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See the Cultivation of the Crafts and Makers of the Southern Highlands
Sundays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Mondays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Tuesdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Wednesdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Thursdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Fridays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Saturdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
The Folk Art Center is a museum of Appalachian arts and crafts located at milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina. It also houses offices for three separate Parkway partners: the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the National Park Service, and Eastern National (known as EN).The Center, a cooperative effort between the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the National Park Service, and the Appalachian Regional Commission, features many one-of-a-kind handmade crafts and is the most popular attraction on the Parkway, seeing a quarter of a million visitors per year.Opened to the public at its current location in 1980, the Center contains three galleries, a library, and an auditorium, and also houses the Eastern National bookstore and information center.
Admission is free.
One of the Center’s main attractions is the Guild’s century-old Allanstand Craft Shop, changing exhibitions in galleries from its permanent collection of 3,500 pieces of craft objects dating back to the turn of the 20th century. The Center also features an exhibition of traditional and contemporary southern Appalachian crafts.HistoryFrances Goodrich, a Yale graduate, moved to the Asheville, North Carolina area in 1890 to do missionary work for the local Presbyterian Church. She found a few women who were still weaving traditional coverlets in wool and cotton. Goodrich was then inspired with the idea of a cottage industry that would assist mountain families. She founded Allanstand Cottage Industries in 1897 in Madison County, North Carolina. This ultimately became Allanstand Craft Shop. She then moved the business to downtown Asheville in 1908 and from her College Street headquarters she worked with other leaders of the southern Arts and Crafts movement.
- October, 8
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Launch Trampoline Park Asheville
Mondays-Thursdays: PRIVATE FACILITY RENTALS ONLY
Fridays: 10:00am-12:00pm and 4:00pm-9:00pm
Saturdays: 11:00am-8:00pm
Sundays: 12:00pm-5:00pm
Don’t just bounce – LAUNCH! We are more than a trampoline park. We are a family entertainment center that offers fun for all ages. Bounce off the walls, play arcade games, and enjoy delicious food.
ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE:
- Trampoline Courts
- Basketball
- Dodgeball
- Knockout
- Launch Pad
- Tumble Traks
- Cliffhanger
- The Challenger
- Paradox VR
- Launch Eats
- Arcade
- October, 7
- 28
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Explore Asheville’s Premier Wildlife Park
(CLOSED Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, & New Year’s Day)
The WNC Nature Center is Asheville’s premier wildlife park!
The Western North Carolina Nature Center connects people with the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region by inspiring appreciation, nurturing understanding, and advancing conservation of the region’s rich biodiversity.
Today, the Nature Center is one of the primary facilities in Western North Carolina offering school children and adults opportunities to learn about and develop an understanding of their responsibility for this area’s native wildlife and habitats. The WNC Nature Center is home to sixty species of wild and domestic animals and hundreds of species of plants, all representative of this unique bioregion, the Southern Appalachians.
The WNC Nature Center is managed by the City of Asheville.
- October, 7
- 988
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Play a wide array of pinball machines spanning from the 1950’s to the 21st Century
Mondays: 1:00pm-6:00pm
Tuesdays: CLOSED FOR REPAIRS
Weds, Thurs, & Fris: 2:00pm-9:00pm
Saturdays: 12:00pm-9:00pm
Sundays: 1:00pm-6:00pm
PLAY 35 PINBALL MACHINES & 35 CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES AS LONG AS YOU LIKE FOR $15 PER PERSON.
Play a wide array of pinball machines spanning from the 1950’s to the 21st Century!
- October, 7
- 1606
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Visit America’s Largest Home®
Biltmore is Open Every Day. Hours Vary Daily.
Biltmore is George Vanderbilt’s 8,000-acre estate featuring America’s Largest Home® in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, NC. Just as first envisioned, Biltmore is all about home – welcoming and celebrating family and friends, and extending the spirit of Biltmore beyond our 8,000 acres. It was true in 1895, and it remains true today. From the historic house and its gardens and grounds to outdoor adventures, dining, shopping, and wine tastings, Biltmore offers something for everyone… all in one unforgettable place.
George Vanderbilt’s daughter Cornelia spent her childhood exploring and playing at Biltmore. More than a century later, the estate is still the perfect place to create lifelong family memories. LEARN MORE ABOUT VISITING BILTMORE WITH CHILDREN HERE
- October, 7
- 3825
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Transform Your Life Through Art
Open daily 11am–6pm. Closed Tuesdays.
Late-night Thursdays until 9pm;
Pre-purchased online tickets are encouraged; walk-in tickets are also available.
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- Always free for Museum Members, UNC Asheville students, active-duty military personnel with valid ID, and children under 6
- $15 general admission (plus tax)
- $13 adult discounted admission (senior 65+) (plus tax)
- $10 student discounted admission (child 6–17, degree-seeking college students with valid ID) (plus tax)
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The Asheville Art Museum presents exhibitions and public programs based on its Collection of 20th + 21st century art. Founded by artists in 1948 in Asheville, NC, the Asheville Art Museum annually presents an exciting, inviting and active schedule of exhibitions and public programs based on its Permanent Collection of 20th and 21st century American art.
