Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville and art are inseparable. The arts are woven into the community, and visitors find evidence of them everywhere.
“We have acclaimed fine artists, mountain crafters and folk artists, hip neighborhoods with modern arts and performing arts and music,” said Carli Adams, group communications and services manager for the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Downtown is home to the Downtown Asheville Art District, which has more than 30 member galleries that offer maps and self-guided walking tours. At the Asheville Art Museum, groups can do guided tours, art demonstrations or hands-on projects. Throughout the year, downtown buzzes with buskers and street performers: musicians, jugglers, living statues, street poets and more.
A few miles southwest of downtown is the city’s River Arts District, which is home to more than 180 working artists and dozens of studios housed in old factories and historic buildings. Groups can walk the area, or step-on guides can arrange stops at studios and set up demonstrations, artist talks and other interactive experiences.
Built in 1902 as a leather tannery, Riverview Station today houses 60 artists and a collection of studios and galleries that are open to the public, including The Village Potters in Riverview Station, where groups can sign up for hands-on pottery experiences or demonstrations.
The Folk Art Center just off the Blue Ridge Parkway offers free admission, three galleries and, from March through December, daily demonstrations of artists carving wood, making ceramics and weaving baskets.
Greensboro, North Carolina
If downtown is the hub of Greensboro’s arts scene, then the Greensboro Cultural Center is the art hub of downtown. The center houses 15 art organizations in galleries, studios, classrooms and administrative offices. Visitors can stop in at the African American Atelier Gallery, the Guilford Native American Art Gallery or Art Alliance, which provides art classes and workshops.
Among downtown’s numerous galleries and museums is Elsewhere Gallery, a living museum in a former three-story thrift store that offers workshops and artist residencies. Downtown is also home to several performing-arts venues, including the restored 1927 Carolina Theatre and Triad Stage, a nonprofit regional theater.
Although this year marks the National Folk Festival’s 75th anniversary, 2015 is the first year it will be in Greensboro — and the festival will stay there through 2017. Organizers are expecting as many as 100,000 people to attend the free, three-day folk music showcase September 11-13, which will kick off Greensboro’s own 17DAYS Arts and Culture Festival. 17DAYS takes over the city with more than 100 events, including dance, theater, art shows, music classes, and body painting, at venues all over town.
“They all have something going on,” said Amy Scott, director of marketing for the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau. “There are street performers to ballet performances. With the folk festival and 17DAYS taking off, it’s really starting to showcase the city’s arts community.”
Beaufort, South Carolina
The University of South Carolina at Beaufort Center for the Arts is center stage in the city of 12,000 people. It is home not only to student productions but also to the Beaufort Theatre Co. and Beaufort Children’s Theatre; an independent film series and live, high-definition broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera performances in New York City are also offered.
The center has been the site of Shakespeare plays and productions such as “Grease” and “Miracle in Bedford Falls.” The center’s two art galleries feature rotating exhibits and local artists.
The university also owns and operates the Sea Islands Center Gallery on Carteret Street, one of the city’s two art “arteries.” The other, Bay Street, runs alongside the banks of the Beaufort River and is the heart of the city’s retail arts community. Galleries line the street, and at some, visitors can watch artists at work. At Thibault Gallery, “you can find [painter Mary Thibault] in the window on Bay Street with canvas on easel, putting brush to canvas,” said Robb Wells, vice president, tourism division for the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce.
As visitors work their way down Bay Street, they may also see artists working en plein air, painting one of the city’s most-captured views: Bay Street overlooking the Beaufort River, complete with a marina and sailboats.
The city has two annual signature arts and culture events: the Beaufort International Film Festival every February and Heritage Days at the Penn Center, now in its 33rd year.
