While this city still has a long way to go to when it comes to equity and representation of diversity within the local art scene, 2018 showed strides in that direction.
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Cleaster-Cotton-web-330x220.jpg)
While this city still has a long way to go to when it comes to equity and representation of diversity within the local art scene, 2018 showed strides in that direction.
On Friday, June 15, the YMI Cultural Center will host ‘Trigger Warning,’ an art exhibit by members of Pink Dog Creative.
The showcase of works by visual artist Joseph Pearson and young writers of color takes place May 25 at the YMI Cultural Center.
The Rotary Club of Asheville-Metro’s fundraiser for Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust and ABCCM’s Veterans Restoration Quarters takes place Feb. 3 at the YMI Cultural Center.
The African Americans in WNC and Southern Appalachia Conference returns to Asheville for its fourth year Thursday, Oct. 19, through Saturday, Oct. 21. Originally organized to highlight research on the historical African-American presence in the region, the conference is broadening its scope this year with the theme, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
The third annual conference, “Bringing it Home: Building a Local Economy for Everyone,” will take place on Oct. 7 at the YMI Cultural Center in downtown Asheville.
This year’s gala, “A Dance Through Time,” will transport guests back-in-time to three local historic sites: the YMI Cultural Center, Zealandia Castle and Sondley Estate.
Art, says Joseph Pearson, helps facilitate conversation, which can lead to a better understanding among groups and individuals. The challenge, he notes, is getting people to address and discuss the issues in the first place.
Various tax credits and preservation easements offer financial benefits to owners of historic properties; advocates also tout broader benefits, such as job creation, the reduced environmental impacts of restoration versus demolition, and the intangible value of connecting the present with the past.
” I appreciated all the more deeply the importance of the African-Americans in Western North Carolina Conference and the need for each of us to try harder to reach out across whatever social boundaries we have had inscribed around us by history and chance, and to build a stronger and more diverse community together.”
The third annual African-Americans in WNC conference brought speakers from Asheville and beyond to UNC Asheville and the YMI Cultural Center to explore how emerging historical research can shed light on present-day African-American culture and identity in the region.
In her 2015 book The Rise of Asheville: An Exceptional History of Community Building, author Marilyn Ball looks at an often-ignored historical period: the recent past.
Americans Who Tell the Truth, an exhibition of Robert Shetterly’s portraits of advocates and activists, opens at the YMI Cultural Center Saturday, Sept. 19.
Reminiscent of an Prohibition-era speakeasy with its cream and burgundy walls, vinyl club chairs, old church pews and dark brown circular tables, the bar and event center pays homage to the history of the building and its surrounding neighbors. “This is an event concept bar,” says owner Cam MacQueen. “This bar is about telling the story of this space, of this block, of bringing people together.”
UNC Asheville and the YMI Cultural Center will host the inaugural African-Americans in Western North Carolina conference Oct.23-24. Organizers say the free event invites the public to hear scholars from universities throughout the region discuss a historical narrative that has been largely overlooked.
Between 1502 and the mid-1860s, more than 15 million people were placed in chains and loaded onto boats that sailed from West African shores to Brazilian ports, Caribbean sugar plantations and American cities like Wilmington, N.C., Mobile, Ala. and Charleston, S.C. There, the 12 million or so who survived the monthslong Middle Passage, shackled and […]
The visual music installation by renowned composer/producer/artist Brian Eno is on exhibit at the YMI Cultural Center through Wednesday, Nov. 30.