Asheville Art Museum News: August Events at the Museum

August 7, 2015 from 5 PM to 8 PM at the Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square in Asheville NC: First Friday Art Walk. Free with membership or Museum admission. On the first Friday of each month, the Museum welcomes participants of the Downtown Asheville Art District's First Friday Art Walk. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the remarkable Asheville Art Museum.

August 13, 2015 from 5:30 - 7:00 PM: Lecture: Male Quilter Roger Winchell. Free with membership or Museum admission. Join a discussion and show-and-tell with local male-quilter Roger Winchell. Winchell has only been quilting for five years, but in that short period he won the Viewers' Choice Award at the Asheville Quilt Show with his very first quilt, which was later exhibited at the Folk Art Center. His quilts have won local awards and several have been accepted into national juried shows. Prior to his career in quilting, Roger was a computer systems analyst at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville. This event is held in conjunction with "Man-Made: Contemporary Male Quilters".

August 15 - 16, 2015 at 2:00 PM: Weekend Film Screenings - Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein Free with membership or Museum admission. An Olympic athlete; a gay activist; a boy with hemophilia; a recovering heroin addict; a closeted Navy commander: five very diverse lives that shared a common fate. Their lives - along with thousands of others - are woven together in a giant memorial patchwork quilt that is solemnly unfolded in the U.S. Capitol to protest the government's refusal to respond to a growing epidemic. Common Threads tells the powerful story of the first decade of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Not rated. 79 minutes. Screened in conjunction with Man-Made: Contemporary Male Quilters.

August 18, 2015 from 10:30 - 11:30 AM: Tot Time. Free with membership or Museum admission. Come discover the art of play in the interactive Art PLAYce for Children. Art PLAYce is open daily, but each month a fun activity is featured, designed especially for young visitors plus time to explore the Museum galleries.

August 22, 2015 10:00 - 5:00 PM - New on View: William Wegman. Free with membership or Museum admission. Opening Reception: August 23, 3:00 - 5:00 PM. The Museum is excited to present Cubism and Other-isms, an exhibition of works by one of the world's most renowned photographers, William Wegman. The exhibition is on view August 22, 2015 through January 24, 2016.

Over many years, Wegman has been working on a project he calls Cubism and Other-isms, where with his trademark wry humor he mines art historical precedents to create images of startling beauty. Beginning in the early 1990s while making videos and films with his dogs standing in as human characters, the artist placed his subjects on elevated platforms in order to shoot them at eye level. Over the years, props in Wegman's photographs have taken many forms, but none so consistently as the cube.

August 28,2015 from 12:00 - 1:00 PM: Lunchtime Art Break. Heritage and Home: Photographs of Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Ken Abbott, photographer. Free with membership or Museum admission. The Museum presents Lunchtime Art Breaks, a series of gallery talks and presentations designed to inform and engage you in dialogue with members of the curatorial and education departments, docents and special guests.

August 29,2015 from 5:00 - 8:00 PM:  Soiree at Hickory Nut Gap Farm. $30 for members; $40 for non-members. Enjoy a tour of the historic Hickory Nut Gap home and enjoy food and music while you immerse yourself in the surroundings of this beautiful farm. Heavy hors d'oeuvres catered by the Hickory Nut Gap Farm, as well as beer and wine will be served. This event is held in conjunction with Heritage and Home: Photographs of Hickory Nut Gap Farm, featuring the works of local photographer Ken Abbott. 

First Annual LEAF Downtown AVL Arts Event

August 1 - 2, 2015     First Annual LEAF Downtown AVL   Celebrate community, creativity, diversity, and family in the heart of downtown Asheville NC in Pack Square Park. Enjoy two days filled with music, art, workshops, great food and drinks and a variety of family activities all with an emphasis on local talent. 

Event hours are 8/1, Noon - 10 PM and 8/2 10 AM - 6 PM. The 5K LEAF Art Dash begins at 9 AM and travels through downtown and surrounding areas while roaming artists perform on the sidelines. 

Asheville's Biltmore Village Art and Crafts Fair

2015 Village Art & Craft Fair Poster

August 1 - 2, 2015    Annual Village Art and Craft Fair     Held on the grounds of All Souls Cathedral in Biltmore Village this year's Fair, the 42nd,  will include 120 juried exhibitors, making it one of the highest quality outdoor shows of the year.  

View and shop for all types of fine art and crafts including ceramics, furniture, glass, jewelry and more. Hours are Saturday 10 AM - 7 PM and Sunday 12 PM - 5 PM. Hosted by New Morning Gallery and Bellagio. 

Fair posters and T-shirts are available for purchase.

Find more Asheville NC crafts, art galleries and shops on the Asheville NC Visitor Guide. 

