Archive for Asheville art
October 8, 2009 at 9:26 pm
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, NC, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville NC, Blue Ridge Parkway, Lovers' Loop Retreat
One of the biggest craft events of the year in the Asheville, N.C., area runs Thursday, Oct. 15 through Sunday, Oct. 18, all day each day. It’s the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, held twice a year (also in July) in downtown Asheville at the civic center. Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville vacation rental, are 10 minutes from this popular happening.
More than 200 craftspeople display their work at the fair, and they’re all members of the guild, so it’s basically a juried show. You’ll see works of glass, metal, mixed media, paper, jewelry, wood, fiber, clay and more. The fair also features craft demonstrations: corn shuck dolls, calligraphy, drum-making, fiber art, blacksmithing, dyeing and spinning.
There’s also live music: bluegrass, old-time mountain music, vocalists. Enjoy the washtub bass, kazoos, fiddles, slide whistles and more with a lot of festive sounds.
This is the fair’s 62nd season. The craft guild is one of the oldest in the United States and represents craftspeople in about 10 states. The guild is based at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The center, only minutes from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, has a gift shop with lots of handcrafted items for sale.
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September 23, 2009 at 5:24 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, Fall Foliage, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville, nature, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, Blue Ridge Parkway, Fall Foliage, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat
Lovers’ Loop Retreat October Muse-letter
October is one of the peak months for activities in Asheville, N.C., each year. And one of the peak activities is leaf-peeking. Our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, offers easy access to the multi-hued trees that await your eyes. With the Blue Ridge Parkway within two minutes of Lovers’ Loop Retreat, you can be on that non-commercial, scenic road in no time and head north or south to catch some color. The parkway is popular for hiking, biking and cruising by car, and in the fall you’ll find many beautiful photo opportunities for miles and miles. You can be a leaf-peeper for FREE! There’s no charge to use the parkway, so come and treat yourself to some eye candy.
It’s not just the trees that explode here in autumn. The Asheville area explodes with activities in October, including two of the year’s biggest events, both Oct. 15-18: the Lake Eden Arts Festival, or LEAF, and the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. You can find information about these and other happy happenings in October, through December and in 2010 on our Web site, http://www.loversloopretreat.com/. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville vacation rentals. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com/, on the home page.
Some of the events in October are FREE. There’s bonsai (miniature trees), Bonnie Raitt and locally-made beer. You’ll find art fairs, apples and an animal fiber fair. There’s a nontraditional circus, nationally-known comedians and the annual LGBTQ festival. The fun goes on: a chili cook-off, lyric opera, Marianne Faithfull and a chrysanthemum show. Take your pick, or mix and match, but don’t miss out.
The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is a premier arts event that’s held twice a year in downtown Asheville. The fair offers an amazing variety of arts and crafts by members of the Asheville-based Southern Highland Craft Guild, which represents craft artists from multiple states. You’ll be dazzled.
The LEAF event in Black Mountain, an easy 15-minute drive from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, also is offered twice a year. LEAF features an array of performing and healing arts from around the world. In addition to live music, dance, poetry and visual art, LEAF has meditation, massage, yoga, tai chi, even hula hooping. Go whoop it up!
Check our Web site for a peek into November, which brings Leonard Cohen in concert Nov. 1 in Asheville, the Asheville Film Festival Nov. 5-8, Christmas at Biltmore Estate starting Nov. 6, Jackson Browne on Nov. 12, Nanci Griffith on Nov. 14 and George Winston on Nov. 21. Dig it!
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
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July 17, 2009 at 5:41 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville NC, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat
If you enjoy art museums, explore the Asheville Art Museum when you visit us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental. You can get in for FREE on the first Wednesday of each month, 3-5 p.m. It’s a nice way to get a peek at their collection.
The museum, which is observing its 60th anniversary this year, is in the middle of downtown.
