Asheville Art Museum Lunchtime Art Break

July 13, 12:00 - 1:00 at the Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square in Asheville NC:  Ancient Forms, Modern Minds: Contemporary Cherokee Ceramics. This is an Artist-Led Tour and Discussion Cherokee potter Joel Queen, whose works are featured in the current exhibition Ancient Forms, Modern Minds. 

Joel Queen, corn bowl

Among the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians there are a wide array of talented artists working in different media. In this exhibition, the Museum explores ceramics made by contemporary artists who blend contemporary and traditional designs and techniques.

The Asheville Art Museum offers a series of gallery talks and presentations, "Art Breaks", designed to engage Museum visitors in dialogue with staff members of the Curatorial and Education departments, Museum Docents and special guests such as featured artists.

Third Thursdays Return At The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum

April 19, 5 PM at Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, 159 Chestnut Street in Blowing Rock NC.  Bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb  kicks off BRAHM's Third Thursday Speaker Series celebrating the opening of the exhibit "From Secession to Sesquicentennial: Remembering the Civil War" (Historic Objects Gallery).

McCrumb's book Ghost Riders,  a tale of the Civil War that chronicles the experiences of North Carolina lawyer (and eventual Governor) Zebulon Baird Vance and Avery county resident Melinda Blalock, who dressed as a man to fight for the Confederate Army,  was re-released in 2011 by John F. Blair publishers. Boone historian and author Michael C. Hardy will join McCrumb for the event.

The evening will also feature a reception celebrating the opening of the Civil War exhibit in the Historic Objects Gallery, curated by ASU public history graduate students. McCrumb will hold a book-signing afterwards and copies of Ghost Riders will be available for purchase, as well.

The 2012 Third Thursday series will take place in the spacious Community Meeting Room, a welcome venue change from BRAHM's former office space. Admission for most Third Thursday lectures will be free for members and $5 for non-members, unless otherwise noted.

For more information on McCrumb's lecture or the Third Thursday series, contact (828) 295-9099 x 3006 or virginia@blowingrockmuseum.org.

Eleanor Heartney in WNC for Two Contemporary Art Talks

March 5, at  5 PM in Western Carolina University's Bardo Art Center, room 130th and 6th. - Tales of Plastic Surgery, Genetically Altered Rabbits, and Other Acts of Art.   The lecture title refers to two of the many artists examined in Eleanor Heartney's book Art and Now. "One of those artists, Eduardo Kac, genetically altered a rabbit to glow green under certain light; the other, French artist Orlan, had parts of her face surgically altered to resemble women in famous art historical paintings," according to WCU Associate Professor of Art, Marya Roland. "Both Kac and Orlan push the limits of what we consider art, and in her book, Heartney poses the question, 'should we do things simply because we can?'" The lecture is free and open to the public.

March 6, 7:30  PM  at the BlackMountain College Museum and Arts Center, 56 Broadway, Asheville, NC  -  Out of the Shadows: the Changing Place of Women Artists in Our Times.  Eleanor Heartney, distinguished art critic, editor, and author will discuss the broader topic of women artists' changing roles and relate it, in particular, to painter Pat Passlof who has concurrent exhibitions at Western Carolina University's Fine Art Museum and BMCM and AC.

Heartney wrote the essay contained in the exhibition catalogue for the exhibitions. Admission is $5 for BMCM+AC members and students w/ID and $10 for others.