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Emergence celebrates the role of teaching and mentoring in artistic development, highlighting works by faculty mentors and their students. The 35 pairs of artists presented in this exhibition represent 23 institutions of higher education from the Southeast. Their works represent a wide variety of approaches to subject matter, innovative use of materials, and mastery of traditional mediums being taught and practiced in contemporary studio programs.
Image credits: Angela Wells, professor and Logan Davis, senior, East Carolina University
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 20, 2024
- THROUGH: April 27, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Drawn from The Bascom’s permanent collection, works exhibited this year celebrate the visual legacies of 20th century artists who practiced in the Southeastern US, including our founding benefactor, Watson Barratt.
Image credit: Julyan Davis, Portait of Edith and Richard Joel, Oil on Canvas, Collection of The Bascom
Exhibition Reception
March 23rd | 3 pm | FREE
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 27, 2024
- THROUGH: April 6, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Various
The Bascom’s 2024 Photography Artist in Residence, Erik Mace, is a visual artist who uses photography, graphic design, and book arts as his tools of inquiry. As an experimental visual thinker, he is deeply curious about the power of photography and adjacent media, and how to take advantage of their limitations. Mace’s exhibition will destabilize viewer expectations of familiar sensory material, transforming images, sounds, and other media into photographs to explore perceptions of the natural world.
A free public reception will be held July 11 | 5 pm
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Erik Mace
- ON DISPLAY: April 20, 2024
- THROUGH: August 24, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
Emergence celebrates the role of teaching and mentoring in artistic development, highlighting works by faculty mentors their students. The 34 pairs of artists presented in this exhibition represent 20 institutions of higher education from the Southeast. Their works represent a wide variety of approaches to subject matter, innovative use of materials, and mastery of traditional mediums being taught and practiced in contemporary studio programs.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 21, 2023
- THROUGH: April 29, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Through sculptures, films and cut text works, Satellites & Salamanders IV attempts to re-member hidden and lost parts of artist Walker Tufts’ legacies. The installation orbits around a pair of 1:1 scale models of NASA satellites that become an escape-pod/tiny house, a climbing wall, a vertical forest, and more.
Exhibition Reception
March 23rd | 3 pm | FREE
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Walker Tufts
- ON DISPLAY: January 13, 2024
- THROUGH: May 11, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Multi-media
This exhibition celebrates the rich tradition of glass art in the region, showcasing the journey of world-renowned artists, including Harvey Littleton, John Littleton, and Kate Vogel. It offers a blend of historical context, current achievements, and a glimpse into what lies ahead for glass art in Western North Carolina. Viewers have the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the diverse and dynamic world of glass artistry, fostering a deeper understanding of the artists and their contributions to the region’s cultural heritage. Curated by Alysia Fischer.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: May 11, 2024
- THROUGH: August 3, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Glass
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Alysia Fischer
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Beate Sass, Brent Martin, Eric William Carroll, Erik Mace, Frances Bukovsky, Kaye Savage, Mike Belleme, Raymond Thompson Jr, Susan Alta Martin, Susan Patrice, Yvonne Dalschen
- ON DISPLAY: December 15, 2022
- THROUGH: January 7, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
Asheville Printmakers is an independent alliance of artists who express themselves through the medium of the print. Its membership encompasses both experienced and emerging artists, as well as those new to printmaking. The participants define “the print” broadly to encompass a wide range of processes and content, from traditional to experimental, and classic to contemporary.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: May 25, 2024
- THROUGH: August 17, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Printmaking
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Asheville Printmakers
Regarding play...it starts out innocent enough (fun and games as they say) — infants with a rattler, toddlers with blocks, and things progress from there — tag-you’re-it as children, strumming the guitar as kids, competing in sports as teens, performing in a theatrical play in high school— then on to playing quarters, getting played, being a player, and finally — getting played out.