On Aug. 5, we’ll check out the museum’s exhibit of Cherokee wood and stone carvers. Most of the artists represented in the exhibit live at the Cherokee reservation west of Asheville. We’re looking forward to this one because there are some great artisans in the Cherokee tribe.
We went to the museum’s free Wednesday gig on July 1 to catch an exhibit of photographs by George Masa, who took pictures of mountain landscapes around Asheville in the 1920s and 30s. Many of his photos are of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, west of Asheville.
Keep your eyes open, and take advantage of one of the free things to do in Asheville when you visit our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative!
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July 13, 2009 at 6:10 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville NC, Lovers' Loop Retreat
One of Asheville’s biggest events happens this coming weekend, July 16-19. Do yourself a favor, and check this out when you visit our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, Lovers’ Loop Retreat. It’s the heralded Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands at the civic center downtown. This is a wonderful gathering of more than 200 crafters from around the Southeast. It’s impossible not to be attracted to at least some of the crafts displayed. The variety is huge, and this is a juried show, so you won’t see flimsy offerings here. There also is live music by local musicians throughout the day.
This is a twice-a-year event, sponsored by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The next show will be Oct. 15-18. One of the cool things about this event is that the craft guild is one of the oldest in the United States. The guild is based in Asheville and represents artists in a bunch of Southeastern states. The guild’s main gallery is on the Blue Ridge Parkway just five minutes from our Lovers’ Loop Retreat. The gallery is worth a visit, too.
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July 2, 2009 at 4:58 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville, nature ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, Bele Chere, bluegrass music, folk dancing, folk music, free concerts, free events, free music, Lovers' Loop Retreat, Shindig on the Green
If it’s July, it’s festival time in Asheville, N.C., so guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat vacation rental in Asheville have plenty of fun adventures waiting. A few of the area’s biggest annual events occur in July — Bele Chere, supposedly the largest street festival in the Southeast, the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, and Folkmoot, an international folk dance and music festival.
And to top it off, the fireflies are back at Lovers’ Loop Retreat for their summertime mating ritual. Yes, we’ve learned the wisdom of finding pleasure in small things, and so we peer outside at the nightly light show in the yard. It’s a beautiful spectacle, and it’s yours to watch for free when you stay at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative.
Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We’ve posted events through December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.
July 4 kicks off the annual Shindig on the Green free outdoor music series near downtown Asheville with folk and bluegrass and dancing. It’s held on most Saturday nights through early September, a real community event.
The weekend of July 10-12 will offer a bunch of activities: the Asheville women’s roller derby team bout, the annual bamboo festival, an Asheville Puppetry Alliance performance, the Big Crafty art show.
The following week, July 16-20, is busy, too. There’s a comedy festival, Folkmoot performances and the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, which fills the Asheville Civic Center with work by crafters from multiple states.
July 24-26 is the Bele Chere phenomenon, which features large amounts and varieties of music and food and lots of blissed people.
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival July 30-Aug. 1 is a big deal for those who enjoy bluegrass and folk music and clogging.
All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, where the lovely lavender hostas are starting to bloom! See you in Asheville!
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June 24, 2009 at 4:00 pm
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, free things to do
The Grovewood Gallery just north of downtown Asheville is among the classiest art galleries in Asheville. The grounds are beautiful, for one thing, and it’s a nice destination for that reason alone. On the grounds is an amazing collection of large-scale outdoor sculptures that will excite even those who go only to browse, like us. It costs nothing to just look, and it’s one of the fun, free outings we enjoy in Asheville.
When you visit us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, put this on your itinerary of free activities.
Grovewood Gallery’s second annual Sculpture for the Garden exhibit has just opened and will run through Dec. 31 this year. The sculptures are whimsical, functional and colorful. But don’t limit your visit to the sculptures. Venture inside to check out the array of arts and crafts at Grovewood. And upstairs is the furniture showroom, with a wonderful variety of handcrafted pieces – from beds, mirrors and tables to wall hangings and rugs. The gallery has new exhibits year-round.