 

Asheville's Ooh La La Curiosity Market a Favorite Outdoor Art Market

August 1, 2015    Ooh La La Curiosity Market   An outdoor market in Pritchard Park  featuring works by local painters, leather smiths, jewelry makers, potters ,up-cycled crafters, and other curious delights, all beneath the colored canopies of large market umbrellas. 

In addition to the artists, the market will also feature live local music with up three musical acts performing each Saturday and will include everything from a solo saxophonist to folk, blues, acoustic, and jazz acts. 

Spruce Pine NC Hosts the Annual Grassy Creek Mineral and Gem Show

July 30 - August 2, 2015    The Annual Grassy Creek Mineral and Gem Show   This popular event features 60 dealers from all over the world with gem stones, mineral specimens, fossils, jewelry, beads and lots more.  If it is made of stone, you should be able to find it here. 

There will be a BBQ and great food on Saturday, a fundraiser for the  the Parkway Fire and Rescue and new equipment. Come help out the fire department. 

Open 10 AM to 6 PM daily at 12966 South Hwy 226 in Spruce Pine, NC. Admission and parking are FREE.

8th Annual Art & Antiques Show in Blowing Rock NC

July 31 - August 2, 2015    8th Annual Art & Antiques Show  at The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.   This sale and show offers heirloom-quality antique silver, furniture, pottery, jewelry, clocks, crystal and more. Vendors from across the East Coast bring a variety of items.  Preview Party 7/31 from 6:30 PM - 8 PM, $40 per person (including wine and hors d'oeurves). 

Tickets are $10 and good for the entire show.

Penland School of Crafts in the News

WNC magazine’s current issue contains an excellent story, titled A Tradition of Innovation, that presents an illustrated overview of Penland School. You can read the article on the WNC website. Here’s a teaser:

While remaining true to its past, the world-renowned Penland School of Crafts never stops exploring the reaches of contemporary art. Still nestled into the hills above the tiny town of Spruce Pine NC, Penland has grown into a world-renowned center for contemporary craft, offering a 400-acre campus where more than 1,500 students, instructors, and practitioners collaborate each year in an international melting pot of art and community.

The more time one spends at Penland, the more one understands the sense of connectivity and pulse of mystery that’s hard to define to an outsider. Though almost everyone who visits can agree there is a certain magic to the place. “There’s a removal from the day-to-day that happens when you have to drive up and up and up, and then up some more into the mountains, and you come around a corner and there’s that valley with the studios behind it,” says Steve Miller, another trustee who runs the MFA program in book arts at the University of Alabama and has taught at Penland 14 times. “That remove, that temple at the top of the mountain phenomenon—it moves me every time.” 

Thanks to writer Brian Barth (who is a relative of Penland’s founder Lucy Morgan) and photographer Mike Belleme for their fine work on this piece.

Final Week of The People's Cloth Trade Show at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design

July 14 - 25, 2015 from 10 AM to 6 PM, Tuesday - Saturday at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, 67 Broadway St. in Asheville NC: The People's Cloth Trade Show with soft guerilla textile artist Frau Fiber from Long Beach, CA.

Artist, activist and scholar Carole Frances Lung performs her alter ego Frau Fiber, in The People's Cloth Trade Show. This exhibition plays off of the trade show format to create an approachable, immersive environment for visitors to learn about North Carolina textile manufacturing - its history, production methods, and global context.

The People's Cloth Trade Show is organized by the Institute 4 Labor Generosity Workers & Uniforms, Frau Fiber's organization for suppressing unethical global fast fashion. See Frau Fiber's documentation of the project to date on The People's Cloth Trade Show blog.

Opening Reception at the Asheville Art Museum for "Heritage & Home"

July 24, 5:00 - 7:00 PM, Gallery Talk at 5:30 at the Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square in downtown Asheville NC: Opening Reception, Gallery Talk and Book Release for Heritage and Home. Heritage and Home is an exhibition featuring the captivating photographs of Hickory Nut Gap Farm by photographer Ken Abbott. To celebrate the opening of this exhibition, the Museum is excited to host a reception and gallery talk this Friday. The evening will also celebrate the release of Abbott's book "Useful Work.

photo by Ken Abbott courtesy Asheville At Museum

The exhibition features approximately 40 images, as well as a selection of historic photos and artifacts, from Abbott's Hickory Nut Gap Farm Project. After discovering the old Sherrill's Inn in 2004 while chaperoning his daughter's preschool field trip to Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Abbott, a newcomer to Western North Carolina, spent the next several years photographing the Fairview NC house and family. "  read more here...

