The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design Opening Reception and Tour

January 20, 2017    The Good Making of Good Things: Opening Reception and Tour at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design    

A special exhibition tour to kick off the 2017 exhibition season. The Good Making of Good Things investigates Craft Horizons, a watershed publication, which ran from 1941-1979, and explores how the magazine documented and shaped the concept of craft as a movement, career, way of life, and cultural phenomenon. 6:30 - 8:30 PM, free and open to the public.  

The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design is located at 67 Broadway Street, in Asheville NC.

Blowing Rock Art and History Museum Fall Exhibition Celebration

September 1, 2016 at 5:30 PM at The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM), 159 Chestnut Street in Blowing Rock NC:   Fall Exhibition Celebration.  Come join the fun and celebrate the opening of several fall shows at BRAHM. Free admission, live music, drinks, and hors d'oeuvres.

 

Featured Exhibitions -

Elizabeth Bradford: Time + Terrain.  August 13 - November 19, 2016 curated by Carla Hanzal 

A Town Within A Town: History of the Junaluska Community.  August 6, 2016 - March 12, 2017 Made possible in part through the support of the Watauga County Community Foundation and the Junaluska Heritage Association.

Reflections: From Havana to DC, photographs by Garner G. Dewey, Ph.D." September 1 - 25, 2016.

Featured in the Alexander Community Gallery -

Ancient Forms, Modern Minds: Contemporary Cherokee Ceramics.  August 20 - November 5, 2016. Organized by the Asheville Art Museum and made possible through the support of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation 

On-Going Exhibitions -

Selections from the Collection and Elliott Daingerfield,  Re-opening August 6, 2016 

Blowing Rock Art and History Museum Exhibit: Elizabeth Bradford: Time + Terrain

Image Credit: Elizabeth Bradford. Bone Trees, Reflections, 2015. 
Acrylic on canvas. 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy the artist.

BRAHM (The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum) has announced the opening of “Elizabeth Bradford: Time + Terrain”, curated by Carla Hanzal. The exhibition will be on view from August 13 to November 19, 2016, with an opening reception on Thursday, September 1st from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Museum. The event is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and live music as they experience the works on display. 

Elizabeth Bradford. Stream Near Harper's Creek, 2014

Elizabeth Bradford gleans images from the rural landscape surrounding her family’s ancestral farm in northern Mecklenburg County, where she lives. The expanded scope of her artwork also includes impressions of countries she explores, as well as the wilderness where she kayaks, hikes, and camps. “Slowly, over time, my attention turned to wild places,” explains Bradford. “I found myself breathing deep sighs of relief when I stepped out of civilization and into the forest … I have come to believe that I am now painting the permanent—that wildness will never be fully controlled.”

The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum is located at 159 Chestnut Street in Blowing Rock NC. 

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...

Opening Reception for Jack Tworkov Tonight at The Asheville Art Museum

March 27, 5 PM - 7 PM at the Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square in downtown Asheville NC: Opening Reception for Jack Tworkov: Beyond Black Mountain, Selected Works From 1952-1982. 

This exhibition revisits artist Jack Tworkov's (1900-1982) affiliation with Black Mountain College and includes a significant survey of the artist's career including important works spanning three decades.  A founding member of the New York School, Tworkov is regarded as one of the great American artists of the 20th century, along with Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. 

Also attending the opening event is guest curator Jason Andrew. Andrew is the Manager and Curator of the Estate of Jack Tworkov and has organized many exhibitions of the artist's work, including the 2009 retrospective Jack Tworkov: Against Extremes, Five Decades of Painting. He is an independent scholar specializing in Post War American Art and is currently directing and editing the online Catalogue Raisonne Project of Works on Canvas by Jack Tworkov. In addition, Andrew is a prominent figure in the Bushwick, Brooklyn art scene and is the co-founder/director of Norte Maar, a non-profit now celebrating its 10th Anniversary encouraging, promoting and presenting collaborative projects in the arts. 

Free with membership or Museum admission

Opening Reception for "Taking Shape" at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design

January 24, 5 PM - 7 PM, at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design's Benchspace Gallery and Workshop, 67 Broadway Street in Asheville NC: The Center celebrates its new location with an opening reception for  Taking Shape: Celebrating the Windgate Fellowship at ithe Benchspace Gallery and Workshop.

