Programs
The Turquoise Ball
Since the Beaux Art Ball in 1952, hosted by the local Community Arts Council (grandparent organization of the Asheville Area Arts Council) artists and enthusiasts have come together to celebrate the role of the arts in our community.
On August 27th, 2011 the tradition continues with “The Turquoise Ball, A Celebration of Our Unique Creative Culture.” Partnering with multiple venues for preliminary festivities and various arts offerings, participants will converge on the Orange Peel for a talent showcase and celebration in an arts-saturated, turquoise-themed atmosphere.
The Color Ball is widely know as the premier fundraising event for the Arts Council, but this year marks a slight adjustment.
“The city-wide celebration is nothing short of legendary,” explains Graham Hackett, Director of the AAAC, “but it seems the party nearly drowned out the purpose of the event. This year we plan to balance the equation – no less of a celebration, but with a genuine focus on the dynamic arts culture we share here… participants should expect to see artistry they’ve never experienced before!”
Tickets go on sale August 1st through the Orange Peel website, but it’s never too soon to start pulling together your Turquoise outfit!
For more information, please contact us via email: info@ashevillearts.com
In 2011, the Arts Council re-established its public presence and created a valuable community resource through its venue The ARTery, providing opportunities to exhibit, perform, and lead workshops – creating opportunities for nearly 250 artists and organizations since January.
Community programs such as City of 1,000 Easels, The Creative Sector Summit, WORDSlam Poetry Competition for Youth, not only reached thousands of community members and visitors with authentic and unique arts experiences, but collected valuable quantitative and qualitative data to guide the AAAC’s future efforts.
From the needs and desires expressed through these ventures, we will pursue 3 primary goals:
1. Create opportunities for collaboration and communication throughout the Creative Sector.
2. Increase audience demand and strengthen the market for creative professionals.
3. Advocate for creative professionals among critical public, private, and economic development stakeholders.
The following represents the Asheville Area Arts Council’s programming for FY 2011-12:
| Showcases | Support | Skills-Development |
| Exhibits | Grants Programs | Organized RHYME |
| VARIABLETV | The Medici Project | Workshop Series |
| Primetime | Creative Sector Summit | Collaborative Projects |
| The Color Ball | Advocacy | |
| City of 1,000 Easels | Community Arts Forum | |
| Internet Resources |
AAAC Programs take place through The ARTery, our versatile arts facility, or anywhere throughout the area through our community intiiatives.
The ARTery
Exhibits
Skill-Building Workshops
Talent Showcases: VARIABLE and PrimeTime
The Medici Project – YOU choose Asheville’s Next Top Project
The Community Arts Forum/ Mixers
Community Initiatives
Grants Programs
The Creative Sector Summit
The Color Ball, a Celebration of Our Unique Creative Culture
City of 1,000 Easels
Organized RHYME (Resources Helping Youth Manifest Empowerment)
New Media
Advocacy
The ARTery
A community arts facility in the heart of Asheville’s River Arts District, The ARTery is a multi-use space that hosts monthly exhibits, small-scale performance events, and skill-building workshops.
Exhibits
The member artists who display their work at the ARTery represent the vastly diverse range of creative professionals across the spectrum of the community’s dynamic creative community, including skilled visual arts, sound installation, artworks of disabled and disadvantaged populations, photography, fashion, various crafts, and more.
Skill-Building Workshops
The ARTery is uniquely designed to accommodate a broad range of workshops providing skills development training ranging including puppetry, mask-making, marketing, youth programming, and more. The space is made available to teaching artists who have stand alone programs seeking space and the promotional support of the Arts Council’s network.
Talent Showcases
Artery PrimeTime: A series of independent events co-produced by local performers with the AAAC, providing a dynamic venue for showcasing experimental and established performance arts including music, dance, performance poetry, and unique avant garde exhibitions.
VARIABLETV: Produced by the AAAC, live VARIABLE showcases as broad a range of art producers as possible through a cabaret-style performance event for the purpose of cross-pollinating the respective audiences to expand the visibility of each. VARIABLETV is a multimedia program (in development) to provide both practical skills through video media production and a rich source of multimedia material for use by creative professionals to enhance their marketing and online presence.
The Medici Project
Seeking to generate a vital new climate of philanthropy through micro-funding, this recurring event invites project producers to present brief exhibitions of potential community projects through a contest event. Audiences witness all of the exhibitions and vote to determine which project wins the revenues generated by the cost of admission and a percentage of the program’s sponsorship revenue. Audience members are also encouraged to support their favorite programs with modest donations, regardless of the contest’s outcome.
