Asheville
North Carolina
Asheville Art Museum Enews: March 17, 2023
Arts and Entertainment
March 20, 2023
From: Asheville Art Museum
Asheville Art Museum Receives Highest National Recognition:
AAM Reaccreditation
The Asheville Art Museum has again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)—the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums. AAM Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public.
“I’m thrilled and honored by this prestigious recognition,” says Executive Director Pamela Myers. “In 1984, the Asheville Art Museum became one of a select few museums of its size to earn AAM Accreditation, and we have consecutively retained this distinction ever since. I’m so thankful to every staff member for their dedication and diligence. Reaccreditation was a vigorous, complex process that involved everyone on our talented team.”
According to the AAM Reaccreditation report:
-“The Asheville Art Museum truly achieves the subtle but profound goal as expressed in one visitor comment of ‘connecting the world of art to our local community, indigenous people, and arts tradition.’"
-“The overall impression of Asheville Art Museum is of a museum that beautifully brings its mission, vision, and values to life.”
-“The depth, breadth, and interpretation of the permanent Collection and the exhibition program would be the envy of any museum, especially those of similarly sized cities.”
According to AAM, its Accreditation helps ensure the integrity and accessibility of museum collections, reinforce the educational and public service roles of museums, and promote good governance practices and ethical behavior.
Accredited museums must undergo a reaccreditation review every 10 years to maintain accredited status. Alliance Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards, and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 50 years, the Alliance’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation, and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable to provide the best possible service to the public.
Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, only approximately 1,080 are currently accredited.
"Alliance Reaccreditation validates the caliber and significance of our work,” says Lindsay Rosson, director of finance and operations. “It illustrates the commitment we have to enrich our community through dynamic experiences in American art of the 20th and 21st centuries.”
Accreditation is a rigorous, but highly rewarding process that examines all aspects of a museum’s operations. To earn Reaccreditation, Asheville Art Museum first conducted a year of self-study, and then underwent an intensive site visit by a team of peer reviewers, according to Myers. AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent and autonomous body of museum professionals, considers the self-study and visiting committee report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation or reaccreditation.
“Accredited museums are a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence,” said Laura L. Lott, AAM president and chief executive officer. “Accreditation is clearly a significant achievement, of which both the institutions and the communities they serve can be extremely proud.”
Join Us for a Tea Party at the Rooftop Perspective Café
Friday, April 7 • 2–5pm
$45 Members; $50 nonmembers
Reservations for tabletops of 4 or 6 only
Treat yourself to a social afternoon filled with whimsy and fun while sampling our exquisite, in-house offerings at the Perspective Café. This afternoon tea party features local indulgences from Asheville Tea Company, as well as fresh tea sandwiches, scones, fruit, and pastries.
The afternoon also includes the opportunity to design and create your own Fascinator Hat in our art studio and enjoy a stroll through the galleries.
Pre-registration is required. Ticket includes Museum admission, studio time, tea and accompaniments, and gratuity. Members receive 10 percent discount.
Yoga Returns to the Museum
Need to unwind after a long, stressful work week? Then join us in the Museum’s Windgate Foundation Atrium on Saturday mornings for Yoga for All Bodies | Yoga for Mental Health, followed by social time with free coffee, tea, and a fresh-baked pastry at the rooftop Perspective Café.
This class features gentle stretching and strengthening aimed to restore the body and mind—focusing on breathing, body awareness, and mindset care. All levels are welcome. Please bring your own mat. Reserve your spot soon; there’s only capacity for 20 participants per class.
Saturdays, March 18–April 8 (four sessions remaining)
9–10am Yoga for All Bodies | Yoga for Mental Health
10–10:30am Social time in the rooftop Perspective Café
$15 per class for Museum Members
$25 per class for nonmembers
Summer Art Camp Is Filling Up Fast!
Join us at the Museum for Summer Art Camp, offering something for every child’s imagination! Offered to rising K–12th grade students, all classes are age appropriate. Enrollment is limited, and pre-registration is required. Registration includes Museum admission and all materials necessary for each class. Classes are offered weekly for seven consecutive weeks, starting June 19 and running through the week of August 7.
Morning (9am–noon) and afternoon (1–4pm) sessions are offered each week. Students may sign up for both morning and afternoon sessions and stay for both sessions with supervised lunchtime.
Camp Costs
Morning (9am–noon) or afternoon (1–4pm) half-day session: $130
Full day (9am–4pm, both morning and afternoon sessions): $250
Members receive a 10 percent discount.
Registration is open and spots are filling up fast. To be added to our Family Programs mailing list, click here. For more information, call 828.253.3227.
The Museum is committed to making our programs accessible to everyone, regardless of economic means. With support from the Walnut Cove Members Association, we’re able to provide a limited amount of financial aid to help students who could not otherwise afford to enroll in our programs.
DATE: Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23
TIME: Noon–5:00pm
COST: $105 for two days
Museum Members receive a 10 percent discount
2 equity seats are available at $25 for BIPOC students
During this weekend art experience, we will explore how to use natural dyes to create a limitless array of colors, hues, and values on fabric. Using natural indigo, madder, and weld, we will create an entire rainbow of colors!
We will dye both silk and cotton fibers and you will discover how to mordant (prepare) these different fibers for dyeing. You are welcome to bring in your own small natural fiber items to dye.
In this two-day course, you will create a color wheel using natural indigo, madder, and weld. You'll learn to create resists on fabric using wooden shapes and shibori techniques and use pH to shift colors. Learn to measure out and start a dye pot based on the weight of fiber. This Adult Studio is supportive programming for our exhibition Pulp Potential: Works in Handmade Paper.
Reserve your spot soon; there’s only capacity for 12 participants per class.
Work of the Week
Pressures by Ed Ruscha
On view in the SECU Collection Hall, Level 3
A key figure in the California Pop art movement, Ed Ruscha’s art is laced with humor and irony because, as he has said, “Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head.” Ruscha studied graphic arts before charting a fine arts course, and he rose to prominence in the early 1960s with decidedly graphic paintings.
Art in this body of work depicts a single word, portrayed in a specific font, floating across a colored background. Like Pressures, their enigmatic declarations hover between clarity and mystery, deadpan humor and cultural criticism. In Pressures, nine evenly spaced letters balance like stars across an atmospheric, midnight-blue ground bearing a typeface that is the artist’s own invention—a font he calls “Boy Scout Modern.”
Pressures is on view in the SECU Collection Hall, level 3.