This special exhibit is the first group display of Windgate Fellows' work which spans a range of approaches, media, and processes. Taking Shape features a selection of recent objects completed by Fellows awarded in years 2006-2010, revealing a cross-section of up-and-coming perspectives on craft.

Taking Shape was juried by Cindi Strauss, Assistant Director of Programming and Curator for Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The show continues through May 3, 2014.

Blowing Rock Art and History Museum Welcomes Artist Willliam Mangum

NC artist Bill Magnum

September 19 at 4:30  PM - Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM) has invited North Carolina artist William Mangum, one of the most popular and respected watercolorists in the region, to be September's Third Thursday speaker
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Bill Magnum has produced more than 3,000 original paintings from his over thirty years of travels throughout North Carolina and abroad. Mangum's presentation "Celebrating Life through Art" is free to BRAHM members and $5 for non-members. 

Refreshments will follow the welcoming.

Needled: Contemporary Needle Craft Opening Reception

June 14, 5:30 - 8 PM  at HandMade in America, 125 S. Lexington Ave, Suite 101 in Asheville NC - Exhibition Opening Reception for "Needled: Contemporary Needle Craft".  An evening of great craft, food, and drink.  Help open HandMade's newest gallery exhibit in style.

This exhibition will highlight contemporary artists pushing the limits of needle craft techniques by making cutting edge and conceptual pieces that cross the boundaries of craft, design, and fine art.  Food will be provided by Storm Rhum Bar & Bistro. Beer will be provided by Wicked Weed Brewing.

Upcoming Events at The Asheville Art Museum

June 7 - 9   Special film screenings: Selected experimental, "cameraless" films screened in partnership with Mechanical Eye Microcinema:
Friday, June 7 screening at 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 8 screenings at 12:00 and 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 9 screenings at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.
$5 Museum members; $6 + Museum Admission for non-members. Held in the New Media Gallery

June 11   Discussion Bound (monthly reading group):  The American Painter Emma Dial: A Novel  by Samantha Peale.  3:00 - 5:00 PM. in the Museum Library. The event is Free with membership or regular Museum admission.  In a New York Times book review, critic Deborah Solomon wrote of the author, "In her witty and impressively observed debut novel Samantha Peale has given us what is probably the first novel narrated by a studio assistant in New York in the 21st century." Peale, who was a studio assistant to sculptor Jeff Koons for four years, gives readers a cautionary tale and glimpse into a sought-after position in the art world.

June 15   Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection   This traveling exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art remains on view through September 8  OPENING RECEPTION: JULY 13, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM.  Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection presents a selection of works from the historic gift of art pledged to the Whitney Museum of American Art in May 2010 by longtime Whitney Museum trustee Emily Fisher Landau. Considered one of the preeminent collectors of postwar art in the United States, Emily Fisher Landau's personal approach to collecting has long paralleled that of the Whitney, an institution similarly devoted to the art of its time.

June 18, 10:30 AM  Enjoy Tot Time in the Museum's Art PLAYce for Children. This event occurs monthly on the third Tuesday of each month.  Free with membership or regular admission (ages 5 & younger admitted free).   Parents with pre-school age children are invited to bring their youngsters to the Museum's interactive Art PLAYce for Children for a new monthly series called "Tot Time", featuring a new guided art activity designed especially for tiny tots each month. Discover the art of play through this new Education program of the Museum! Participating children must be accompanied by an adult.

June 21,  12:00 - 1:00 PM   Lunchtime Art Break Aaron Siskind: Abstract Expressionist Photographer. This event is Free with membership or regular Museum admission.  Enjoy a guided tour and discussion of Aaron Siskind.

June 22, 6:00 - 9:30 PM   Night at the Museum: A Black & White Soiree to benefit the Asheville Art Museum.  $125 per person. Reservations are required online of by calling  (828) 253-3227.  Cocktail Hour / Fine Dining / Live Auction To Support Great Art. Great Experiences.

June 24, 10:00 - 11:00 AM    New Public Program:  Laughter Yoga at the Museum.  $5 members / $8 non-members. Held in the  East Wing upstairs gallery.  What better setting for Laughter Yoga than alongside works in the new Museum exhibition, PLAY? Lisa Harris, LCSW and Certified Laughter Yoga Leader will lead class participants through an hour of laughter games and yogic deep-breathing techniques.  Advance registrations is recommended. Call 828.253.3227.

