Past Exhibitions - The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts

Emergence celebrates the role of teaching and mentoring in artistic development, highlighting works by faculty mentors and their students. The 35 pairs of artists presented in this exhibition represent 23 institutions of higher education from the Southeast. Their works represent a wide variety of approaches to subject matter, innovative use of materials, and mastery of traditional mediums being taught and practiced in contemporary studio programs.

Image credits: Angela Wells, professor and Logan Davis, senior, East Carolina University

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 20, 2024
THROUGH: April 27, 2024
MEDIUM(S): Various

Drawn from The Bascom’s permanent collection, works exhibited this year celebrate the visual legacies of 20^th century artists who practiced in the Southeastern US, including our founding benefactor, Watson Barratt.

Image credit: Julyan Davis, Portait of Edith and Richard Joel, Oil on Canvas, Collection of The Bascom

Exhibition Reception

March 23rd | 3 pm | FREE

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 27, 2024
THROUGH: April 6, 2024
MEDIUM(S): Various

Emergence celebrates the role of teaching and mentoring in artistic development, highlighting works by faculty mentors their students. The 34 pairs of artists presented in this exhibition represent 20 institutions of higher education from the Southeast. Their works represent a wide variety of approaches to subject matter, innovative use of materials, and mastery of traditional mediums being taught and practiced in contemporary studio programs.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 21, 2023
THROUGH: April 29, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Various

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Beate Sass, Brent Martin, Eric William Carroll, Erik Mace, Frances Bukovsky, Kaye Savage, Mike Belleme, Raymond Thompson Jr, Susan Alta Martin, Susan Patrice, Yvonne Dalschen
ON DISPLAY: December 15, 2022
THROUGH: January 7, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Photography

Regarding play...it starts out innocent enough (fun and games as they say) — infants with a rattler, toddlers with blocks, and things progress from there — tag-you’re-it as children, strumming the guitar as kids, competing in sports as teens, performing in a theatrical play in high school— then on to playing quarters, getting played, being a player, and finally — getting played out.

GALLERY: Archives
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: September 13, 2021
THROUGH: December 30, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Sculpture
GUEST CURATOR(S): Gregor Turk
MEDIA GALLERY:
Re: Play

This year’s Winter Resident Artist, Kimberly English explores the ideas of raveling and unravelling in her newest textile installation made for The Bascom. The Ravel & the Rest is an exhibition of ironic abstraction, juxtaposing gestures towards creation myths and contemporary existential concerns surrounding climate change, globalization, and nuclear war. Textiles serve as a metaphor for human production at large, and this notion of “the ravel”, a loose thread that’s been parsed, speaks to this enigmatic zeitgeist periphery - straddling between states of becoming and the process of unmaking.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Kimberly English
ON DISPLAY: January 21, 2023
THROUGH: April 8, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Fiber Arts

Each year, we select works from our permanent collection coordinating with the annual theme. This year’s theme of origins gives the Bascom community an opportunity to explore our own sources of inspiration, dreams, and growth, that will be highlighted in this exhibition. The works will convey stories of The Bascom – from our founder George Watson Barratt to others whose works are entwined with our history, such as New Orleans painter Will Henry Stevens, and artists featured in our early permanent collection.

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 7, 2023
THROUGH: April 15, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Various

In its 5^th year, The Bascom’s photography residency has grown as an essential component of the organization’s mission. Attracting photographers from across the country, this unique residency opportunity not only benefits the resident artist through a variety of professional development opportunities, but also serves the community through important education programs for local students and adults.

2021's Bascom Photography Resident is Deborah Shannan.

"The complexity and chaos inherent in nature makes us all pattern seekers as our brains attempt to create order and understanding of the natural world. Upon closer inspection we see individual threads of patterns repeated at different scales throughout nature.

