This presentation and performance traces the history behind ballads from the Blue Ridge Mountains. While strongly associated with European and British Isles traditions, balladry in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia reflects a broad range of cultural influences, including roots in and stories connected to African and Native American experiences.

Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church has unveiled two frescoes by renowned artist, Ben Long. These frescoes depict the 23rd Psalm. Join us to learn how the frescoes made it to Rumple and their plans for the future of fresco. This discussion will feature Kathy Beach, Pastor at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian, and Jim Walters, fresco scholar, and driving force behind the fresco making its way to Blowing Rock.

Join BRAHM’s Curator of Exhibitions & Collections, Gabe Wilson, for a special evening we’re calling Cocktails with the Curator. Patrons can expect one part gallery tour, two part conversation, and a splash of cocktail party.

Music is an important thread in the fabric of our culture. Wilkes Heritage Museum Director, Jennifer Furr, will discuss the creation of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame and how it links our region together.

BRAHM is excited to host a 3-day artist residency with the band Zoe & Cloyd. 

BRAHM is excited to host a 3-day artist residency with the band Zoe & Cloyd. 

Join BRAHM’s Curator of Exhibitions & Collections, Gabe Wilson, for a special evening we’re calling Cocktails with the Curator. Patrons can expect one part gallery tour, two part conversation, and a splash of cocktail party.

Join us for a fun musical evening in conjunction with exhibition SHIP/SHAPE. Music has been a key element to keeping the spirits high for sailors since people first took to the open seas.  In honor of this, BRAHM is excited to welcome performer and educator Terry Lyon for a performance of Sea Shanties. 

Artist Anna Buckner will be here to deliver her talk, “Motherhood and Mythmaking,” and discuss her inspiration, process, and art.

Join App State’s Dr. Howard S. Neufeld for an exciting look at how trees move water hundreds of feet up their trunks and how this may be affected by climate change.

Join us for an exclusive breakdown of Appalachian ballad singing culture presented by 8th generation musician Donna Ray Norton. Norton has released three albums, been featured in countless concerts, documentaries and festivals and is a highly regarded member of the Madison County ballad singers and storytellers.

Free for Members and the public.

Inspired by early 20th century and mid-century modernist landscape architects Thomas Church and Roberto Burne Marx, Ron Cutlip has crafted a successful residential, commercial, and golf course design  career around a “Gardens are for People” philosophy. Believing a good design touches the human spirit, Ron developes a sense of art between structures and their gardens as a place to live in.

In 2010 with an exceptional landscape design practice in New York and at Rockefeller Center,  Ron and his family vacationed in and fell in love with Blowing Rock, and have never left. Ron’s local public projects have included the Regional Welcome Center on US 321, the Blowing Rock School playground, and most recently the gardens of the new Embers Hotel where his design softens a sharp architectural image to appear as though it has grown there all along.

With a nod to the BRAHM exhibit recognizing local artist and sculptor Alex Hallmark, who was commissioned by the Blowing Rock Garden Club for “The Gardener” sculpture in the Memorial Gardens, Ron will discuss garden design ideas for including meaningful art and space in our private gardens as “a place for people”.

Maud Gatewood rose to prominence in North Carolina as an aggressively independent voice in the visual arts. She also participated in the evolution of art across America, helping to sustain figurative art and simultaneously adding her unique viewpoint to hard-edged abstraction and, arguably, to pop art. This talk presents Maud Gatewood as a national figure in the arts via comparison with her many peers, including artists as diverse as Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Stella, and Alex Katz.

Amanda Szot has a BFA in Sculpture from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is an In-House Sculptor at the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and the Preparator at BRAHM.  She has a very active studio practice, often combining cast iron, wood, stone, beads, and found objects into images conveying her personal connection and the human relationship to the natural environment.  She will talk about her love of materials and their importance to the finished sculptures, as well as the process of casting iron from concept to finished work.

Join us for a discussion around Public Art with two people responsible for the placement of a lot of public art in the area! Amber Bateman, Executive Director of Watauga Arts Council and Lee Carol Giduz, former Executive Director of the Caldwell Arts Council. The speakers will share their experiences selecting and placing public art.

