights celebrate the intersection of art and writing
If athletics and poetry seem like strange bedfellows, then you haven’t read Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s sports desk columns for The Best American Poetry blog. “Two days later it still feels awfully good to think about that game,” she wrote after the 2010 Super Bowl (New Orleans won). “And yet, like the jambalaya I made on Sunday, […]
Smart bets: Dynamic Narratives exhibit
“Clay is the only medium that uses every element: fire, water, air and earth,” according to Tennessee artist Cindy Billingsley. “It is meant to be touched by the heart, the eyes and the hands.” Billingsley, a pioneering force behind Women Ceramics Sculptors art collective, curated 12 members’ artwork for inclusion in a collaborative Dynamic Narratives […]
Smelling Asheville: Local candlemaker creates walking tour based on historic scents
The roughly two-hour tour, an elaborate twist on the city of Asheville’s Urban Trail, assigns a specific smell to each of 30 landmarks downtown.
Through the Melting Glass: Two glassblowing businesses open
Not one, but two glassblowing businesses — Crucible Glassworks and Lexington Glassworks — are opening up this week in the Asheville area.
The year in art
The year 2014 was one of introspection — in the arts, that is. You could argue that self-analysis is a core concept underlining many, if not most, artworks. And you would be right. But this year it seemed to permeate every surface and layer of the arts scene, from paintings and photos to leases and fundraising […]
Holiday events around WNC
Looking to deck the halls, sing a carol, give a gift, take a stroll, see a play, make a craft or pass a wish list on to a man in a red suit? Here’s where to do all of those things. For more ideas, visit the Community Calendar and mountainx.com. • The FTW Burlesque Christmas […]
Cool Craft Market at HandMade in America
“This is one of my favorite events of the year because it’s all about mindfully deciding where to spend holiday dollars,” says Lindsey Mudge, communications and operations manager of HandMade in America. She’s talking about the nonprofit organization’s annual Cool Craft Market — an indoor shopping experience featuring more than 40 vendors of crafts (think […]