A Bunch of Ways to Go BIG in September
Last fall, Steve Geddes of New Hampshire made national news for growing the biggest pumpkin in America. His record-cracking curcubit weighed in at 2,528…
Sixty is the New Fifty, and Other Reflections on Heritage Festival History
If Asheville’s rowdy street fair Bele Chere hadn’t ended in 2013, it would have turned 40 this year. Bele Chere showcased dozens of Asheville-area…
So Undead: Ten Things You Might Not Know About 100-Year-Old Bauhaus
Though the word Bauhaus is German for “building house” and the name became associated with sleek-lined modern architecture, the original school in Germany (est….
Traveling Makers Take Wing for the Festival Season
There’s something about the official onset of summer that prompts local revelers to step up their costume game, ascending stilts in sweeping Stevie Nicks-esque…
Tradition is Breeze-Tested at the Appalachian Women’s Museum
Where do quilts hang out today? If you’re a collector, either of antique-patterned or free-form modern quilts, you’ve probably got your favorite specimens displayed…
Spring Forward by Learning Your Denim Terminology
T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month,” and we assume he was talking about tax deadlines or late snowstorms. But maybe the poet…
In the Red is the new In the Black
Barbara Fisher’s paintings are scenes of codified chaos, vivid abstracts that come together and emote like manifestos, belying their seemingly random imagery. Her signature…
To Every Season, a Real Wilder
Laura Wilder of New York State is a distant cousin of Almanzo Wilder, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), who created a still-flourishing cottage…
Custom Millinery for Alpacas (and other tidings of comfort and joy)
Melissa Thomas, proprietor of the West Asheville botanical boutique Flora, designed this regal headpiece for alpaca Harriet, who made an appearance at a wedding…
Smoke ’em if You Got ’em
In the same way that some former Western North Carolina tobacco farms are being repurposed through crop diversification, Clark Whittington transformed Midcentury cigarette-vending machines…