- GALLERY: Archives
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: September 13, 2021
- THROUGH: December 30, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Sculpture
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Gregor Turk
- MEDIA GALLERY:
This year’s Winter Resident Artist, Kimberly English explores the ideas of raveling and unravelling in her newest textile installation made for The Bascom. The Ravel & the Rest is an exhibition of ironic abstraction, juxtaposing gestures towards creation myths and contemporary existential concerns surrounding climate change, globalization, and nuclear war. Textiles serve as a metaphor for human production at large, and this notion of “the ravel”, a loose thread that’s been parsed, speaks to this enigmatic zeitgeist periphery - straddling between states of becoming and the process of unmaking.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Kimberly English
- ON DISPLAY: January 21, 2023
- THROUGH: April 8, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Fiber Arts
Each year, we select works from our permanent collection coordinating with the annual theme. This year’s theme of origins gives the Bascom community an opportunity to explore our own sources of inspiration, dreams, and growth, that will be highlighted in this exhibition. The works will convey stories of The Bascom – from our founder George Watson Barratt to others whose works are entwined with our history, such as New Orleans painter Will Henry Stevens, and artists featured in our early permanent collection.
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 7, 2023
- THROUGH: April 15, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Various
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Deborah Shannan
- ON DISPLAY: April 3, 2021
- THROUGH: May 29, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
In April 2023, five new works were installed on the Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail, marking the third year of our outdoor sculpture program on The Bascom campus. Two additional works are available for viewing at locations in Cashiers, thanks to the efforts of our partner organization, Vision Cashiers.
- GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
- THROUGH: April 30, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Sculpture
Featuring the work of artists affiliated with the Jackson County Green Energy Park, in Dillsboro, NC, this exhibit displays metals, pottery, and glass. These works are made possible by the recapture of landfill methane to fuel forges, foundries, and kilns. Curated by Timm Muth.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
- THROUGH: July 15, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Various
This collaborative piece by LIVLAB artists, Morgan Kennedy and Kevin Kirkpatrick, weaves object making, water-way exploration, and sound, with romantic literary impressions of Western North Carolina. The project was inspired by a passage from the book Thirteen Moons by novelist Charles Frazier in which he describes a local mountain medicine, which is made from “River Nests.”
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Morgan Kennedy and Kevin Kirkpatrick
- ON DISPLAY: August 19, 2023
- THROUGH: January 20, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Multimedia
2022 marks the second year of annual outdoor sculpture exhibit outside on The Bascom Campus.
- GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2022
- THROUGH: April 22, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Sculpture
The Bascom Winter Resident Artist Program, better known as the W.R.A.P., calls on Students or Faculty from the surrounding universities to submit site-specific installation proposals for The Bascom’s unique and beautiful Thompson Gallery.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Colin Dawson
- ON DISPLAY: January 11, 2022
- THROUGH: April 2, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Multimedia
The Bascom is proud to present our third annual Emergence: A Survey of Southeastern Studio Programs, formerly known as 100 Miles.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 15, 2022
- THROUGH: April 30, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Each year The Bascom’s Photography Artist in Residence Program brings in educator-artists who create work for exhibition and offer new insights to our signature STEAM-focused curriculum, integrating basic skills in science, technology, engineering and math with the arts.
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Sean Patrick Hill
- ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
- THROUGH: August 5, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
Into the Wood explores the aesthetic and technical breakthroughs of three generations of artist-woodturners who have created a new language of self-expression through form, material and process. Curated by Marilyn Laufer and Tom Butler, the exhibition focuses on works made from native wood. A special piece, created from a fallen tree located on The Bascom campus will be created for the exhibition and will be on display and available for purchase at a special auction.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Ed, Philip, and Matt Moulthrop
- ON DISPLAY: May 13, 2023
- THROUGH: August 26, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Woodturning
Mosaic: A picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard materials such as stone, tile, or glass. It is a name of English origin meaning pattern of pieces. A combination of many different parts forming one thing.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: September 18, 2021
- THROUGH: December 23, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Mosaics
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Paula Smith
With over 100 works in our permanent collection, each installment promises to be a unique experience in the Joel Gallery.
