New observatory in certified dark-skies park opens in Yancey County

 

 

People in WNC can now experience the wonders of the night sky through a 34-inch telescope, the largest in the Southeast, at the Bare Dark Sky Observatory. (Image credit: MGN)

YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — 

People in WNC can now experience the wonders of the night sky through a 34-inch telescope, the largest in the Southeast, at the Bare Dark Sky Observatory.

Come out on for the grand opening event on May 25, 2017. The rain date is June 1.

Activities will begin at 4 p.m. and a ribbon-cutting is at 7 p.m.

The Bare Dark Sky Observatory is named for Warren and Larissa Bare, and is located at the Mayland Earth to Sky Park (formally called the Energy Exchange) in Yancey County.

The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) designated the Earth to Sky Park as the first IDA certified park in the Southeastern United States. The new observatory will allow community members an opportunity to experience the wonders of the night sky, while providing the college's astronomy students with hands-on learning.

The observatory sits at an elevation of 2,736 feet and offers a 360-degree view.

The observatory houses the “Sam Scope,” named in memory of Samuel Phillips.

The Sam Scope is a f/3.6 StarStructure Newtonian telescope, with a 34-inch (0.86 meter) mirror. It will be the largest telescope in the Southeast in dark skies dedicated for public use for educational and public outreach activities.

Funding for the telescope was provided by the Samuel L. Phillips Family Foundation.

Beginning at 4 p.m. on May 25th, the public is invited to tour the Bare Dark Sky Observatory and see the telescopes. There will be educational videos to watch, outdoor games to play, and tours of the Earth to Sky Park available.

Bubba’s Good Eats will have a food truck on site at 4 p.m. for visitors to enjoy.

Because parking access to the Observatory is limited, MCC will offer shuttle rides to the building for tours. Guests are recommended to wear walking shoes as the ground is uneven.

Bring a flashlight if you plan on staying past dark to catch a glimpse through the telescopes, because lighting is limited due to the restrictions of being an International Dark Sky Association certified Park.

Following the grand opening event, the Observatory will be open by reservation and for events/classes over the summer. Groups are welcome to make a reservation.

For upcoming Observatory events, click here.

For additional information call 828-766-1233

Free Tennis Camp – Toe River Racqueteers

 

June 5th-8th - Mountain Heritage High School tennis courts - Burnsville, June 19th-20th - Brad Ragan Park tennis courts - Spruce Pine. Ages 5-9 and  Ages 10 and up  

Register online HERE,   


Please provide location(s) your child will attend, parent/guardian name and phone number, child's name and age, and whether or not the child already has a tennis racquet.  Racquets will be provided to children who do not have one.  Please plan to arrive at the courts 15 minutes prior to the scheduled camp time and bring water, sunscreen already applied, tennis shoes or other appropriate close-toed shoes, and a hat if needed. 

 

Registration Open for Penland Kids Camp

 

Registration for Penland’s exciting program of one week, arts-oriented day camps for children is now open! Penland’s Kids Camps for ages 3 through 18 begin on June 19^th and run through August 4^th featuring different camps each week. Young campers can cut, sculpt, and paint unique masks and puppets while exploring art from around the globe in Around the World in Five Days and older campers can build sets, create characters, and photograph movement to create their own film in Stop Motion Animation.  Other camps will feature screeenprinting, storytelling, music, clay, and nature exploration for all age groups.

Most camps are half day, either morning or afternoon.  One full day camp, Let’s Make Furniture, will be a fun week of exploring how things are made while campers build their own bench, table, or cabinet. Age ranges vary for each camp depending on subject matter. Tuition for Penland’s Kids Camp is $100 per half day camp ($200 for the full day camp) and includes materials and snacks. Scholarships are also available.

A complete schedule and descriptions of all the camps, and the application form are available at www.penland.org. For more information, call Holly Phillips at 828-765-2359.
 
 
Penland School of Crafts is an international center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in Western North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, printmaking and letterpress, photography, textiles, and wood. The school also sponsors artists’ residencies, an outreach program, and a gallery and visitors center. Penland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution which receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
 

Penland Gallery Exhibition Features 32 Artists

 

The Penland Gallery will open its 2017 exhibition season with an exhibition of pieces by thirty-two artists working in many different styles and materials. What these artists have in common is that they are alumni of the Penland Core Fellowship or the Penland Resident Artist Program, and they are all featured in Inspired, a recently published book that documents the programs. The exhibition runs from March 28 through May 14 with an opening reception on Saturday, April 1 from 4:30 to 6:30 PM.

The exhibition will cover a broad spectrum of craft materials, including books, clay, glass,  letterpress printing, jewelry, metals, papermaking, photography, textiles, wood, and mixed-media, plus a video about a community art project in Indianapolis led by sculptor Meredith Brickell. Although the artists come from different parts of the country and from Australia and Japan, the show includes works by a number of local artists including potter Stanley Mace Anderson, ceramic sculptor Cristina Córdova, book sculptor Daniel Essig, blacksmith Seth Gould, steel sculptor Hoss Haley, steel and book sculptor Andrew Hayes, mixed-media sculptors Anne Lemanski and Christina Shmigel, glass sculptor Mark Peiser, and Mitchell County native Ronan Peterson—a potter who now lives in Chapel Hill.

Included in the show is a dramatic steel and concrete chair made by Vivian Beer, who won last year’s grand prize on Ellen Degeneres’s HGTV show, Ellen’s Design Challenge. Jack Mauch will display a complex marquetry wall piece made from many dozen thin strips of wood veneer. Mark Peiser is presenting a remarkable piece cast from phase-separated glass, which shifts color tonality depending on how the light strikes. Daniel Essig created a fantastic wooden dragon that is adorned with tiny books.