Grovewood consists of six ivy-covered cottages with red roofs that house the gallery, weaving and car museums, a cafe and artists’ studios on 11 acres. The buildings originally were part of Biltmore Industries, established in 1917. Later called the Homespun Shops, Biltmore Industries produced hand-woven woolens and wood crafts.
MSN.com
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June 3, 2009 at 5:34 am
· Filed under Asheville Food, Asheville activites, Asheville art, vacation rental ·Tagged Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville NC, Lexington Avenue, Lovers' Loop Retreat
One of the newest quirky additions to the fun collection on Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville is the Bizarre Bazaar, a craft show and sale.
This event is different from most others because it’s ongoing, the first and third Saturday of each month through Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The market features local artists, crafters and designers. If you’re familiar with the huge and thriving arts scene here in western North Carolina, you know that promises great artwork. Jewelry, photography, pottery, painting, fashion and more will be offered. Food and live music sometimes, too.
The Bizarre Bazaar (you have to love the name) is worth exploring when you stay with us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental. And while you’re on Lexington Avenue, there are plenty of funky businesses to visit and some good restaurants, too.
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May 1, 2009 at 7:05 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville adventures, Asheville art, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, NC, free things in Asheville, nature, poetry events, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville NC, free events, Indigo Girls in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, poetry
It’s a colorful spring here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville, N.C., vacation rental: azaleas in white and several shades of red, pink and pinker rhododendrons, lacy white dogwoods. The backyard is filling in with foliage. Our tomato and pea plants are humming along, and little basil plants are starting to grow. A thrill of our spring so far was seeing five finches, including a goldfinch, on the feeder at once, afeat unrepeated since, alas (but we keep looking).
All of this is yours to behold when you stay at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. Many guests enjoy sitting on the porch to commune with the squirrels and birds that own the trees and air space here. As usual, there’s a range of activities happening in the area in May, too. Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We have events posted all the way to December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville. You can link directly to our blog at http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, or from the home page. There is also a link to another Asheville blog on the home page with YouTube links to videos about Asheville.
This spring, we’ve done some of our favorite activities — hiking at Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, just 30 miles from Lovers’ Loop Retreat — and some things we haven’t done before — taking a women’s history (herstory) tour of downtown Asheville and taking a wild ride on a zany, purple bus called LaZoom, a comedy tour of downtown Asheville. All of this is good stuff, and you may want to explore these activities when you visit.
The banquet of events in May includes rhododendron (May 2-3) and rose (May 30-31) shows at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, always a pretty place to visit. For more flowers, the Biltmore estate’s annual Festival of Flowers lasts through May 17. More rooms at the estate, the home originally of George Vanderbilt, have been opened to the public this year.
The annual Asheville Wordfest, April 30-May 3, is a poetry festival that includes internationally known and regional poets. Another literary event is the Blue Ridge Book and Author Showcase May 8-9 in nearby Hendersonville with workshops and talks by authors, sales and book signings.
One of the area’s biggest events is the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF), held twice a year in Black Mountain, just east of Asheville. LEAF, May 7-10, features a slate of international dancers, musicians and visual artists.
For sports enthusiasts, a popular annual event in Asheville is the Mountain Sports Festival May 29-31. The festival has demonstrations, clinics and competitive events in rock climbing, kayaking, running, cycling, disc golf and backpacking.
A two-for-one comedy show May 30 in Asheville features Vickie Shaw and Jennie McNulty. And for a different type of comedy, not to mention lots of bravery and just sheer strength and stamina, there’s the Blue Ridge Roller Girls, Asheville’s roller derby team that has a bout May 30 at the civic center downtown.
Early June brings the second art gallery walk of the season June 5, a glimpse into the many art galleries in downtown Asheville. And June 5 is the season debut for the Montford Park Players, North Carolina’s oldest Shakespeare company. These are both free things to do in Asheville! The Montford Players appreciate donations, though, of course.
