4th ART IN BLOOM in Black Mountain to Honor Blue Ridge Parkway 75th Anniversary

The 4th Annual Art in Bloom is scheduled for June 17-20 at the Black Mountain (NC) Center for the Arts, located in the renovated original City Hall at 225 W. State Street. Art in Bloom is a celebration of art and flowers similar to events held in museums and galleries throughout the nation since 1976, where it started at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The theme for this year’s Art in Bloom in Black Mountain is “Naturally Blue Ridge,” as the Center for the Arts collaborates with the Blue Ridge Parkway to celebrate its 75th anniversary amidst local natural beauty.  The Town of Black Mountain lies in the Swannanoa Valley south and east of one section of the Parkway, where its crosses from Asheville to the area in and around the Black Mountains and Mount Mitchell.

The concept of Art in Bloom is to bring together floral design and fine art.  Talented floral designers are invited to interpret specific works of fine art with arrangements of flowers and flora.  To follow the “Naturally Blue Ridge” theme, this year’s floral designers will be asked to use a minimum of one native plant in their arrangement.  BMCA Executive Director Gale Jackson and Southern Highlands Craft Guild member/basket maker Patti Quinn Hill will curate the gallery show, using works from a variety of artists and regional galleries.  Designers from both the Ikebana tradition of Japanese flower arranging, and from traditional western floral design are among the floral artists that participate.  The gallery show opens several weeks prior to the Art in Bloom weekend so that both floral designers and the public can view it at leisure.  On Thursday, June 17th the floral designers spend the day creating their arrangements on site, and the combined interpretive show opens anew that evening to ticket holders and floral designers at a Preview Party and Gala when the flowers are at their very freshest.  Beginning Friday, June 18 – Sunday, June 20, the public can come in to view the combined show for a minimal fee of $5.00, or entrance to the show is included in the ticket price of any event.

Other ticketed events scheduled throughout the weekend include a Friday afternoon tea and fashion show; and on Saturday, a photographic tour/lecture of the flora of the Blue Ridge Parkway by Dave Ellum, Professor of Sustainable Forestry at Warren Wilson College.

On both Friday (18th) and Saturday (19th) a tour of gardens in Black Mountain will be offered.  This year’s tour features the gardens of artists, including a sculptor, potter, quilter, wood turner, and both pastel and watercolor painters.  Along with art by the individual garden owners, there will be other local artists in the gardens, painting en plain air the scenes they find that day.  On Sunday (20th) from noon - 4, these paintings will be for sale at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts as part of the Art in Bloom display.  Tickets for the garden tour may be purchased in advance or the day of the tour, and maps for the self-guided tour will be available.  Tickets holders will receive a 15% discount for lunch at a number of Black Mountain restaurants on the tour day.

Art in Bloom was first brought to the Black Mountain Center for the Arts by the Ikebana International Association of western NC as both a way of raising funds for the non-profit Center, and a way of raising awareness of the art of Ikebana, a centuries-old Japanese philosophy of flower arranging that stresses simplicity and natural materials.

Honorary Chair for the “Naturally Blue Ridge” Art in Bloom is Billy Edd Wheeler, nationally known songwriter/musician/playwright/artist who calls Swannanoa home.  Wheeler’s art will appear in the gallery show. Visit www.billyeddwheeler.com.

For more information, call 828/669-0930.