Rivers flow down from mountains in branching formations. Turbulent water broils in repetition, forever shifting and disintegrating. Branching patterns extend from tree roots up through the trunk to the veining tapestry of the leaves, becoming chaotic as growth is influenced by weather patterns and competition for light. Spiral patterns are woven within the arrangement of petals and leaves on a stem, as well as the scales on a pine cone. Tiling and cracking are visible in tree bark. As the tree ages, growing wider, its' protective outer layers crack, forming distinctive patterns. Spots and stripes in plants result from pigmentation changes offering improved visibility for insects, increasing the likelihood of pollination. Symbiotic relationships among plants create diversified patterns from the spherical mistletoe growing amongst the branching tree limbs to the fractal patterns of lichen growth on trunks.

Each thread of nature's tapestry serves to create a pattern that expresses the rich interconnectedness surrounding us in the natural world. The observation of which brings me raw delight." - Deborah Shannan

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Deborah Shannan
ON DISPLAY: April 3, 2021
THROUGH: May 29, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Photography

In April 2023, five new works were installed on the Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail, marking the third year of our outdoor sculpture program on The Bascom campus. Two additional works are available for viewing at locations in Cashiers, thanks to the efforts of our partner organization, Vision Cashiers.

GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
THROUGH: April 30, 2024
MEDIUM(S): Sculpture

Featuring the work of artists affiliated with the Jackson County Green Energy Park, in Dillsboro, NC, this exhibit displays metals, pottery, and glass. These works are made possible by the recapture of landfill methane to fuel forges, foundries, and kilns. Curated by Timm Muth.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
THROUGH: July 15, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Various

This collaborative piece by LIVLAB artists, Morgan Kennedy and Kevin Kirkpatrick, weaves object making, water-way exploration, and sound, with romantic literary impressions of Western North Carolina. The project was inspired by a passage from the book Thirteen Moons by novelist Charles Frazier in which he describes a local mountain medicine, which is made from “River Nests.”

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Morgan Kennedy and Kevin Kirkpatrick
ON DISPLAY: August 19, 2023
THROUGH: January 20, 2024
MEDIUM(S): Multimedia

2022 marks the second year of annual outdoor sculpture exhibit outside on The Bascom Campus.

GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2022
THROUGH: April 22, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Sculpture

The Bascom Winter Resident Artist Program, better known as the W.R.A.P., calls on Students or Faculty from the surrounding universities to submit site-specific installation proposals for The Bascom’s unique and beautiful Thompson Gallery.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Colin Dawson
ON DISPLAY: January 11, 2022
THROUGH: April 2, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Multimedia

The Bascom is proud to present our third annual Emergence: A Survey of Southeastern Studio Programs, formerly known as 100 Miles.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 15, 2022
THROUGH: April 30, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Various

Each year The Bascom’s Photography Artist in Residence Program brings in educator-artists who create work for exhibition and offer new insights to our signature STEAM-focused curriculum, integrating basic skills in science, technology, engineering and math with the arts.

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Sean Patrick Hill
ON DISPLAY: April 22, 2023
THROUGH: August 5, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Photography

Into the Wood explores the aesthetic and technical breakthroughs of three generations of artist-woodturners who have created a new language of self-expression through form, material and process. Curated by Marilyn Laufer and Tom Butler, the exhibition focuses on works made from native wood. A special piece, created from a fallen tree located on The Bascom campus will be created for the exhibition and will be on display and available for purchase at a special auction.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Ed, Philip, and Matt Moulthrop
ON DISPLAY: May 13, 2023
THROUGH: August 26, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Woodturning

Mosaic: A picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard materials such as stone, tile, or glass. It is a name of English origin meaning pattern of pieces. A combination of many different parts forming one thing.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: September 18, 2021
THROUGH: December 23, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Mosaics
GUEST CURATOR(S): Paula Smith

With over 100 works in our permanent collection, each installment promises to be a unique experience in the Joel Gallery.