All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. And for Indigo Girls fans, the duo has rescheduled its April concert in Asheville to Sept. 17 at the Orange Peel downtown. We hope to be there.
Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat! See you in Asheville!
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April 2, 2009 at 6:35 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville Weather, Asheville activites, Asheville art, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, NC, nature, the weather, vacation rental
Lovers’ Loop Retreat April ’09 muse-letter
In April here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our alternative bed and breakfast in Asheville, N.C., the serviceberry tree explodes into white blooms that resemble popcorn before the petals fall to the ground. There’s more to come with dogwoods and rhododendrons.
And when you leave our Asheville vacation rental, signs of spring abound elsewhere, in nature—redbud, pear and cherry trees, hyacinths and daffodils—and in activities. Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly.
In April we’ll host some first-time visitors to Lovers’ Loop Retreat and more repeat guests, which always is a treat for us. They—and you— have a lot of entertainment options this month, in addition to the ever-present Blue Ridge Parkway with its hiking and biking opportunities a stone’s throw from our vacation rental and other outdoor recreational fun, including rock climbing and kayaking.
April 2-25 is Eve-Olution, a play about motherhood, at the Asheville Community Theatre downtown. April 3 is the first art gallery walk of the season in downtown Asheville. The many diverse galleries stay open later and offer refreshments to encourage browsers. You’ll see all types of art peepers at this lively and happening event. Art walks also will occur the first Friday in June, August and October.
April 4 starts the season for Asheville’s Blue Ridge Roller Girls, a roller derby team that elbows its way around the fast track at the civic center downtown. These whizzing warriors on skates are great competitors and hardy souls—if not a bit crazy—and they provide some drama and flashy outfits for the audience, too. Their bouts, which run from now until late fall, are way fun. Check our Web site for more information.
April also means the beginning of Biltmore estate’s annual Festival of Flowers, listed on our Web site, which lasts through May 17. There are tulips and other flowers galore at this beautiful estate, an easy 10-minute drive from Lovers’ Loop Retreat and the most popular historic attraction in North Carolina. Biltmore has just opened several more rooms to the public at the George Vanderbilt mansion that managers call America’s largest house.
April brings a new festival to Asheville, HATCHfest, April 15-19, an event that features films, performances, workshops, speakers and art exhibits around downtown on themes of architecture, fashion, visual art, music, design and technology and more. There’s a link on our Web site.
Comedian Kate Clinton will perform at the Diana Wortham Theatre downtown April 23. We’ve seen Kate more than once, and she’s still funny.
Peeking into early May, Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women perform May 1 in Asheville, apparently part of their final tour. The spring herb festival is May 1-3 at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville, and the annual rhododendron show is May 2-3 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. A popular event is the twice-a-year Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) of visual and healing arts, dance and music in Black Mountain just east of Asheville May 8-10.
All these events and more are listed on our Web site. Join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat! Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. See you in Asheville!
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March 30, 2009 at 6:32 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville
We’re psyched here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our bed and breakfast alternative in Asheville, N.C. We’re looking forward to the first Asheville art gallery walk of 2009 on April 3, this coming Friday. This is the first of four gallery walks each year—the others are the first Friday in June, August and October, 5-8 p.m. Galleries stay open longer to encourage people to browse, and many galleries offer refreshments. And it’s all free!
This event, sponsored by the Asheville Downtown Gallery Association, includes about 25 galleries that are diverse and quirky and fun and funky and high-brow. Take your pick. Or do as we do, and visit as many of them as you can in the evening. You may see some of the same people from gallery to gallery, but there’s always an interesting mix of people who’re checking out the artwork.
Of course, you can enjoy Asheville’s many art galleries downtown and in other parts of the city year-round whenever you visit us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. And you can enjoy the original art by various artists on the walls of our vacation rental when you stay with us. Many guests have commented about the artwork in our bed and breakfast alternative.
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