Community Calendar

Spring in Burnsville, NC is a magical time. Our trails are alive with the vibrant colors of so many wildflowers. Between trees, ferns, moss, and more, it’s impossible to document just how many shades of green can be found here. And the light – oh how the light brightens our historic square, highlighting so many intriguing architectural details. In other words, it’s an artist’s paradise. ​​Explore Burnsville and Toe River Crafts invite you to pack your paints and your passion and head to Burnsville for our inaugural spring Plein-Air festival.

​​WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

​Tuesday, May 12

​10 a.m – 2 p.m. – Stop by the registration area to stamp your canvas and learn more
about potential painting settings. Your paintbrushes will be privy to special locations unique to participating artists.

5 p.m. – 7 p.m. – Join your fellow painters for cocktails, conversation and carefully
curated appetizers.

​Wednesday, May 13

​10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Painting demos on the town square from some of our favorite local artists

​Thursday, May 14

10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Optional workshop with Jo Ridge Kelley ($200 per person) To register, email jo@jokelley.com

​​
Friday, May 15

​1 p.m. – 5 p.m. – Frame, deliver and hang canvases
5:30 – 8 p.m. – Dinner and art sale

​

Saturday, May 16

​10 a.m. – noon – Quickdraw Paintout Competition on the Burnsville Square (1st prize: $350/ 2nd prize: $150)

​Cost is $90/person and includes Tuesday cocktail reception and Friday evening dinner.​ For more information, feel free to contact Sue Wasserman, Yancey County TDA Director. sue.wasserman@yanceycountync.gov

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.

Make it yourself! Join us at our downtown Asheville metalsmithing studio to make this silver + brass + CZ star charm. You'll solder, set, stamp, and polish your charm. Leave with your finished piece. *Silver chain included and family friendly activity ages 12 and up **All silver upgrades available and other charm shapes available as well

The Zentangle Method© is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Many people who don’t connect with traditional meditation enjoy the Zentangle process because it combines activity with relaxation. If you can draw a dot, a curve, and a dash or line, you can Tangle. Patty will teach you. NO art experience is necessary.

The setting is a walk-up apartment on Manhattan's West Side where, as the curtain rises, Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can

return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker (and romantic), has other ideas. He is convinced that he loves Frankie, a notion that she, at first, considers to be ridiculous. She has had more disappointments than delights in life, and he is the veteran of one broken marriage already. And neither of them is in the bloom of youth. Yet out of their sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious interplay the promise of a relationship beyond a "one-night stand" does begin to emerge and, as the lights dim, the two are back in bed again, but this time side-by-side, holding hands before the glowing television screen.

​

Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune is produced by Multiverse Theatre Collective.

​

This production includes adult themes and language.

May 8-17

Fri & Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2pm

Tickets $20

A wide selection of native perennials, ferns, sedges, grasses, trees, and shrubs will be available. All proceeds benefit Daniel Boone Native Gardens and the NC Native Plant Society.
This is an outdoor event and will take place rain or shine in the parking lot outside the main entrance to Daniel Boone Native Gardens.
Quantities are limited, so come early for the best selection!
Check, cash, and credit card will be accepted.

Spring in Burnsville, NC is a magical time. Our trails are alive with the vibrant colors of so many wildflowers. Between trees, ferns, moss, and more, it’s impossible to document just how many shades of green can be found here. And the light – oh how the light brightens our historic square, highlighting so many intriguing architectural details. In other words, it’s an artist’s paradise. ​​Explore Burnsville and Toe River Crafts invite you to pack your paints and your passion and head to Burnsville for our inaugural spring Plein-Air festival.

​​WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

​Tuesday, May 12

​10 a.m – 2 p.m. – Stop by the registration area to stamp your canvas and learn more
about potential painting settings. Your paintbrushes will be privy to special locations unique to participating artists.

5 p.m. – 7 p.m. – Join your fellow painters for cocktails, conversation and carefully
curated appetizers.

​Wednesday, May 13

​10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Painting demos on the town square from some of our favorite local artists

​Thursday, May 14

10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Optional workshop with Jo Ridge Kelley ($200 per person) To register, email jo@jokelley.com

​​
Friday, May 15

​1 p.m. – 5 p.m. – Frame, deliver and hang canvases
5:30 – 8 p.m. – Dinner and art sale

​

Saturday, May 16

​10 a.m. – noon – Quickdraw Paintout Competition on the Burnsville Square (1st prize: $350/ 2nd prize: $150)

​Cost is $90/person and includes Tuesday cocktail reception and Friday evening dinner.​ For more information, feel free to contact Sue Wasserman, Yancey County TDA Director. sue.wasserman@yanceycountync.gov

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.

APLR Presents: Setting

Saturday, May 16th, 2026

AyurPrana Listening Room - 312 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806

Doors 6PM || Show 7 PM

Setting

The North Carolina Piedmont-based trio of Setting bring together their substantial collective skills as musicians and their collaborative, explorative mindsets from groups such as Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Peeesseye, Sylvan Esso, and Jake Xerxes Fussell to bear in their inventive and rich improvisations. Multi- instrumentalists Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund subvert expectations while creating a sense of ease and wonderment. Their intricate interplay of synthesizers, cassette loops, banjo, keyboards, electronics, zithers, and a litany of percussive instruments form a tactile amalgam of celestial transcendence and terrestrial rhythm, a loamy pulse fluidly guiding every minute fluctuation in feel. Dedicated improvisers with years working together, the band has developed their own idiosyncratic vernacular and sense of flow. Setting’s self-titled album (Thrill Jockey) is a definitive statement of their improvisational acumen meeting compositional rigor, a robust wellspring of hypnagogic grooves and mosaiced textures. Setting harnesses the euphoria of communal creation.

The Western Piedmont Symphony, the professional orchestra of the western foothills of North Carolina, presents a richly cinematic program spanning drama, romance, and exotic color. Highlights include Goldmark’s Overture to Sakuntala, Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1, Steiner’s sweeping Casablanca Suite, and Saint-Saëns’ evocative Piano Concerto No. 5, “Egyptian”. Acclaimed Canadian pianist Sheng Cai, known for his expressive depth and virtuosic command, brings international flair to this captivating concert experience.