The Asheville art Museum is located at 2 South Pack Square in Downtown Asheville NC.

Haywood Graduate Exhibition at the Folk Art Center

April 21,  3 - 5 PM the Opening Reception for the Haywood Community College's Professional Crafts Department Graduate Exhibition will be held at the Folk Art Center in the Main Gallery.  Light refreshments will be served.  The exhibition will continue through June 23, 2013.

Graduates of Haywood’s Professional Crafts Program will showcase their talents in wood, clay, fiber, metal and jewelry. Haywood Community College is located in Clyde, NC, just west of Asheville.  This exhibition continues the historical relationship between the Folk Art Center and Haywood, an Educational Center Member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. 

The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville NC. 

Tryon Gallery Trot This Weekend

April 13, 5 PM - 8 PM:  During the Tryon Gallery Trot downtown Tryon NC comes to life with galleries hosting opening receptions, late hours or special events. The Tryon Gallery Trots exciting evenings during which the arts are the primary focus with all invited to attend and enjoy. Everyone has the opportunity to view new art exhibits and meet and talk with artists a nd craftspeople, or authors and illustrators during the Trots. Enjoy light refreshments,  view art demonstrations and listen to live performances.

Participating Tryon businesses include:
The Bookshelf
Bravo interior Design
The Depot Room
Green River Gallery
New View Realty
1906 Pine Crest Inn
Saluda Forge
Skyuka Fine Art
Thompson Garden Gallery and Outdoor Living
Tryon Painters and Sculptors
Tryon Fine Arts Center
Upstairs Artspace
Vines & Stuff

Skyuka Fine Art Opening Reception for "Paintings from Afar"

April 13    Opening Reception for "Paintings from Afar" at Skyuka Fine Art   This is a group show including the works of Richard Christian Nelson, Michael McNamara, Keith Spencer, Jim Carson, William and Anne Jameson, Gary Cooley, Richard Oversmith, Linda Cheek, Dawn Whitelaw and Bill Lovett. The opening reception will be from 5-8 PM.

Skyuka Fine Art is located at 133 N Trade Street in  Tryon NC. 

 

Brasstown Valley Art Gallery Opening and Reception

March 22 - Head for the Brasstown Valley Resort, for "Colors of Spring", a wonderful evening of music and art. Artists represented at this Opening are: Bill Bates, Keith Burgess, Deb Collins, Carol Duckworth, Jim Frank, Amanda Fullerton, Cynthia Geiger, Ebony Glenn, Mark Henry, Richard Jersey, John Mac Kah, Ruthanne Kah, Deborah Larsen, Carol Lumpkin, Lori McCabe, Eleanore McDade, Estelle Schwarz, Helen Surgeon, Maya Smith, Lala Streett, Bill Suttles, Todd Suttles, Barbara Terrell and Jackie West.

Refreshments, Wine and Hor d'oeuvres will be served. The event is open to the public and free of charge.The exhibit will continue through July 8, 2013.

Emerging Artists Exhibit at Black Mountain Center for the Arts

March 10 from 3 PM - 4 PM the Opening Reception for the The Emerging Artists Exhibit at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. The exhibit features the works of the students who take art classes at the Center under Bob Travers and Cheryl Keefer. Students range in age from 8 to retirees.The exhibit continues through April 5, 2013.

The Black Mountain Center for the Arts offers live theatre, classes and an exhibition gallery. The Center is located in the renovated Old City Hall at 225 West State Street in historic downtown Black Mountai NC. The Center includes Special Events as well as changing Gallery Shows.

Opening Reception Tonight at Blowing Rock Art and History Museum

March 7, 5:30 - 7 PM - The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM) celebrates two new exhibits opening today:

W.R. Trivett: Imaging the Mountains. Students from Dr. Andrea Burns's public history class have diligently researched and curated this new exhibit focusing on Willie Trivett, a local self-taught  "pictureman" who captured individual and family portraits and events happening in our region in the first half of the twentieth century. The Exhibit opens on March 8, 2013

Watauga High School Art Show.  A juried show up through month of March. Tonight's  reception is also a celebration of the Watauga High School Art Show. Selected works from senior art students are currently up in the Community Meeting Room and will be displayed through the month of March. Watercolorist Wes Waugh judged the show. Winners will be announced and congratulated at the reception.