The Wells Fargo Art PLAYce is a creative space for everyone to play and learn together. Although designed for our youngest visitors, the Art PLAYce encourages creative wanderings for all ages in a sensory-rich environment. This art-inspired space allows for exploration of colors, shapes, textures, and patterns. Visitors can move and play, sit and enjoy a book, try out a variety of one-of-a-kind interactives created by regional artists, or make art of their own. The Art PLAYce is the perfect place to disconnect from the outside world.
The Museum’s rooftop Perspective Café serves freshly prepared lunch fare created with locally sourced ingredients. A variety of local snacks and beverages are also available, including Poppy’s Popcorn, French Broad Chocolates, Asheville beers, organic coffee, wine, and cocktails. Whether you choose to sit inside the Café or outside on the Sculpture Terrace, you’ll be astonished by the panoramic city skyline and mountain views. Perhaps the most beautiful vista found in Downtown Asheville.
- October, 7
- 996
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Discover the Science that Makes WNC Unforgettable
Sundays: 1:00pm-5:00pm
Mondays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Tuesdays: CLOSED
Wednesdasy: 10:00am-5:00pm
Thursdays: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friday: 10:00am-5:00pm
Saturdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Children 2 & under are always FREE
The Asheville Museum of Science is the best place to bring the whole family for edutainment in downtown Asheville, NC. Bring the family and discover the science that makes Western North Carolina unforgettable. Tour our Colburn Hall of Minerals, watch as topography changes as you interact with our Terra Box, climb in our Cradle of Forestry exhibit, go back in time with our Teratophoneus dinosaur skeleton, and so much more!
- October, 7
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Play Hundreds of Board Games
Sundays-Thursdays : 8am-10pm
Friday & Saturday: 8am-12am
Well Played is proud to be Asheville’s gaming oasis, where you can choose from a selection of over 700 games, from the classics to the cutting-edge.
Not a big gamer? No problem! They have Gamemasters on hand who will help you choose the right adventure for your experience level and group size. Bring your friends or family, and stay for food, snacks, coffee, and beer!
- October, 7
- 4994
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Come see a unique collection of airplanes celebrating the Golden Age of General Aviation
April – October
Wednesdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Saturdays: 10:00am-5:00pm
Sundays: 12:00pm-5:00pm
November – March
Wednesdays: 12:00pm-5:00pm
Saturdays: 12:00pm-5:00pm
Sundays: 12:00pm-5:00pm
Do you remember the roar of a big radial aircraft engine thundering into life? Or maybe you only have heard about it from Grand Dad’s reminiscences. Well it is still alive, and you can come hear it again here at the Western North Carolina Air Museum.
Come see what is was like: When airports had grass strips and didn’t have fences. When you could wash the airplanes for a ride, and when you could walk right up to the flight line and see, touch, & smell the excitement, up close & personal… come back in time to the Western North Carolina Air Museum.
If you remember when flying was an event instead of a burden, when climbing into an airplane was more exciting than riding a bus, and when every head turned at the sound of a motor buzzing overhead, then rediscover that excitement at the Western North Carolina Air Museum. Here the excitement lives on. It echoes in the fabric wings of the airplanes that brought it to life. It floats in the scent of avgas on a plane just returning from a flight. It lives in the people who show you around and answer questions – most are veterans of that golden age when not everyone knew how to fly, but every kid sure wanted to learn.
Set beside an active airport – we are more than just a place to look at planes. We’re a place to relive a moment in time that is rapidly passing away. You won’t find airplanes under glass. You won’t find velvet ropes to keep you away. You won’t find guards and ticket sellers and concessionaires.You’ll only find airplanes and people who love them. Many are pilots: Some even own and fly some of the airplanes that are on display. If you’re lucky enough to visit on a day when someone is going up, you might just be able to see a flying piece of aviation history.
We’re home to a unique collection of airplanes celebrating the Golden Age of Aviation, the decades surrounding the Second World War, when flying commanded the world’s attention and an airplane was in everybody’s future.
A place for flying folks to share memories of a disappearing era. And a place to show the young ones a proper airplane, with taut fabric over wooden spars, a single propeller at the nose, and a little wheel under the tail. We are also a place where you can see the actual restoration of such aircraft, as it is happening and talk to the people doing the work. People who will take the time to answer you questions and explain the work they are doing .
The Western North Carolina Air Museum is a center of living history in the popular Hendersonville – Flat Rock region of the state. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to remember flying the way it used to be. Bring your kids, your camera, and your leather jacket. You can view the airplanes in an hour or so, or spend the afternoon hanger-flying with our friendly, informative staff. We can’t guarantee fine weather, but our hangar doors are open rain and shine. And we can’t guarantee that we’ll be flying on the day you visit, but we do promise to propel your imagination back to the golden age of general aviation. Come for the airplanes. Stay for the memories. There’s plenty of both right here at the Western North Carolina Air Museum.
- October, 7
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