The Community Arts Forum & Mixers
Drawing from the community’s expressed desire to address critical topics related to the conditions and goals of the creative sector. Each Forum will feature a presentation on the selected topic illustrating the conditions and potential strategies for community members to directly engage and advance. Following the Forum presentation and discussion, an informal Mixer allows for unstructured dialogue and valuable networking opportunities.
Community Initiatives
Grants Programs
For over 30 years, the AAAC has facilitated disbursement of funding to support and advance individual artists and organizations through a series of targeted grants. The NC Arts Council’s Grassroots Arts Program and the Regional Artist Project Grants in 2010-11 disbursed nearly $50,000 in funds supporting a vast array of productions, projects, and professional development opportunities.
The Creative Sector Summit
Born from a strategic initiative of Asheville’s Downtown Master Plan, the Summit is a two-day conference engaging organizations and independent entrepreneurs for the purpose of collaboration, networking, and education.
Each day of the Summit, presenters outline opportunities and resources available through State agencies, the City’s Cultural Arts Division, arts advocates, and and arts organizations working in community development. The second half of each day, guided breakout discussions are facilitated to get qualitative feedback from the community about perceived challenges, needs, and opportunities. The results of these discussions are compiled and assessed to guide the AAAC and partner agencies in their community development efforts.
The Color Ball: A Celebration of Our Unique Creative Culture
Since the inception of the Arts Council decades ago, a semi-formal ball has been held to congregate artists, stakeholders, and enthusiasts to celebrate and support the AAAC in its pursuit of cultivating a vibrant creative culture.
At its peak, the Color Ball has been a city-wide, multi-venue extravaganza featuring countless designers, performing artists, fashion designers, etc. where participants contribute to the atmosphere by adorning themselves in the theme color.
The current version of the Color Ball is a “hub-and-spokes” event, partnering the AAAC with various local businesses and venues encouraging attendees to dine and visit small venues before and after unifying at one culminating destination featuring a talent show and celebration.
The Color Ball is the premier fundraising event for the Asheville Area Arts Council, including as many members of the community as possible.
City of 1,000 Easels
A high-profile exhibition of the creative process for public consumption, this project provides conditions for hundreds of visual artists to set up on the sidewalks of downtown Asheville and create new work in real time as passers-by look on. The resulting event turns the city into an immersive arts atmosphere exemplifying our unique creative culture.
Organized R.H.Y.M.E. (Resources Helping Youth Manifest Empowerment)
The AAAC recognizes the innate value of including arts in the education of our young people and strives to support our premier service providers through a wide range of partnerships and key initiatives.
WORDSlam, a performance poetry competition for youth, is one such initiative involving several acclaimed local poets, 4 producing organizations, 11 schools, and reached more than 430 area youths.
By collaborating and fostering the advancement of local youth service providers and the youths themselves directly where appropriate, we hope to create a climate where arts education is not merely recognized as a luxury, but as a critical aspect of a complete education.
New Media
In a rapidly evolving market, having access to multimedia resources and a well-developed internet presence is increasingly important for being able to do business effectively. The AAAC recognizes that there are needs and challenges associated with acclimating to the world of new media. However, we also recognize unprecedented opportunities for marketing and communications as well.
There is also an entire genre of innovative media arts and artists emerging in the creative sector that we endeavor to engage and support.
Working in concert with partner organizations, the AAAC seeks to leverage the visibility of its website www.ashevillearts.com (consistently in the top 3 search results when seeking “Asheville” and “Art”), to establish an online axis connected to various key directories, websites, and creative online resources.
Advocacy
Despite the profound impact creative professionals have had on community and economic development in western NC, the arts are constantly under-resourced and regarded among the lowest social priorities, often seen as a luxury or a fringe aspect of our culture.
The AAAC is uniquely positioned to serve as a leading advocate for the creative sector due to the numerous collaborations created through existing programs and emerging projects, affording us the “on the ground” perspective of those we intend to serve.
Also, our long-standing connections to the NC Arts Council and state-level advocacy organization ARTS North Carolina, along with recently established partnerships with local municipalities, the Chamber of Commerce, and key economic development players allows us access to influential decision makers.
The AAAC strives to advance the role of the arts in our culture to the point that it is widely recognized, not as a luxury, but as a vital requirement for a healthy, thriving community.