Art markets abound this weekend with Big Crafty, Uncommon Market, Show and Tell Holiday Pop Up, Asheville Music Hall Craft Bazaar, more
LaZoom Room, WNC Farmers Market and Tonwship 10 retreat also host markets
This newsletter sponsored by Citizens Fuel Co., a family-owned Asheville company.
Hey folks, the Ashevegas Hot Sheet returns this week after one helluva Helene-forced hiatus. My family is safe and we’re doing well. I’ll catch you up on my personal storm story later, but for now, there’s a lot happening, so I’m just going to jump in with something simple. These next few Hot Sheets might feel a little helter-skelter, but things will smooth out as we all get back into a new post-storm rhythm. I’m here and, as I’ve done for about the past 30 years, I’ll continue to tell stories about this little mountain metropolis we love and call home.Thank you, loyal readers, for hanging in there with me. Here we go:
Asheville artists, craftspeople and makers continue to bounce back from the ravages of Tropical Storm Helene in late September. Many saw their studio spaces and work submerged and smashed in floodwaters. Others were hit by all the uncertainty that followed, including the ensuing power and water outages, as well as the continued scarcity of art-buying tourists who normally flock to town through late fall.
Art markets offer one quick path along the road to recovery. Holiday markets have multiplied this year during the lead-up to this Christmas. They’ve never been more meaningful to the artists and those that support them. Here’s a look at a handful of events this weekend. This is not a comprehensive list, and
The Big Crafty’s holiday market returns this Saturday and Sunday with hours from noon until 6 p.m. in the Explore Asheville Arena of Harrah’s Cherokee Center - Asheville at 86 Haywood St. in downtown Asheville. Tickets cost $10 per person on Saturday, with admission free on Sunday. Expect all kinds of handmade goodness from local and regional artists, craftspeople and makers. Think prints, jewelry, woodwork, ceramics and so much more from about 175 artists. Brandy Bourne and Justin Rabuck launched the Big Crafty in 2008 at the Grey Eagle as a way to showcase and highlight the great work of local artists, and the popularity of these markets has exploded over the years (this list is a good example of that.) Rabuck recently told the Mountain Xpress that he wasn’t sure if the Big Crafty holiday market could go on in the wake of the Sept. 27 storm. But with the city’s infrastructure repaired, he got the green light, then received an outpouring of support when he announced the Big Crafty was on. Give this OG market a visit to see and support another piece of the broken-but-healing heart of Asheville’s arts community.
The Uncommon Market will hold its annual holiday market on Saturday and Sunday, just down Haywood Street from the Big Crafty this year. The market, featuring curated art, antiques, vintage goods and handmade crafts, will be held inside the Haywood Park Hotel complex at 46 Haywood St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. (The easiest way to get there is to enter the complex from Haywood Street like you’re going to the Bier Garden restaurant/bar and walk to the back of the common area.) Admission is free. This year marks the 10th anniversary for the Uncommon Market, created by Robert and Rebecca Nicholas. Their outdoor spring and summer markets have been held at Foundation Asheville the past several years, and their indoor brick-and-mortar location, called Marquee, opened in 2021.
Robert Nicolas surveys the damage inside Marquee at Foundation Asheville on Oct. 11. Occupying a 50,000-square-foot warehouse, Marquee vendors sold everything from antiques and vintage goods to art and handmade crafts. Video by Jason Sandford
The Foundation was inundated with storm floodwaters, and Marquee and its dozens of vendors lost just about everything. That sent Robert scrambling. He was forced to cancel the outdoor markets scheduled for the end of September and October at Foundation, and he wasn’t sure about the holiday market. His usual location, a building on the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College campus, had been used a storm shelter up until recently. The new location inside the Haywood Park Hotel complex, which once was home to a local church, will provide “a great opportunity for his local artist and antique dealers to represent their craft,” he said. As for the future of Marquee, which had quickly become a popular destination in the River Arts District, Robert said there are “positive steps toward rebuilding to reopening. Stay tuned.” Robert has been through a lot, and I know he’d appreciate seeing shoppers this weekend.
Show and Tell Holiday Pop Up Shop opened last weekend and is open daily from now until Christmas Eve. The shop is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. inside the Center for Craft at 67 Broadway St. downtown. Shoppers can enter from either Carolina Lane or Broadway. Over the years that I’ve visited, Show and Tell features a wonderful selection of holiday gifts, everything from candles, clothes, plants, tea and spices to prints, wreaths and more.
The Asheville Music Hall will hold its 9th annual Holiday Craft Bazaar from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday at the music venue, 31 Patton Ave. The event will include more than 25 local vendors, as well as live music and The One Stop restaurant/bar/venue one floor below the music hall serving food and adult beverages. Check ‘em out.
The 100 For Helene: Benefit & Holiday Pottery Sale is both an in-person sale and an online sale from the folks at Township 10, a retreat for artists and writers in Marshall. One hundred percent of sales will go to the Asheville-based Center for Craft’s Craft Futures Fund. The online sale starts Friday. The in-person sale goes from noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday, where shoppers will find 100 limited edition bowls at $100 each, made by amazing potters. All the details are here.
The Heal-ene Bazaar is set for 2-6 p.m. on Sunday at the LaZoom Room, 76 Biltmore Ave. Visitors will find a vintage and makers market, live music and entertainment, massage and breathwork professionals, a food truck and drinks. The folks at LaZoom, Asheville’s famously funny comedy bus tour, always provide a good time. This is gonna be fun.
The WNC Farmers Market will hold a night holiday market from 4-8 p.m. on Saturday at its 570 Brevard Road location. Cutco Cutlery, the event sponsor, will be selling its cutlery and utensils, with other vendors offering everything from beeswax candles and handmade wreaths to farms goods and crafts. The WNC Nature Center will be selling souvenir gifts to help raise money for their facility, which has been closed since the road and bridge to its Gashes Creek Road location was washed away in the storm.
Thanks for reading. Much more to come.
-j