Penland Annual Auction Catalog Now Available - and maybe a Few Remaining Tickets

You can now access the whole catalog for the Penland School of Crafts 30th Annual Benefit Auction online: right here.

The work on the cover is by the remarkable Susan Taylor Glasgow (it’s sewn glass). Inside the catalog you’ll find pictures of more than 200 pieces in all media. No matter where you are, you can place absentee bids on any of the auction pieces (complete information is online). This is a good thing, because the auction is more-or-less sold out. If you were thinking of attending the auction, please contact contact Jackie Head at 828-765-2359 x 112 or auction@penland.org to see if there are any seats left.

The  Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction will be held August 7 - 8, 2015. The Penland auction is one of the premier craft collecting events in the Southeast and is a perfect opportunity to support Penland’s educational programs. This year's featured artist is Susan Taylor Glasgow. Stoney Lamar will be honored as Penland's 2015 Outstanding Artist Educator. Absentee bidding is available.

NC Gemstone and Mineral Show this week in Franklin NC

July 23 - 26, 2014    50th Annual Macon County Gemboree  The Second oldest gem and mineral show in the Southeast features dealers from across the United States. Rough and cut gemstones, minerals, lapidary equipment and much more. The event is sponsored by the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and the Gem and Mineral Society of Franklin.

Get links for lodging, restaurants and attractions on the Franklin NC Visitor Guide. 

 

Wilkesboro Open Air Market offers Arts and Crafts and Live music each Third Friday

July 17, 2015    Wilkesboro Open Air Market   Historic Downtown Wilkesboro's popular Open Air Market starting in April and concluding in August.  Events will feature downtown merchants, food vendors, local wineries, musicians, regional farms and produce, arts and crafts, demonstrators, as well as non-profit and civic organizations.\

Each Third Friday Open Air Market will be themed with live music, children's activities, contests, and more. The Regular Friday markets will happen every Friday and will feature the freshest produce and handmade crafts of the surrounding area.

Ooh La La Curiosity Market this Weekend in Asheville

July 18, 2015:     Ooh La La Curiosity Market   is an outdoor market in Asheville's Pritchard Park. The popular Art Market  features works by local painters, leather smiths, jewelry makers, potters, up-cycled crafters and other curious delights  beneath the colored canopies of large market umbrellas. 

In addition to the artists, the market will also feature live local music with as many as three musical acts performing each Saturday including everything from a solo saxophonist to folk, blues, acoustic, and jazz acts. 

Blowing Rock Art in the Park this Weekend

July 18, 2015    Art in the Park   A juried arts and craft show featuring 90 artists held in the picturesque downtown Blowing Rock NC park once a  month from May to October. 

Some of the best local and regional artists and craftspeople showcase their handcrafted jewelry, pottery, fiber, glass, photography, painting and more. Prices for objects, from a handmade postcard to a large piece of furniture, range from $5 to $5,000 - something for everyone.

Chalk it Up in Hendersonville NC this Weekend

July 18, 2015    19th Annual Chalk It Up   The sidewalks of Historic Downtown Hendersonville become the canvas for some outstanding works of art. The event is free and open to five age categories from age 5 and under to age 21 and over. This is an all day event with rain dates for inclement weather.

Chalk it Up is a Narnia Studios production, 315 North Main Street, Hendersonville NC. 
 

Semi-annual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands this weekend in Asheville NC

July 16 - 19, 2015    Semi-annual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands   Over 200 exhibitors, craft demonstrations, and live regional music and entertainment bring Asheville's Civic Center (Cellular Center) alive with fine traditional and contemporary crafts. 

Both levels of the Center offer artisans exhibiting and selling works of clay, fiber, glass, leather, metal, mixed media, natural materials, paper, wood and jewelry.  The Fair  showcases the work of members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild with members living in the mountain counties of nine states from Maryland to Alabama. 

This is one of the biggest and best craft shows in the mountains.

The Asheville Civic Center, the US Cellular Center, is located at 87 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville NC. 

The Big Crafty Returns to the Asheville Art Museum

July 12, 2015    The Big Crafty   returns to the Asheville Art Museum in downtown Asheville NC. The event celebrates and showcases the fine wares of over 100 independent indie crafters, artists and makers. The complete line up of participating artists is now available online. This is a free, family-friendly event. 

 

Murphy NC Art Walk this Weekend

July 3, 2015    Murphy Art Walk -  held the first Fridays from May through November,  5:00 PM - 8:00 PM. Stroll through historic downtown Murphy for an exquisite visual, culinary, and performing arts experience with more than 20 businesses participating. 

Enjoy Art Galleries, Music,  Fine Dining,  Live Demonstrations and Performances.

Learn more about Murphy NC rentals, attractions and restaurants HERE.