Arts & Performance: Recent Episodes
Matt Peiken
In-depth features and special programs introducing you to Western North Carolina’s musicians, painters, sculptors, playwrights, dancers, writers, poets and more, as well as coverage of the social, cultural and economic issues connected to the arts.
Jackson's autobiographical one-woman show, “Rising of the Necessary Diva," is a mix of music and storytelling.
Erin Hallagan Clare opened Story Parlor last spring as a handful of other venues closed, fulfilling a longtime dream—opening a dependable co-op space dedicated to storytelling.
"Where is Our Prague Spring?” is a sensory tour of Runyon’s lived experiences in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Fairview writer Lee Stockdale recounts several decades of memories in his new collection of poetry, titled "Gorilla.”
On and around the former Vance Monument’s pedestal are sculpture, video projection, and fragments of audio interviews with people who are or have been without housing.
One of the most lauded performers at the past two LEAF Festivals, Jordan Scheffer is leaning into the music and inspiration of Black artists.
Performances and workshops for the upcoming festival run October 20-23 at Lake Eden in Black Mountain.
Performances and workshops for the upcoming festival run October 20-23 at Lake Eden in Black Mountain.
The solo exhibition "Journey Home" is on view through Oct. 9 at Continuum Art in Hendersonville.
The drummer of Ween is also the co-founder of SoundSpace, a former motel converted into a band rehearsal studio.
The museum removed culturally sensitive artifacts and replaced them with a range of media from contemporary Cherokee artists.
Two hip replacements haven't kept the matriarch of ballet in Western North Carolina off the dance floor.
The Asheville guitarist has earned acclaim for his progressive musicianship and songcraft
The women's trio performs their entire debut album, "Solid 8," at a record-release show Friday at Fleetwood's in West Asheville.
Stephanie Hickling Beckman wants to develop work from Black playwrights writing roles specifically for Black actors.
Abby Bryant and her band are opening for Lucinda Williams Aug. 20 at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain
Tashi Dorji is a solo artist and experimental collaborator who has won a following with his improvisational music.
Ashten McKinney is the owner and, currently, primary exhibiting artist of Curatory Gallery, which they launched to promote underrepresented and marginalized creatives.
The pandemic cut the sisters off from their people, but not their muse. They formed a songwriting group with three other women, each of them sharing new music with one another every week for the past two years and counting. They said they’re excited by what’s come from it—a collaborative album of new a capella music.
Revolve hosts visual arts exhibitions, performance art installations and esoteric music performances—a programming mix unseen anywhere else in this region—but revenue has always been a challenge.
Mindi Meltz has just published the final part of her “After Ever After” trilogy. The inspiration and larger question behind the series is right there in the title. Meltz wanted to explore what happens after the happily ever after.
Zines are the shortened name for fan magazines. The format came of age in the 1930s and hasn’t changed much since. Writing or drawing on paper, hand-stapling or twine-binding and short-run copies are still at the heart of the practice. Some here blur the lines with art books, which can take on a boundless variety of content and physical form.
Sound artist Laura Steenberge is performing Thursday night as part of a program at Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center.
The couple spent much of the pandemic collaborating on a new guidebook titled “Discovering the Appalachian Trail.”
While Kenn Kotara's work lives in abstraction, the artist said social-political exploration is always at play. It’s right there in the title of his new show—”Order in an Unruly Zoo.” It’s on view through June 10 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
The invitation to perform at the (Re)Happening is a testament and homage to Susan Collard that her company, more than four decades after she founded it, still produces experimental work.
As COVID numbers drop and protocols loosen, theater and concert venue policies are all over the map. Some require vaccinations and masks. Others require neither. Some are strict enforcers of whatever policies they put in place, others not so much.
The word anxiety comes up often as Zander Stefani describes his life. He said he channels some of it into his abstract artwork.
A lot of artists will tell you an inner voice propels them to create. The Asheville playwright Jamie Knox says, for her, it’s often a voice that isn’t her own.
Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen are rehearsing with two other dancers inside a studio at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts. Everyone is masked.