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 9, 2021
THROUGH: March 27, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Various

Bascom member artists explore their own artistic origins in this annual juried exhibition.

Juried by: Diane C. McPhail, Rosemary Clark-Stiefel, and Mary Lou Carpenter-Bilbro

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): J. Aaron Alderman, Margie Bauer, Beth Batson, Jan Best, Beth Bowser, Ken Bowser, Cath Connolly Hudson, Carol Conti, Barbara DeMaire, Cory Erneston, Deborah Feiste, David Genest, Bob Gregory, Gwen Greenglass, Marti Grinberg, Leslie Jeffery, Barbara Jamison, Kim Keelor, Colleen Kastner, Gary Kornheiser, Sandy Kornheiser, Ashley Obregon, Toni Lyons Phillips, Katherine McClure, Josephine Miller, Jennifer Stack Moore, Penny Pollock, Carol Rivers, Sarah Riley, Barbara Sallows, Beth Bronnum Stern, Ann Cox Strub, Martha Sutherland-Wright, Corbin Tucker, and Helen Ziga
ON DISPLAY: July 29, 2023
THROUGH: September 16, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Various

Explore The Bascom's 2022 theme of "Place" through the lens of Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust properties.

Our mountains are among some of the oldest in the world. Over time, geologic processes have resulted in a complex landscape that is home to a great diversity of habitats for plants and animals. Home to more flowering plant species than anywhere else in the temperate zone, 250 are found nowhere else but here.

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: July 16, 2022
THROUGH: December 31, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Photography
GUEST CURATOR(S): Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust

2021 marks the beginning of an annual outdoor sculpture switch out on The Bascom Campus. Every year, we will select a handful of sculptors to install their work throughout our 6 acre campus.

GALLERY: Horst Winkler Sculpture Trail
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: April 26, 2021
THROUGH: April 30, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Sculpture

Beginning in January 2023, the photographers featured in this exhibition were invited to explore and reflect upon 112-miles of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail. Listening to the Land features photography and photo-based installations by thirty-two artists and celebrates this region’s rich biodiversity while honoring each person’s unique and emergent relationship with the land.

Drawing inspiration from the trail itself, photographers were invited to enter an intimate world where the landscape was alive and waiting to be met, understood, and listened to. Together these artists contemplated their own wild origins while visually reimagining a time when humans moved in respect, harmony, and cocreative kinship with the natural world.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Angela Martin, Anna Helgeson, Anna Norton, Anne Cannon, April McNiff, Barron Northrup, Beate Sass, Brent Martin, Casey Visco, Drew Jorgensen, Eric William Carroll, Erik Mace, Frances Bukovsky, Joanna Parkman, Kaoly Gutierrez, Kaye Savage, Laura Rudkin Miniot, Lesley Ann Price, Liliana Vitale, Lisa Stockton Howell, Lu Mann, Lynn “Cricket” Woodward, Lynne Buchanan, Mike Belleme, Sam Brown, Sandy Johnson, Sarah Morgan, Shawn McIntosh, Starlett Henderson, Susan Patrice, Virginie Drujon-Kippelen, Yvonne Dalschen
ON DISPLAY: September 9, 2023
THROUGH: January 6, 2024
MEDIUM(S): Photography

After a successful inaugural exhibition in 2020, 100 Miles II continues the tradition of showcasing new artwork by faculty and their students from surrounding colleges and universities. This diverse exhibition provides emerging artists and established instructors the opportunity to come together for professional development in a gallery setting.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 26, 2021
THROUGH: April 24, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Various

Curated by ceramic artist, Kirsten Stingle, In.Visible explores reimagining myths and tales to better address the climate crisis as well as the social, economic, and political upheaval of modernity. David Abram says, “Before you can restore the land, you must re-story the land.”