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 9, 2021
- THROUGH: March 27, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Bascom member artists explore their own artistic origins in this annual juried exhibition.
Juried by: Diane C. McPhail, Rosemary Clark-Stiefel, and Mary Lou Carpenter-Bilbro
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): J. Aaron Alderman, Margie Bauer, Beth Batson, Jan Best, Beth Bowser, Ken Bowser, Cath Connolly Hudson, Carol Conti, Barbara DeMaire, Cory Erneston, Deborah Feiste, David Genest, Bob Gregory, Gwen Greenglass, Marti Grinberg, Leslie Jeffery, Barbara Jamison, Kim Keelor, Colleen Kastner, Gary Kornheiser, Sandy Kornheiser, Ashley Obregon, Toni Lyons Phillips, Katherine McClure, Josephine Miller, Jennifer Stack Moore, Penny Pollock, Carol Rivers, Sarah Riley, Barbara Sallows, Beth Bronnum Stern, Ann Cox Strub, Martha Sutherland-Wright, Corbin Tucker, and Helen Ziga
- ON DISPLAY: July 29, 2023
- THROUGH: September 16, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Explore The Bascom's 2022 theme of "Place" through the lens of Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust properties.
Our mountains are among some of the oldest in the world. Over time, geologic processes have resulted in a complex landscape that is home to a great diversity of habitats for plants and animals. Home to more flowering plant species than anywhere else in the temperate zone, 250 are found nowhere else but here.
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: July 16, 2022
- THROUGH: December 31, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust
2021 marks the beginning of an annual outdoor sculpture switch out on The Bascom Campus. Every year, we will select a handful of sculptors to install their work throughout our 6 acre campus.
- GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: April 26, 2021
- THROUGH: April 30, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Sculpture
Beginning in January 2023, the photographers featured in this exhibition were invited to explore and reflect upon 112-miles of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail. Listening to the Land features photography and photo-based installations by thirty-two artists and celebrates this region’s rich biodiversity while honoring each person’s unique and emergent relationship with the land.
Drawing inspiration from the trail itself, photographers were invited to enter an intimate world where the landscape was alive and waiting to be met, understood, and listened to. Together these artists contemplated their own wild origins while visually reimagining a time when humans moved in respect, harmony, and cocreative kinship with the natural world.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Angela Martin, Anna Helgeson, Anna Norton, Anne Cannon, April McNiff, Barron Northrup, Beate Sass, Brent Martin, Casey Visco, Drew Jorgensen, Eric William Carroll, Erik Mace, Frances Bukovsky, Joanna Parkman, Kaoly Gutierrez, Kaye Savage, Laura Rudkin Miniot, Lesley Ann Price, Liliana Vitale, Lisa Stockton Howell, Lu Mann, Lynn “Cricket” Woodward, Lynne Buchanan, Mike Belleme, Sam Brown, Sandy Johnson, Sarah Morgan, Shawn McIntosh, Starlett Henderson, Susan Patrice, Virginie Drujon-Kippelen, Yvonne Dalschen
- ON DISPLAY: September 9, 2023
- THROUGH: January 6, 2024
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
After a successful inaugural exhibition in 2020, 100 Miles II continues the tradition of showcasing new artwork by faculty and their students from surrounding colleges and universities. This diverse exhibition provides emerging artists and established instructors the opportunity to come together for professional development in a gallery setting.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 26, 2021
- THROUGH: April 24, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Curated by ceramic artist, Kirsten Stingle, In.Visible explores reimagining myths and tales to better address the climate crisis as well as the social, economic, and political upheaval of modernity. David Abram says, “Before you can restore the land, you must re-story the land.”
