The generosity of the Museum's Collectors’ Circle members and additional contributors enabled the Asheville Art Museum to acquire 29 new artworks for its Collection at the end of 2022. The Museum welcomed artworks created throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in a range of media, representing both regionally and nationally recognized artists. These artists included Jasper Johns, Luzene Hill of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, two objects by Asheville-born Sherrill Roland, 10 silver gelatin photographs of the people and culture of Appalachia by Shelby Lee Adams, and three ceramic sculptures by Wesley Harvey.

The Museum’s Collectors’ Circle is a specialized group formed to encourage the exchange of ideas and interests, art learning, connoisseurship, and collecting. The group supports the proactive development, stewardship, and conservation of the Museum’s Collection.

"Being a part of the Collectors' Circle is one of the highlights of our involvement with the Asheville Art Museum since we are active collectors personally," says Collectors' Circle Member Tom Butler. "As retired museum directors, we recognize and appreciate the importance of an active acquisitions program.”

Collectors’ Circle members are dedicated to increasing their own knowledge of American art and fine-art collecting while also growing the Museum’s Collection through annual purchases from an acquisition fund created by yearly dues.

"The 2022 Circle’s purchases provided new artworks for several important areas of the Museum Collection," says Collectors' Circle Member Marilyn Laufer, "but we are particularly pleased to help add important artworks by artists such as Lisa Hunt, Jasper Johns, and Sherrill Roland at this year’s event.”

The Museum is grateful for these new year-end acquisitions, which add to the strengths of its more than 7,500 holdings, and looks forward to sharing them with the community of Western North Carolina and its many visitors in the years to come.