Locally sourced theater and music reviews and more.

Celebration Local Makers

The centennial celebration of the historic commercial recordings of Americana music is this Thursday, Nov. 6 through Sunday, Nov. 9.

The Orange Peel is getting back in the outdoor concert game.

Timed to the celebration of Veterans Day, a documentary about a North Carolina dance company’s work with veterans will make its Asheville premiere at the Wortham Center of the Performing Arts.

A new partnership between a popular local music venue and an Asheville-based nonprofit organization is turning live music into a movement of generosity.

LEAF Global Arts is looking for a way forward following setbacks from Tropical Storm Helene.

Photographer and community historian Andrea Clark, who spent decades working to ensure Asheville’s Black history would not be forgotten, has died, according to multiple Oct. 29 social media posts.

Asheville City Council appointed members to its four new Helene recovery boards, which will help guide ongoing disaster recovery.

The Asheville music venue The Orange Peel is working on a new riverfront concert venue. Take a look at some of the club’s iconic shows.

A new studio gallery is helping River Arts District artists find a space to create after being displaced by Tropical Storm Helene.

A new pottery studio in Asheville, AVL Clay, opened Sunday, Oct.

Raleigh leaders believe the art installation will boost tourism and promote outdoor activity.

A wisp-thin figure wearing only a loincloth lurches across a darkened stage, as if blown by the wind in slow motion. The man’s muscled limbs jerk and flow hypnotically against the backdrop of black emptiness, his face contorting into an expression of horror, then despair. The sole acoustic accompaniment: a swarm of fluttering cymbals and thudding drumbeats.

Nicole McConville, an arts professional with nearly three decades of experience in the Asheville creative community, has been named as the new gallery director at Blue Spiral.

The Louvre heist puts art world theft in spotlight. Learn about North Carolina’s strange history with art theft here.

Under new ownership, the Orange Peel has proposed to build a 6,000 person music venue along Thompson Street near the Swannanoa River.

After the destruction of Helene, the Asheville Community Band wanted to create something that symbolized the sounds before, during and after the storm.

It started in a converted school bus painted to look like outer space. It was 1994, and Kitty Love and her other young, punk, tattoo artist friends wanted to get far away from Baltimore, which they’d found too full of drugs and violence.

Paul Capps and Barb Capps operate Valley Craft Works out of their home in Swannanoa.

The arts nonprofit is transforming the house at 2 Westwood Pl. into a creative hub with studio space and community programming.

Groundbreaking Research Reveals the Outsized Economic and Cultural Impact of Independent Stages, While Highlighting Financial Strains Due to Inflation, Live Nation, and Predatory Ticket Resale

The Paperhand Puppet Project, a puppet-focused performance troupe, will return to Asheville next month to present “The Gift,” the company’s 25th anniversary production. Performances of ’The Gift” will run from Nov. 7-9 at the Diana Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

A local high school and performing arts group are joining forces to participate in a nationwide movement aimed at exploring solutions to gun violence.

Musicians and artists in Asheville and throughout Western North Carolina look back on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s floods.

“Mark your calendars... Christmas Jam is back,” Waren Haynes declared, issuing a 2025 save the date for Asheville’s holiday benefit concert.

ArtsAVL, Buncombe County’s designated arts council and arts advocate for Western North Carolina, recently released two major research reports: the 2025 Creative Economy Snapshot and the Economic Contribution of Creative Industries in Buncombe County. Prepared by Riverbird Research, the findings collectively provide the most comprehensive picture thus far of the county’s creative economy.

The City of Asheville will launch a weekly food truck event taking place every Friday starting on Friday, October 3 until Friday, December 19.

Nonprofits, artists and local leaders have called for a plan that centers around producing a more resilient and more affordable River Arts District.

In Black Mountain, a three-day festival celebrating the history and impact of blues music wrapped up on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Marquee, a landmark in Asheville’s River Arts District, celebrated its grand reopening.

“A big part of why we love it here.”

In October 2023, Amy Kelly and her partners opened The Radical, a hotel in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Asheville’s River Arts District artists are celebrating a major milestone with the reopening of the Marquee, one year after Tropical Storm Helene.

Artists in Asheville’s River Arts District gathered Sept. 20, 2025, for a market nearly one year after Tropical Storm Helene.

The Swannanoa Artists’ Collective will host an art show Sept. 26-28 at 216 Whitson Ave.

Over the past year, Jeffrey Burroughs has noticed something interesting when he and his fellow River Arts District (RAD) artists talk with other Asheville-area residents about Tropical Storm Helene.

Last fall, Hurricane Helene canceled the city’s peak tourist season. But this year leaf season is back, along with old favorites like the Biltmore Estate and some new attractions that are creating major buzz.

Explore one of the most artistic buildings in one of the most artistic cities in one of the most artistic regions in the country. The Asheville Art Museum!Found

An art installation in uptown Charlotte explores how pesticide companies distance themselves from the health consequences of their products.

This spring, images marking milestones in the estate’s history will be projected onto the house and gardens and set to original scores.

Asheville is restoring a building in the RAD, home to a local nonprofit and a contributing structure to the Riverside Industrial Historic District.