Image credits left to right: Natasha Dikareva, Michelle Laxalt, Deborah Grayson, and Richard W. James
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Carrie Anne Bade, Donna Bates, Andrea K Connell, Ilona Cutts, Natasha Dikareva, TJ Erdahl, Deborah Grayson, Amy Gross, Richard W. James, Christine Kosiba, Michelle Laxalt, Asia Mathis, Mac Star McCusker, Shannon Moore, Crystal Morey, Kyungmin Park, Hannah Pierce, Beau Raymond, David Robinson, Kirsten Stingle, Roxanne Swentzell
- ON DISPLAY: September 30, 2023
- THROUGH: December 30, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Multimedia
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Kirsten Stingle
Many creative acts seem to emanate from the experience of place...
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: January 29, 2022
- THROUGH: April 16, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Various
Our fifth installment in our Craft to Art series covers Musical Instruments and their history of use, importance in defining regional culture, material construction, and evolution of design in Southern Appalachia.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: September 24, 2022
- THROUGH: January 7, 2023
- MEDIUM(S): Musical Instruments
Lasting Impressions presents sixty of the finest Japanese prints in the Read-Simms Collection at the Gibbes Museum of Art.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: September 10, 2022
- THROUGH: December 3, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Woodblock Prints
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Gibbes Museum
form
noun, the visible shape or configuration of something.
verb, bring together parts or combine to create (something).
formative
adjective, serving to form something, especially having a profound and lasting influence on a person's development.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ON DISPLAY: April 16, 2022
- THROUGH: July 16, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Metal, Sculpture
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Frankie Flood + Elizabeth Walton
It is curious to see the world from the air. As we rise above our usual ground-level vision, we gain a broader perspective on our built environment and the human impact on the land. Terrain that is familiar to us takes on new form, and unexpected marks and monuments reveal themselves.
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Alex MacLean
- ON DISPLAY: September 28, 2020
- THROUGH: January 9, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
For decades Highlands has been a hub of the Arts for Western Carolina. The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers has been instrumental in making it so.
The League has its roots more than fifty years ago in a group of area women, art lovers to the core, who took turns hosting brown bag lunches for artists. It didn't take long for wine to be included in the menu. So the group adopted the name, Pickled Painters.
Helen Sparkes had lived as a guest at the Bascom-Louise Inn, which was willed to the Hudson Library. It became a visual arts wing to display the work of local artists. That space evolved into The Bascom-Louise Gallery, and eventually the fine art center, The Bascom, now located on Franklin Road.
In the late 1970s many Pickled Painters along with new-to-the area artists joined what would eventually become the Art League of Highlands. The group, which met at Helene Sparkes' barn at the top of Webbmont, was small in the beginning, but it began to grow as word spread. Members felt there was a need for an organized art society to support fellow artists in the creation, exhibition, marketing, promotion and teaching of visual arts.
On July 24, 1980, several area artists convened for the first official League meeting. Originally adopting the name, The Art League of Highlands, in 2014, the board voted to change the name to The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers and the Greater Plateau to reflect its expanding reach. Today the league is a thriving 501-C organization boasting over fifty artists and friends.
The group was founded on the principle that visual artists need mutual support in order to sustain and advance artistic growth. That, in turn, encourages cultural appreciation of the visual arts in the community. Not only does the League emphasize originality among its members, it also nurtures artistic expression in upcoming generations living on the Highlands Plateau. To that end, the League offers monthly presentations during the season, and annually sponsors two fine art shows in the area.
The Art League is proud of its past association with the local community and The Bascom-Louise Gallery. It will continue its collaborative with The Bascom and The Macon County Art Association to support the visual arts in the region.
To learn more about the League, visit www.artleagueofhighlands-cashiers.com .
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ON DISPLAY: August 28, 2021
- THROUGH: December 31, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Mixed
Nothing will tell you where you are. Each moment is a place you've never been.
—Mark Strand
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Anna Norton
- ON DISPLAY: April 23, 2022
- THROUGH: July 4, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Photography
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: May 14, 2022
- THROUGH: August 27, 2022
- MEDIUM(S): Various
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Kate Anderson
For decades Highlands has been a hub of the Arts for Western Carolina. The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers has been instrumental in making it so.