 
The Penland Core Fellowship gives energetic, motivated artists an opportunity to live, study, and work at Penland for two years. Core fellows work part-time for the school, performing tasks essential to its functioning, and they participate in workshops, which they can choose from Penland’s 135 annual offerings. The Resident Artist Program provides self-supporting, full-time artists with low-cost housing and studio space and an opportunity to work in close proximity with other artists for three years. The artists included in the exhibition represent the whole history of these programs. Mark Peiser and weaver Adela Akers were resident artists in the 1960s, photographer Alida Fish was the first core fellow in 1970, and Seth Gould and Andrew Hayes are current resident artists. All of the artists are still active and most of the work was made recently.

The book Inspired: Life in Penland’s Resident Artist and Core Fellowship Programs includes the story of each program and conversations with the thirty-two artists accompanied by examples of their work. It is a beautiful presentation of contemporary craft and an exploration of the many life and career paths taken by these creative individuals. Copies of the book are available at the Penland Gallery.

The Inspired exhibition takes place in the John and Robyn Horn Gallery. On display in the Focus Gallery is a smaller show titled Well-Designed Objects, which presents exquisitely crafted functional items including screenprinted hand towels and zippered bags, metal key chains, leather-bound journals, pewter cups, steel bottle openers, and much more. The Visitors Center Gallery has an ongoing display of objects that illuminate the history of Penland School. And the Lucy Morgan Gallery presents a selection of work by dozens of artists affiliated with the school.

The Penland Gallery and Visitors Center is located at Penland School of Crafts on Conley Ridge Road, just off Penland Road in Mitchell County (near the town of Spruce Pine). It is the first building on your right as you enter the Penland campus. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM and Sunday, Noon-5:00 PM; it is closed on Mondays. For more information call 828-765-6211 or visit penland.org/gallery.
 

Roots run deep at Yancey County’s first craft brewery, Homeplace Beer Co.

in Asheville beer / feature — by Jason Sandford — January 18, 2017

Listen to John Silver talk about his new venture and he’ll tell you all about the basics of starting a new business.

His new brewery, Homeplace Beer Co., is Yancey County’s first craft brewery. (The town approved beer and wine sales six years ago; the county remains dry.) The 5-barrel brewhouse and 10-barrel fermenter will allow him to produce about 600 barrels of beer a year in 2,000 square feet of the Burnsville Town Center, right in the heart of downtown Burnsville. He’ll be tapping into local growers seeking ingredients for the American- and English-style ales he plans to make. He hopes to open in spring.

But listen a little longer, and you’ll hear the respect and appreciation he holds for Yancey County. Silver grew up in Burnsville and Spruce Pine. He’s a local guy who wants to “just wants to do something sustainable for myself and my family,” he says. (He and his wife just had their second child.)

Silver recently bought his grandparents’ house in Yancey County “to get away from the Asheville thing for a little bit.” He views Burnsville as a Norman Rockwell-esque small town with “a great quality of life and great place to grow.” It’s his home place, after all.

The road back to Burnsville

Silver’s well-known in the Asheville craft beer circles. He started washing kegs at Pisgah Brewing in 2005, the year it opened. He moved on to Catawba Brewing, where he landed his first brewing gig and helped them build their Morganton facility. He moved again to French Broad Brewery in Asheville for a couple of years before arriving at Oscar Blues in Brevard in 2012. He finished his tour at Hi-Wire Brewing back in Asheville.

 

“All the experiences have been good, and I can say that I’m still on great terms with all the places I’ve worked,” Silver says. Regarding his decision to open his own brewery, he says “It was just a great time for me to jump off the cliff.”

Silver says he’s excited about tapping into Yancey County’s agricultural scene as he gets Homeplace Beer going. He’s planning to use a local honey to flavor an oatmeal brown. He’s partnering with a North Carolina grit-maker to brew a corn lager, a “sort of an Appalachian corn beer.” He figures he’ll partner with Snap Dragon restaurant and tap room for food.

All those connections, Silver says, will root his business in the community, a town that’s growing. Burnsville provides incredible access to hikers and anglers. Yancey County is home to a thriving arts scene. A craft fair in Burnsville draws 30,000 visitors for a weekend, and nearby Celo is home to another arts scene. More and more tourists are finding the mountain gem.

For Silver, it all adds up. Love your home, connect and reflect its beauty and “if you have a supportive local base, it seems hard to go wrong.”

 

Yancey Co. Farmers’ Market

---

Back on April 22, 2017!

On Saturdays you will find the market bustling just off the beautiful Town Square from 8:30am – 12:30pm

For many years the Yancey County Farmers’ Market has faithfully set up its tents and tables, bringing the freshest locally grown produce and related items to the community.  All grown and made just for YOU right here at home.

Visit https://yanceycountyfarmersmarket.wordpress.com/ for more info

 

 

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS IN BURNSVILLE!

April 1                Burnsville Spring Retail Expo  @ 9:00 am

April 6                Kindergarten Kickoff  @  12:00 noon

April 8                Mountain Air Job Fair  @  10:00 am

April 14              Crowe Brothers @ 7:00 pm

Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands
US Cellular Center, 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC | Phone: 828-298-7928
The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is held four days each July and October at the US Cellular Center in Asheville, NC. Discover fine traditional and contemporary crafts by over 200 craftspeople who fill two levels of the center selling their works of clay, fiber, glass, leather, metal, mixed media, natural materials, paper, wood and jewelry.