Community Calendar

See the Fine Art That Ignites the Floral Designs

Before the flowers arrive, immerse yourself in the fine art that serves as the heartbeat of the 20th Annual Art in Bloom. From June 1–17 (10 am – 5 pm), our gallery features a curated collection of works from WNC’s top talent. This exhibit is the essential first chapter of the series, allowing you to see the specific paintings and sculptures that our floral designers will soon interpret into living arrangements.

The word craft-itarianism was coined by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez to name artistic projects that generate employment, raise awareness, or offer therapeutic support through craft. These programs provide a space where people affected by addiction, incarceration, and gun violence can find solidarity while learning a skill.

Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft celebrates nonprofits and artists who believe in—and actively practice—the power of craft to support and empower individuals and communities.

This exhibition was curated by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez. Launched in 2017, the Curatorial Fellowship supports emerging curators exploring new ideas about craft with mentorship, professional development, and a $5,000 honorarium to realize an exhibition.

On view February 27, 2026–September 27, 2026.

See the Fine Art That Ignites the Floral Designs

Before the flowers arrive, immerse yourself in the fine art that serves as the heartbeat of the 20th Annual Art in Bloom. From June 1–17 (10 am – 5 pm), our gallery features a curated collection of works from WNC’s top talent. This exhibit is the essential first chapter of the series, allowing you to see the specific paintings and sculptures that our floral designers will soon interpret into living arrangements.

Tour River Arts Studio tour, celebrating over 100 local artisans from Yancey, Mitchell and Avery Counties. Interact with local artisans in their studios and galleries. Celebrating 50 years of supporting the arts in Western North Carolina.

Join GCCA for the first Friday of the month for our NightShifts. Every month you can enjoy new gallery exhibitions, studio artists, performing arts series, demos, and more. It is free to attend and open to all ages. After you’ve visited, hop over to other open galleries and restaurants in the West Village or Downtown Greenville!

Time: 5:00 - 8:00pm

Two exceptions for the months of August and November:
- There will be no Nightshifts during the month of August as we will be combining it with Art Bash and Annual Showcase held on the 1st of the month.
- Nightshifts in November will be held on the 13th (the second Friday of the month & the week after our annual fundraiser).

Bender Gallery is pleased to present Common Ground, a solo exhibition of new works by Asheville-based artist Linda Gritta, on view from June 5 through June 27. An artist reception will be held on Friday, June 5 from 5–8 PM.
In a moment defined by division and the relentless churn of news and social media, Common Ground offers a space of visual refuge. Gritta’s paintings resist narrative certainty, instead inviting viewers into a shared experience rooted in color, gesture, and sensation. Her work proposes that connection can be found not through argument or explanation, but through the universal narrative of painting itself.
Gritta’s compositions are built through rich layers and gradations of color, where hues interact in dynamic tension—pushing and pulling across the surface. Fields of luminous color converge with gestural marks and subtle structural elements. Within these painterly environments, fleeting suggestions of landscape and figuration emerge, only to dissolve again into abstraction.
“Painting is its own language,” Gritta explains. “It isn’t meant to be translated into words, but into feeling. One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well.”
This philosophy is evident throughout the exhibition. Gritta embraces the physicality and immediacy of paint—its movement, density, and capacity for transformation. Geometric scaffolds intersect with organic forms; passages of light and dark create depth and atmosphere; and each surface carries the history of its making. The works do not prescribe meaning, but instead create space for reflection, where viewers can locate their own emotional responses.
Common Ground centers on the idea of shared experience. Through abstraction, Gritta strips away the specifics that often divide us, leaving behind something more essential: the capacity to feel, to see, and to connect.
Originally from Chicago, Linda Gritta lives and works in the mountains of North Carolina, where the natural landscape informs her vibrant exploration of color. She earned her BFA from Converse College and furthered her studies at the New York Studio School. Her work has been featured in Our State and House Beautiful and is held in private and corporate collections worldwide.

The word craft-itarianism was coined by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez to name artistic projects that generate employment, raise awareness, or offer therapeutic support through craft. These programs provide a space where people affected by addiction, incarceration, and gun violence can find solidarity while learning a skill.

Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft celebrates nonprofits and artists who believe in—and actively practice—the power of craft to support and empower individuals and communities.

This exhibition was curated by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez. Launched in 2017, the Curatorial Fellowship supports emerging curators exploring new ideas about craft with mentorship, professional development, and a $5,000 honorarium to realize an exhibition.

On view February 27, 2026–September 27, 2026.

Tour River Arts Studio tour, celebrating over 100 local artisans from Yancey, Mitchell and Avery Counties. Interact with local artisans in their studios and galleries. Celebrating 50 years of supporting the arts in Western North Carolina.

Iron Light is the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center’s signature cast‑iron sculpture residency and public arts gathering, combining intensive artist collaboration with hands‑on community engagement. Held annually, Iron Light brings visiting and resident sculptors together on site for mold‑making, iron pour preparation, fabrication, and installation, culminating in a dramatic public iron pour where visitors can watch molten iron transformed into sculpture in real time. Community participation is central to the event, with opportunities for the public to engage alongside artists through demonstrations, iron tile and mold activities, and artist talks. The event atmosphere is celebratory and inclusive, featuring live music, food trucks, and family‑friendly programming, making Iron Light both an artistic spectacle and a social gathering that connects people to the creative process through fire, metal, and shared experience.

Event Schedule:
12pm-4pm: Scratch Block Mold Workshop - make your own mold to be poured during the event ($75)
4pm: Live music and food trucks begin
5pm-8pm: Iron pour demonstration

The word craft-itarianism was coined by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez to name artistic projects that generate employment, raise awareness, or offer therapeutic support through craft. These programs provide a space where people affected by addiction, incarceration, and gun violence can find solidarity while learning a skill.

Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft celebrates nonprofits and artists who believe in—and actively practice—the power of craft to support and empower individuals and communities.

This exhibition was curated by 2026 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez. Launched in 2017, the Curatorial Fellowship supports emerging curators exploring new ideas about craft with mentorship, professional development, and a $5,000 honorarium to realize an exhibition.

On view February 27, 2026–September 27, 2026.