ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Asheville Creative Arts will commemorate its 10th year of serving the Western North Carolina community with a summertime celebration this weekend in West Asheville.

The Asheville Creative Arts 10th Anniversary Season Summer Soiree will be held from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 24 at the Peace Gardens & Market, 47 Bryant St. Donations will be accepted, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

10 years down and more to come

According to Abby Felder, a producing director at Asheville Creative Arts, the Summer Soiree marks the beginning of the next chapter for the theatre company. Asheville Creative Arts has joined forces with Hood Huggers International and Peace Gardens & Market to forge Blue Note Junction, a new community resource hub in the Burton Street neighborhood.

“It’s going to include a black box theater, where we will be the anchor tenant,” Felder shared. “It’s going to be a huge expansion for us. It’s going to mean more programming, so more live performances. It’s going to mean more classes. And we’re also going to be working with a community advisory board to do some community curated programs. Everything that we do at Asheville Creative Arts is very community oriented.”

Blue Note Junction will allow Asheville Creative Arts to expand their ability to showcase community artwork in all manner of disciplines, from film and music to art exhibition. The West Asheville campus will also strive to honor the roots of the Burton Street community, a historically Black neighborhood.

The history surrounding Blue Note Junction is, “I would say, a guiding principle of the space, which has been imagined predominantly by DeWayne Barton and Safi Martin,” Felder explained. “DeWayne is a third generation resident of Burton Street, and so he really wants to uplift and preserve the legacy of African-American culture there, and so, that’s going to be a big piece of the Blue Note Junction.”

Putting the “fun” in fundraiser

Fundraising for Blue Note Junction will begin in earnest at the Sunday event with an assortment of performances.

“We are going to have three performances,” Felder said. “We’re going to have kick-off with a puppet show that’s called ‘Slug and Snail.’
It’s a really fun tabletop puppet show that we’ve been touring around a bunch. It was initially created in response to Hurricane Katrina, and then we adapted it to be more about resilience in the face of natural disasters more locally.”

The show, which will feature puppetry by Federica Collina, is about a snail who loses his shell in a storm and his friendship with a slug. “Slug and Snail” will begin at 1 p.m.

Next, audiences can enjoy a 2 p.m. performance by lo-fi folk band Krekel and Whoa, followed by a final performance at 3 p.m. by R&B act The Hypnotic Band.

Between performances, Asheville Creative Arts will hand out awards called “The Froggies and Toadies,” named for the Frog and Toad characters from the musical “A Year with Frog and Toad,” the very first show performed by the children’s theatre. The awards will be given to several influential community members, including Hood Huggers leaders Barton and Martin.

While the event is open to the public and the fundraiser is donation based, there will be a suggested donation for food and drink, which will be provided by Che Fai Black Mountain, Sweet Girl Cookies, RAD Brewing Company and Devil’s Foot.

There will also be raffle tickets on sale for $10 each.

“We really wanted to spotlight some of the artists who work with us,” Felder said. “Edwin Salas, who is a local artist, Jenny Pickens, Carolina Corona, Melanie Wilder and Daniele Martin have all donated pieces of their artwork, and so we’re going to put together a couple of art grab bags. A pet portrait by Carolina Corona will also be available.”

To Felder, Asheville Creative Arts is not only geared toward serving the current Asheville community, but using the power of the arts to guide the next generation of Ashevillians, too.

“This is art that matters,” Felder said. “It’s art that is rooted in our local community and it’s art that is oriented to developing young people into our next community.”

For more information about Asheville Creative Arts, visit www.ashevillecreativearts.org.