Image credits left to right: Natasha Dikareva, Michelle Laxalt, Deborah Grayson, and Richard W. James

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Carrie Anne Bade, Donna Bates, Andrea K Connell, Ilona Cutts, Natasha Dikareva, TJ Erdahl, Deborah Grayson, Amy Gross, Richard W. James, Christine Kosiba, Michelle Laxalt, Asia Mathis, Mac Star McCusker, Shannon Moore, Crystal Morey, Kyungmin Park, Hannah Pierce, Beau Raymond, David Robinson, Kirsten Stingle, Roxanne Swentzell
ON DISPLAY: September 30, 2023
THROUGH: December 30, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Multimedia
GUEST CURATOR(S): Kirsten Stingle

Many creative acts seem to emanate from the experience of place...

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: January 29, 2022
THROUGH: April 16, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Various

Our fifth installment in our Craft to Art series covers Musical Instruments and their history of use, importance in defining regional culture, material construction, and evolution of design in Southern Appalachia.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: September 24, 2022
THROUGH: January 7, 2023
MEDIUM(S): Musical Instruments

Lasting Impressions presents sixty of the finest Japanese prints in the Read-Simms Collection at the Gibbes Museum of Art.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: September 10, 2022
THROUGH: December 3, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Woodblock Prints
GUEST CURATOR(S): Gibbes Museum

form

noun, the visible shape or configuration of something.

verb, bring together parts or combine to create (something).

formative

adjective, serving to form something, especially having a profound and lasting influence on a person's development.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ON DISPLAY: April 16, 2022
THROUGH: July 16, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Metal, Sculpture
GUEST CURATOR(S): Frankie Flood + Elizabeth Walton

It is curious to see the world from the air. As we rise above our usual ground-level vision, we gain a broader perspective on our built environment and the human impact on the land. Terrain that is familiar to us takes on new form, and unexpected marks and monuments reveal themselves.

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Alex MacLean
ON DISPLAY: September 28, 2020
THROUGH: January 9, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Photography

For decades Highlands has been a hub of the Arts for Western Carolina. The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers has been instrumental in making it so.

The League has its roots more than fifty years ago in a group of area women, art lovers to the core, who took turns hosting brown bag lunches for artists. It didn't take long for wine to be included in the menu. So the group adopted the name, Pickled Painters.

Helen Sparkes had lived as a guest at the Bascom-Louise Inn, which was willed to the Hudson Library. It became a visual arts wing to display the work of local artists. That space evolved into The Bascom-Louise Gallery, and eventually the fine art center, The Bascom, now located on Franklin Road.

In the late 1970s many Pickled Painters along with new-to-the area artists joined what would eventually become the Art League of Highlands. The group, which met at Helene Sparkes' barn at the top of Webbmont, was small in the beginning, but it began to grow as word spread. Members felt there was a need for an organized art society to support fellow artists in the creation, exhibition, marketing, promotion and teaching of visual arts.

On July 24, 1980, several area artists convened for the first official League meeting. Originally adopting the name, The Art League of Highlands, in 2014, the board voted to change the name to The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers and the Greater Plateau to reflect its expanding reach. Today the league is a thriving 501-C organization boasting over fifty artists and friends.

The group was founded on the principle that visual artists need mutual support in order to sustain and advance artistic growth. That, in turn, encourages cultural appreciation of the visual arts in the community. Not only does the League emphasize originality among its members, it also nurtures artistic expression in upcoming generations living on the Highlands Plateau. To that end, the League offers monthly presentations during the season, and annually sponsors two fine art shows in the area.

The Art League is proud of its past association with the local community and The Bascom-Louise Gallery. It will continue its collaborative with The Bascom and The Macon County Art Association to support the visual arts in the region.

To learn more about the League, visit www.artleagueofhighlands-cashiers.com .

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ON DISPLAY: August 28, 2021
THROUGH: December 31, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Mixed

Nothing will tell you where you are. Each moment is a place you've never been.