Free and open to the public.

This lecture will discuss how metal casting has influenced civilization in terms of sculpture production, early spiritual ideation, and modern day conveniences from industrialization.

Free for Members; $8 General Admission

Was North Carolina painter and educator Maud Gatewood a ”modernist”? What in fact does that label mean? If so, to what extent? Martha R. Severens will explore these questions in her lecture August 4 in connection with the exhibition, The Hard Edge & The Soft Line: A Retrospective of Maud Gatewood at BRAHM.

Join BRAHM’s Curator of Exhibitions & Collections, Gabe Wilson, for a special evening we’re calling Cocktails with the Curator. Patrons can expect one part gallery tour, two part conversation, and a splash of cocktail party.

Hear from MountainTrue’s Watauga Riverkeeper, Andy Hill, about dam removal projects in the High Country and the state of dam removal in the Southeast. We hope you enjoy learning about this conservation topic and it’s connection to improving water quality and habitat for sensitive and rare aquatic species.

The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum has helped to redefine Wilson, NC. By utilizing Vollis’ incredible, kinetic sculptures the downtown has become vibrant and community connection and economic development have followed.

Join us for a special screening of “Maud Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas.”

In 2021, #1 NYTimes bestselling author Jan Karon launched a nonprofit museum in her hometown of Hudson, NC, with a mission to advance the common good through literacy, creativity, and community. Join museum director Sarah Thomas to hear Jan's story from her childhood in Caldwell County to her years in Blowing Rock and her vision for having a positive impact on her local and global communities. Thomas will also share details about the museum's Oral History Library as well as outreach programs for educators, students, and creatives.

Join Docent Sam I Am Reep (and two very special guests) as we discover the wonderful world of of Dr. Seuss. From his beloved children’s books to the secret artwork that was kept hidden until after his death, our tour will uncover the “Cat Behind the Hat.” You won’t want to miss it!

Join App State’s Dr. Neva J. Specht for an in-depth look at the iconic Beaux-Arts Cone estate (known originally as Flat Top Manor) near Blowing Rock.

Lynne Hobaica and Rickie Barnett are multimedia artists based out of Bakersville, NC. They have been working together for over 5 years both on individual work and collaboratively under the name Two Headed Diver. In these talks, they will each share their personal journeys as artists - how they came to this point and the history and inspiration of their work together. Be prepared to laugh, to cry, and to consider life with new eyes.

Join artist Jody Servon for a discussion about embracing creativity while grieving. Her book and collaborative project, Saved: Objects of the Dead (Artsuite, 2023), with CA-based poet Lorene Delany-Ullman is a visual and poetic narrative of how grief manifests and how material possessions help harbor memories. Their book candidly embraces a topic Americans often avoid talking about, even though it is an experience we share: the death of a loved one.

Join Jim Walters as he takes you on his journey across NC and discusses the 19 major frescoes in the state. He will cover how fresco painting began as the “poor person’s Bible” and who Ben Long, the artist that has given NC these marvelous paintings, is. Jim will also discuss the art of fresco painting, with props and demonstration.

Dr. Margret Kentgens-Craig will talk about Frank Lee Craig, one of the featured artists in the exhibition Pulp & Bind, who was also an architect, musician, and writer. She will address her late husband’s challenging transition from being a principal in a major architecture firm to a new calling as a visual artist, after a devastating diagnosis with terminal brain cancer. This was facilitated by his education and training at the Bauhaus-inspired NC State University’s School of Design which had provided him with the fundamental and universal principles and skills of art production. Although he had made small pieces on occasion for years, now he dove into art-making with a passion, producing a massive collection of works that ranged from multi-media collages and photography to paintings, drawings, jewelry**,** and found-object sculptures, amazingly ending up with success, both in Germany and NC.

The impact of the Bauhaus in this process will be another aspect of her presentation as well as her unusual dual role as Craig’s wife but also trained academic professional to preserve his legacy.

Join us for a roundtable discussion with three artists featured in our exhibition, Pulp & Bind: Paper and Book in Southern Appalachia.

Lela Arruza, Rosa Dargon-Powers, and Georgia Deal will share their artistic practice with us and explore their approach to the medium of paper.