The League has its roots more than fifty years ago in a group of area women, art lovers to the core, who took turns hosting brown bag lunches for artists. It didn't take long for wine to be included in the menu. So the group adopted the name, Pickled Painters.
- GALLERY: Archives
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: August 28, 2021
- THROUGH: December 31, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Various
The Bascom Winter Resident Artist Program, better known as the W.R.A.P., calls on Students or Faculty from the surrounding universities to submit site-specific installation proposals for The Bascom’s unique and beautiful Thompson Gallery.
- GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Kyle Kelsey
- ON DISPLAY: January 12, 2021
- THROUGH: March 20, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Various
- MEDIA GALLERY:
The Bascom is proud to partner with the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival and celebrate their 40th anniversary! Each year HCCMF releases a program of their events with original art on the cover. This exhibition will showcase all of those original art pieces.
Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival
- GALLERY: Joel Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: June 7, 2021
- THROUGH: August 15, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Painting & Photography
"Ride or Die" Shawn Campbell
Regarding play...it starts out innocent enough (fun and games as they say) — infants with a rattler, toddlers with blocks, and things progress from there — tag-you’re-it as children, strumming the guitar as kids, competing in sports as teens, performing in a theatrical play in high school— then on to playing quarters, getting played, being a player, and finally — getting played out.
From casual pursuits without fixed rules to more structured games, play can be elusive to define and difficult to explain exactly what it is and what it does. Far from just a human characteristic, we frequently observe animals at play, even interspecies romps. Often derided as not serious or a mere diversion, play remains the lifeblood of creativity and artistic pursuits. No wonder recreation and re-creation converge as words.
The word “play” is versatile if not playful itself. In addition to its numerous parts of speech, the word possesses a wide array of subtle twists in meaning - from straightforward to darker connotations. This exhibition too plays with “play” covering a multitude of interpretations through sculpture.
Sculptors inherently play with materials. Meaning, durability, viewer response, and inherent/perceived value are all affected by an object’s composition. The physical properties of a material serve to help convey the concepts the artist is presenting. This exhibition includes works of marble and steel, but also foam rubber and Astro Turf. Repurposed and appropriated materials allow for altered and playful meanings to be presented - referencing both the material’s source and a creative replay.
—Gregor Turk, curator
- GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
- ARTIST(S): Various
- ON DISPLAY: September 13, 2021
- THROUGH: December 30, 2021
- MEDIUM(S): Various
- GUEST CURATOR(S): Gregor Turk
Highlights from Past Exhibitions
They may be gone from our galleries, but the artistic impact of our past exhibitions are definitely not forgotten. Take a virtual tour of some of the stunning exhibitions that have graced The Bascom's walls, halls, and campus grounds.
THE BASCOM WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR 2024 EXHIBITION SPONSORS
Baton Rouge Area Foundation - The Alma Lee, Norman and Cary Saurage Fund
Jenny Lynn Bradley
Elva and Tom Brady
Hillary Cone
Claire and Alex Crumbley
Crumbley Family Fund
Margaret and Dallas Denny
Martha and Michael Dupuis
Ruthie and Berryman Edwards
Cathy and Bob Fisher
Nancy and Charles Harrison
Jo and Jack Hill
Kathleen and Christopher Hohlstein
Jane Jerry
Sue Lewis
Dianne and Myron Mall
Heath Massey and John Mitchener
Heather McFarlin
Carol Misner and Ann Huckstep
Cary Saurage
Schulzman-Neri Foundation
Kurt Schulzman and Richard Neri
C. Marie Sharpe
Ann Sullivan
Susan and Charley Tarver
The Tom and Elva Brady Foundation
Vance and Willis Willey
Woodcrest Foundation
Ann Wrobleski
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Visit: 323 Franklin Road
Highlands, NC 28741 (Map It)
Call: 828-526-4949 (Main)
828-787-2892 (Ceramics Studio)
This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Learn more at NCArts.org
Funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at SouthArts.org.
Funding is due in part to a Tourism Grant with Visit Highlands, NC. Learn more HighlandsChamber.org