—Mark Strand

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Anna Norton
ON DISPLAY: April 23, 2022
THROUGH: July 4, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Photography

We tell ourselves stories in order to live... We live entirely by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the 'ideas' with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria - which is our actual experience.

-Joan Didion

GALLERY: Bunzl Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: May 14, 2022
THROUGH: August 27, 2022
MEDIUM(S): Various
GUEST CURATOR(S): Kate Anderson

For decades Highlands has been a hub of the Arts for Western Carolina. The Art League of Highlands-Cashiers has been instrumental in making it so.

The League has its roots more than fifty years ago in a group of area women, art lovers to the core, who took turns hosting brown bag lunches for artists. It didn't take long for wine to be included in the menu. So the group adopted the name, Pickled Painters.

GALLERY: Archives
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: August 28, 2021
THROUGH: December 31, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Various

The Bascom Winter Resident Artist Program, better known as the W.R.A.P., calls on Students or Faculty from the surrounding universities to submit site-specific installation proposals for The Bascom’s unique and beautiful Thompson Gallery.

GALLERY: Thompson Gallery
ARTIST(S): Kyle Kelsey
ON DISPLAY: January 12, 2021
THROUGH: March 20, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Various
MEDIA GALLERY:

The Bascom is proud to partner with the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival and celebrate their 40th anniversary! Each year HCCMF releases a program of their events with original art on the cover. This exhibition will showcase all of those original art pieces.

"FESTIVAL! The word itself conjures up so many emotions; excitement, fun, joy, and variety. In the year 1999 when our founder Dr. Lucas Drew and the Board entrusted me with leading HCCMF into the new millennium, I wanted to find ways to celebrate even more of the extraordinary experiences that the area offers, and to expand on the idea of "Festival". We already had an extraordinary concert series augmented by our "Feasts" which celebrate great food, wine, and most importantly, friendship and community. We had programs which included poetry, and some which featured dancers. But what about art? The plateau is filled with wonderful artists in every possible medium- I think the natural beauty of the mountains inspires it- and so in 1999 we invited our first-ever "Festival Artist" to create a new work of art which we would use for our Program Book cover, posters, and general publicity. We are incredibly grateful to all the marvelous artists who have shared their talents with us so generously through the years and are thrilled to be able to share this unique collection with you publicly for the first time at The Bascom."

Will Ransom,

Anna and Hays Mershon Artistic Director

Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival

GALLERY: Joel Gallery
ARTIST(S): Various
ON DISPLAY: June 7, 2021
THROUGH: August 15, 2021
MEDIUM(S): Painting & Photography

ShawnCampbell RideorDie

"Ride or Die" Shawn Campbell

Regarding play...it starts out innocent enough (fun and games as they say) — infants with a rattler, toddlers with blocks, and things progress from there — tag-you’re-it as children, strumming the guitar as kids, competing in sports as teens, performing in a theatrical play in high school— then on to playing quarters, getting played, being a player, and finally — getting played out.

From casual pursuits without fixed rules to more structured games, play can be elusive to define and difficult to explain exactly what it is and what it does. Far from just a human characteristic, we frequently observe animals at play, even interspecies romps. Often derided as not serious or a mere diversion, play remains the lifeblood of creativity and artistic pursuits. No wonder recreation and re-creation converge as words.

The word “play” is versatile if not playful itself. In addition to its numerous parts of speech, the word possesses a wide array of subtle twists in meaning - from straightforward to darker connotations. This exhibition too plays with “play” covering a multitude of interpretations through sculpture.

Sculptors inherently play with materials. Meaning, durability, viewer response, and inherent/perceived value are all affected by an object’s composition. The physical properties of a material serve to help convey the concepts the artist is presenting. This exhibition includes works of marble and steel, but also foam rubber and Astro Turf. Repurposed and appropriated materials allow for altered and playful meanings to be presented - referencing both the material’s source and a creative replay.

—Gregor Turk, curator

gregorturk.com