Upcoming Exhibitions

The Bascom’s major exhibitions highlight the work of the artists who live and work in our region, Bascom instructors and students, Artist Fellows and Residents, as well as world-renowned artists whose work might not otherwise be seen in this region. The Bascom's 3 galleries and the Winkler Sculpture and Nature Trail are host to approximately 10 exhibitions each year, which pair with our Outreach and Education departments to attract 20,000 visitors to The Bascom. Free guided tours are available upon advanced request.

The Bascom's 2024 Annual Theme: Legacies

Our 2024 season is a celebration of legacies. The arts thrive when artists have opportunities to engage with and influence one another – and, in turn, when audiences have the chance to experience traditional arts and new approaches, techniques, and innovations in conversation.

Artists leave the legacy of their work and its impact on our collective visual imagination. Through their teaching, they encourage and shape the growth, development, and visibility of young artists. Some leave the mark of innovations that transform their fields and expand what is possible for other practitioners. This year we will see those impacts, influences, and inspirations in an array of exhibitions and symposia that celebrate the multiple ways artists create the visual worlds that we as viewers experience.

This year’s exhibitions and symposia celebrate the legacy of artists as educators in the annual exhibition, Emergence, which brings together university faculty and student artists from across the Southeast. We will witness the mutual support and influence of contemporary printmakers from the Asheville Area. Audiences will be able to see works of the American Studio Glass movement, including those of technical innovator and “father” of the glass movement, Harvey Littleton, his son and daughter-in-law John Littleton and Kate Vogel, as well as North Carolina glass makers. This year we will also collaborate with the Blue Spiral Gallery (Asheville) and the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts to celebrate the legacy of Will Henry Stevens, for whom the Bascom covered bridge is named. Stevens was a Southern artist who worked in the North Carolina Mountains and the bayou of Louisiana, and whose work as an educator of artists had lasting impacts.

Not to be missed – our Bascom Clay Symposium, which brings together three contemporary ceramic artists and celebrates the Craft and Art of Clay and its vibrancy in our region.

Always available – our Outdoor Sculpture Program, which begins a two-year rotational cycle in 2024– on The Bascom campus and at selected sites in Cashiers, NC.