The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum is located at 159 Chestnut Street (corner of Chestnut and Main) in Blowing Rock NC.

“Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft" Opening Reception at HandMade in America

March 8 - Opening Reception for “Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft" at HandMade in America, 125 South Lexington Ave., Suite 101,  Asheville NC.  Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft features the work of WNC craft artists who are pushing the boundaries of their medium in unexpected ways. The exhibit features 26 works in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood or mixed media.  The pieces in this exhibit illustrate a balance of craft processes and unique ideas, combining tradition with innovation.

Juror Kathryn Gremley, Director of the Penland Gallery and Visitors Center, has curated and installed exhibits at the Penland Gallery since 1996. She is an accomplished juror and curator, specifically in regards to craft mediums. With her discerning eye, Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft promises to be just that.

The exhibit continues through May 31, 2013.

Streampunk Carnival Art Opening and Reception at ZaPow Gallery

February    Streampunk Carnival Art Opening and Reception   at ZaPow Gallery The artists of ZaPow have created original works of art inspired by Steam Punk and Carnival. The reception will celebrate the latest creations of the artists of ZaPow and help to kick off the Asheville Mardi Gras.

ZaPow Gallery is located at 21 Battery Park, Suite 101 in downtown  Asheville NC

9th Annual Miniature Show in Asheville

February 7 - 25  American Folk Art hosts the annual Miniature Show.  When American Folk Art premiered it first Miniatures Show in 2004, it was so universally embraced by artists and the public alike, it was decided then and there to become an annual event. The Opening of the event always falls just before Valentine's Day, in the heart of winter when a little spot of pleasure is so welcome. American Folk has restricted the size of paintings to 8 x 10" and encouraged artists to go much smaller.

The Opening Reception is Friday, February 8 from  5 - 7 PM.   From wild to subdued, the concentration and dedication needed to create a powerful image in a small format is explored throughout this year's Miniature Show.

The show includes tiny pottery face jugs by Wayne Hewell, a sixth generation potter from Georgia. Stacey Lambert, a North Carolina potter has made thimble sized containers.  Spencer Herr, known for painting haunting philosophical imagery on large wooden canvases has created small, intimate renderings on paper.  Cornbread has contributed a few of his delightful paintings which always focus on the regions critters. Western North Carolina favorite, Liz Sullivan, has contributed signature paintings depicting contemplative moments. Lucy Hunnicutt, Michael Banks and Karl Mullen have also contributed works.

Gallery owner Betsey-Rose Weiss says: 'There is always a surprising element to this particular show. The annual nature of this show allows for fresh creative expression and is a vital vehicle to exhibit and gauge reaction'. Photos: “Lean On Me” by Karl Mullen Assortment of illustrated teeny tiny pots by Stacy Lambert

American Folk is located at 64 Biltmore Avennue in downtown Asheville NC.

"Random Artists Gallery" Opening Reception Tonight

February 1, 6 PM - 8 PM:   "Random Artists Gallery" showcases the collective works of the many talented artists who have continued to nurture their creativity through workshops at Random Arts in the past 17 yrs. The show will continue through Sunday February 24  and is open during regular shop hours. Everyone is invited to stop by and enjoy catered refreshments and a gathering of artists and their work.

The studio has been transformed into a modern gallery that will house the art of all those who have been a part of Random Arts over the years. Art work included in the show ranges from book arts, collage, assemblage, jewelry, zentangle, quilted wall hangings, watercolors, acrylic, drawing, sketching,fiber arts more.

Random Arts is located at 481 Louisiana Avenue in Saluda NC.

Big Brother, Big Sister Benefit at the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon

January 19, 5 PM - 9 PM - Artspace Opening reception for UPLOAD Digital Camera Phone Art.  The first of it's kind in the region, the Upstairs is recognizing the photography of the digital camera phone as a contemporary art medium with this exhibition titled "UPLOAD". All proceeds benefit the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Polk County.The Exhibit continues until March.

The Upstairs Artspace is located at 49 South Trade Street in Tryon NC.