Looking for things to do in Hendersonville, NC? Whether you’re a local or just passing through we’ve got loads of great tips and events to help you find your perfect adventure.

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Saturday, March 8, 2025
Greetings From Asheville
Mar 8 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition explores how the land, the people, and the built environment of Asheville and its surrounding environs were interpreted through early 20th century vintage postcards. Some images show the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of downtown Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, and Grove Park Inn. Other images show views of the scenic mountains and landscapes that first drew tourists and outdoor enthusiasts to the region.

Winter Warm-Up
Mar 8 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Lake Julian Park

Winter Warm-Up | Saturday, March 8 | 1-4 p.m. | Lake Julian Park, 37 Lake Julian Road, Arden | Bring your family, friends, and love for the outdoors to enjoy s’mores, hot chocolate, crafts, play, and more and celebrate the changing season. The program is free, and no registration is required.

Sunday, March 9, 2025
Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene
Mar 9 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum is proud to present Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene, a poignant and inspiring exhibition on view February 13–May 5, 2025, in the Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall. This non-juried exhibition
showcases the works of artists from the Helene-affected Appalachia region, celebrating their
resilience, creativity, and strength while highlighting the power of art to inspire and bring communities
together.

Greetings From Asheville
Mar 9 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition explores how the land, the people, and the built environment of Asheville and its surrounding environs were interpreted through early 20th century vintage postcards. Some images show the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of downtown Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, and Grove Park Inn. Other images show views of the scenic mountains and landscapes that first drew tourists and outdoor enthusiasts to the region.

Bonsai Demo: Resurrection of the Chase Grove
Mar 9 @ 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
The North Carolina Arboretum

Bonsai Demo: Resurrection of the Chase Grove with Arthur Joura

ON-SITE  |  Sunday, March 9  |  2:30 – 4:30 pm

In 1997, the Arboretum received a donation of a bonsai tray landscape featuring Dwarf Hinoki Falsecypress. The donation came from a well-known bonsai artist in Pennsylvania named Chase Rosade. This large and popular planting was often on display in the bonsai garden, until 2021 when it was taken off display because the unique fabricated container in which it was planted began to crumble. A new container has been made and now it’s time to rebuild the landscape and get it back on display.

Pan Harmonia: Baroque Beauty
Mar 9 @ 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church of Asheville

Pan Harmonia, Asheville’s award winning chamber music company, presents their biennial Baroque concert featuring G.P. Telemann’s Suite in A Minor for flute and strings and C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in D Minor. This program highlights a major turning point in the history of music – from baroque to classical – and is a study in contrasts and similarities.
Telemann was a contemporary of J.S. Bach and, in fact, the Godfather of C.P.E. While Telemann’s suite is exemplary of the baroque style, C.P.E. concerto is a forerunner of the classical style. C.P.E. came from one of the most illustrious musical families in history (imagine having J.S. Bach as your father, and primary teacher!). Telemann was largely self-taught and his family disagreed with his pursuit of music. Both composers were highly regarded professional musicians of their time, though their reputation diminished in the 19th century. A renewed interest in their work, however, has revived an appreciation for their significant place in music history and contemporary performance.
This baroque ensemble is comprised of string quintet, harpsichord, and – a rare appearance – harp.

Kate Steinbeck flute · Mariya Potapova and Jonathan Urizar violins · Claire Gerhardt viola · Katherine Ruhlen cello · Matthew Waid bass · Jessica Schaeffer harp and Barbara Weiss harpsichord

Monday, March 10, 2025
Max Adrian: RIPSTOP
Mar 10 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft
The Center for Craft is thrilled to announce the opening of Max Adrian: RIPSTOP. Adrian (he/they), a textile artist who was awarded a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship by the Center in 2015 and a Career Advancement Fellowship in 2022, will bring the playful, experiential, and provocative solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures to the Bresler Family Gallery beginning July 26, 2024 through March 29, 2025.

Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.

Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”

Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.

RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.

As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”

“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”

See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.

# # #
ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft’s mission is to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters. As a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. The Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Max Adrian: RIPSTOP
Mar 11 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft
The Center for Craft is thrilled to announce the opening of Max Adrian: RIPSTOP. Adrian (he/they), a textile artist who was awarded a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship by the Center in 2015 and a Career Advancement Fellowship in 2022, will bring the playful, experiential, and provocative solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures to the Bresler Family Gallery beginning July 26, 2024 through March 29, 2025.

Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.

Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”

Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.

RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.

As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”

“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”

See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.

# # #
ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft’s mission is to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters. As a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. The Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.
Racial Justice Workshop
Mar 11 @ 11:30 am
YWCA of Asheville

The YWCA Racial Justice Workshop is open to our entire YWCA Asheville community – including our staff, volunteers, board, donors, program participants, Fitness Center and community members. This 90-minute workshop will take place on the second Tuesday of each month at 11:30 am and will be facilitated by Gerry Leonard, Racial Justice & Outreach Specialist and Lexus Walker, Tzedek Social Justice Fellow.

 

Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Max Adrian: RIPSTOP
Mar 12 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft
The Center for Craft is thrilled to announce the opening of Max Adrian: RIPSTOP. Adrian (he/they), a textile artist who was awarded a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship by the Center in 2015 and a Career Advancement Fellowship in 2022, will bring the playful, experiential, and provocative solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures to the Bresler Family Gallery beginning July 26, 2024 through March 29, 2025.

Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.

Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”

Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.

RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.

As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”

“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”

See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.

# # #
ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft’s mission is to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters. As a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. The Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.
Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene
Mar 12 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum is proud to present Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene, a poignant and inspiring exhibition on view February 13–May 5, 2025, in the Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall. This non-juried exhibition
showcases the works of artists from the Helene-affected Appalachia region, celebrating their
resilience, creativity, and strength while highlighting the power of art to inspire and bring communities
together.

Greetings From Asheville
Mar 12 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition explores how the land, the people, and the built environment of Asheville and its surrounding environs were interpreted through early 20th century vintage postcards. Some images show the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of downtown Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, and Grove Park Inn. Other images show views of the scenic mountains and landscapes that first drew tourists and outdoor enthusiasts to the region.

Give me a P! Perennials and Pollinator Plantings
Mar 12 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Bullington Gardens

Meadows don’t have to be massive to contribute to the biodiversity and beauty of a landscape. Many gardeners are learning how to incorporate meadow style plantings in their home or small business landscapes. Join us for our engaging workshop on creating a meadow style landscape feature. Learn from Crissy Dzielak, Vice President and co-owner of Landmark Landscapes about the plants, installation techniques, and maintenance practices that bring these vibrant, naturalistic landscapes to life.

Topics covered include:

Plant Selection: Understand which grasses, wildflowers, and perennials are ideal for meadow-style plantings, focusing on native and drought-tolerant species that thrive in our region.

Installation Techniques: Learn step-by-step methods for preparing your site, sowing seeds, and planting plugs to establish a thriving meadow.

Maintenance Practices: Gain insights into sustainable practices for managing weeds, supporting plant diversity, and maintaining the health and beauty of your meadow over time.

This talk is perfect for gardeners and landscape enthusiasts looking to create low-maintenance, ecologically beneficial, and visually stunning meadow landscapes. Join us to explore meadow style plantings and how they can transform your garden into a haven for wildlife and a feast for the eyes.

March 12, 2025, 1:00-3:00pm.

Thursday, March 13, 2025
Max Adrian: RIPSTOP
Mar 13 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft
The Center for Craft is thrilled to announce the opening of Max Adrian: RIPSTOP. Adrian (he/they), a textile artist who was awarded a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship by the Center in 2015 and a Career Advancement Fellowship in 2022, will bring the playful, experiential, and provocative solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures to the Bresler Family Gallery beginning July 26, 2024 through March 29, 2025.

Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.

Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”

Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.

RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.

As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”

“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”

See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.

# # #
ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft’s mission is to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters. As a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. The Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.
Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene
Mar 13 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum is proud to present Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene, a poignant and inspiring exhibition on view February 13–May 5, 2025, in the Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall. This non-juried exhibition
showcases the works of artists from the Helene-affected Appalachia region, celebrating their
resilience, creativity, and strength while highlighting the power of art to inspire and bring communities
together.

Greetings From Asheville
Mar 13 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition explores how the land, the people, and the built environment of Asheville and its surrounding environs were interpreted through early 20th century vintage postcards. Some images show the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of downtown Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, and Grove Park Inn. Other images show views of the scenic mountains and landscapes that first drew tourists and outdoor enthusiasts to the region.

Fishes of the Southern Appalachians
Mar 13 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
The North Carolina Arboretum

Fishes of the Southern Appalachians with Carlton Burke

ON-SITE  |  Thursday, March 13  |  12 – 4 pm

Blue Ridge Naturalist – Wildlife of the Blue Ridge Core Credit

The Southern Appalachian region is rich with a variety of fish species. These include not only the better known species of game fish that we love to catch for sport or food, but also include an incredible diversity of smaller, lesser-known non-game fish, which play an important role in the ecology of our aquatic mountain habitats. In this class we will discuss many of the fish species found in the mountain region and learn about their classification, habitat, life cycles, and their identifying features.

This program includes a lab portion of the class where students will see some features of fish hands on with real fish specimens.

Friday, March 14, 2025
Max Adrian: RIPSTOP
Mar 14 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Center for Craft
The Center for Craft is thrilled to announce the opening of Max Adrian: RIPSTOP. Adrian (he/they), a textile artist who was awarded a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship by the Center in 2015 and a Career Advancement Fellowship in 2022, will bring the playful, experiential, and provocative solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures to the Bresler Family Gallery beginning July 26, 2024 through March 29, 2025.

Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.

Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”

Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.

RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.

As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”

“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”

See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.

# # #
ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft’s mission is to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters. As a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. The Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.
Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene
Mar 14 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum is proud to present Asheville Strong: Celebrating Art and Community After Hurricane Helene, a poignant and inspiring exhibition on view February 13–May 5, 2025, in the Appleby Foundation Exhibition Hall. This non-juried exhibition
showcases the works of artists from the Helene-affected Appalachia region, celebrating their
resilience, creativity, and strength while highlighting the power of art to inspire and bring communities
together.

Greetings From Asheville
Mar 14 @ 11:00 am
The Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition explores how the land, the people, and the built environment of Asheville and its surrounding environs were interpreted through early 20th century vintage postcards. Some images show the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of downtown Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, and Grove Park Inn. Other images show views of the scenic mountains and landscapes that first drew tourists and outdoor enthusiasts to the region.