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The Arts at Appalachian

The Russian National Ballet on the stage of the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. Photo: Troy Tuttle

Art for Life: All across our campus, Appalachian presents diverse and vibrant arts programs that enrich the cultural and intellectual climate of the campus and region.

Arts Events & Venues

Join us for an event or exhibition — you can find one nearly every day of the year, for nearly every age level and interest.

Arts as Curriculum

The arts offer innovative ways to learn about the world. Appalachian's academic arts programs are varied and diverse, and students have many opportunities to experience, interpret, understand, record and shape culture through the arts at Appalachian.

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Arts Calendar

Find out about upcoming arts and cultural events at Appalachian.

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Tier 2000
by Ann Melanie
From the Rosen Outdoor Scuplture Exhibition

Find your Art at the Turchin Center

Bale Folclorico comes to App and watch what happens!

Arts Calendar

Jul
27
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers
July 27, 2017
8:00 pm
Bruce Hornsby has built one of the most diverse, collaborative and adventurous careers in contemporary music. Drawing from a vast wellspring of American musical traditions, the singer/pianist/composer/bandleader has created a large and accomplished body of work and employed a vast array of stylistic approaches.
Jul
29
Charlotte Ballet
July 29, 2017
8:00 pm
Founded in 1970, Charlotte Ballet is known for its strong dancers and versatile repertoire, ranging from classical ballet to bold, contemporary works. Featuring an all-star lineup of choreographers, this exciting performance will leave audiences feeling uplifted, energized and in awe.
Jul
30
Rosen-Schaffel Competition
July 30, 2017
1:00 pm
The festival, in partnership with the Hayes School of Music, proudly presents the seventh season of the highly acclaimed Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young & Emerging Artists. During the spring of 2017, contestants submitted recordings of their work and a panel of judges selected eight finalists to compete in a public performance.
Aug
1
Young People's Global Film Series: Theeb (2016)
August 1, 2017
1:00 pm
Theeb, nominated for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is set in the land of Lawrence of Arabia as war rages throughout the Ottoman Empire in 1916. Hussein raises his younger brother Theeb in a traditional Bedouin community that is isolated by the vast, unforgiving desert.
Aug
2
Turchin Center Lunch & Learn: Suzi Mills
August 2, 2017
12:00 pm
Susan W. Mills is Professor and Director of Music Education in the Hayes School of Music. Her teaching focuses on development of accessible music education that is relevant, balanced, and inclusive of both classical and folk music traditions.
Aug
2
Weicholz Global Film Series: Tanna (2016)
August 2, 2017
7:00 pm
Based on a true story and performed by the people of Yakel in Vanuatu, Tanna is a Romeo and Juliet story set in the South Pacific. There will be a pre-film talk with Dr. John Pfeifer.
Aug
3
Lees-McRae Summer Theatre: Legally Blonde
August 3, 2017
12:30 pm
An Appalachian Summer Festival is hitting the road and setting its sights for Banner Elk! Join us for a matinee performance of Lees-McRae Summer Theatre’s production of Legally Blonde.
Aug
5
YEStival: YES with special guests Todd Rundgren & Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy
August 5, 2017
7:00 pm
Inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in 2017, YES embarks on a national tour, treating fans to a set list of greatest hits from all of the band’s nine studio albums up to 1980, and showcasing the storied history of one of the world’s most influential, ground-breaking, and respected progressive rock bands. With special guest Todd Rundgren and an opening set from Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy honoring the magic of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake.
Sep
1
TCVA exhibition opens: Garden of Biotanical Delights: Diane Kempler
September 1, 2017
Kempler is interested in the internal and external worlds of our existence—that transitional cycle of life: birth, death, and rebirth.
Oct
6
TCVA exhibition opens: Taking Tea: Judith Gregory
October 6, 2017
Judith Olson Gregory transforms the Turchin Center’s Gallery A into a tranquil tea house for meditation, contemplation and intimate conversation. Constructed from used tea bags and loose tea leaves, Taking Tea creates an immersion in a quiet, delicately scented world.
Oct
6
TajMo: The Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ Band
October 6, 2017
8:00 pm
Iconic blues legends Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ unite for historic cross-generational collaboration. “TajMo” marks a timely convergence of the talents of two unique American artists who’ve already built iconoclastic individual legacies that have extended and expanded blues traditions into adventurous new territory.
Oct
26
Ailey II: The Next Generation of Dance
October 26, 2017
7:00 pm
The talented dancers of Ailey II are renowned for captivating audiences and translating their strength and agility into powerful performances. The Ailey spirit shines as these artists perform an exhilarating and diverse repertory that includes Alvin Ailey’s timeless classics and thrilling new works by today’s outstanding emerging choreographers.
Nov
3
TCVA exhibition opens: Hearing the Trees: Katherine Mitchell
November 3, 2017
Katherine Mitchell's practice is seeped in the traditions of Zen mediation as much as it is in the tradition of modernism as investigated in the 1960s and 70s when she was a young artist absorbing the concepts of conceptualism and abstraction into her rigorous practice of drawing and painting based observations of the natural world.
Nov
3
TCVA exhibition opens: Forest Light: Adele Wayman
November 3, 2017
Adele Wayman’s paintings can reveal two different scenes or the same scene in different light, different moods or veer toward abstraction—letting the viewer deep into the artist’s nuanced mind as it wanders with focused attention through the seasons outside the big bay windows of her studio.
Nov
17
Us The Duo
November 17, 2017
7:00 pm
Singing/songwriting couple Michael and Carissa Rae Alvarado make their debut on the Schaefer Center stage performing crisp, pop-folk delivered with the same intimate emotion fans will recognize.
Feb
9
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
February 9, 2018
7:00 pm
This company of professional male dancers presents a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesty, performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire.
Feb
27
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy: Visions of Cape Breton and Beyond
February 27, 2018
7:00 pm
Fierce fiddling duo command the stage with an explosive celebration of raw energy and passion that infuses their traditional heritage with their taste for the contemporary.
Mar
16
Golden Dragon Acrobats
March 16, 2018
7:00 pm
The Golden Dragon Acrobats combine award-winning acrobatics, traditional dance, spectacular costumes, ancient and contemporary music and theatrical techniques to present a show of breathtaking skill and spellbinding beauty.
Apr
20
Black Violin
April 20, 2018
7:00 pm
Black Violin is composed of classically trained violist and violinist Wil B. and Kev Marcus who combine their classical training and and hip-hop influences to create a distinctive multi-genre sound that is often described as “classical boom.”

News

Appalachian students bring home honors in international lighting design competition
June 12, 2017
Technology graduate student Hazel Chang’s design, “Sonata Music Classical Skybox,” was recognized as the winning entry at LIGHTFAIR® International, the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference. Two other Appalachian students were awarded honorable mentions at the competition as well.
James Douthit named dean of Appalachian’s Hayes School of Music
May 26, 2017
Dr. James Douthit, pianist, teacher and an administrator at Nazareth College in suburban Rochester, New York, will be the next dean of the Hayes School of Music (HSOM) at Appalachian State University.
$100K grant from National Endowment for the Humanities provides funds to explore war and its effects through art
May 23, 2017
Part of the NEH’s “Dialogues on the Experience of War” program, this grant project was developed by Dr. Valerie Wieskamp, Department of Communication; Dr. Lynn Searfoss, Department of English; and Dr. Clark Maddux, Watauga Residential College.
Team of Appalachian students wins international Phoenix Challenge competition
May 16, 2017
To best the competition, the team of five students from the Thomas W. Reese Graphic Arts and Imaging Technology (GAIT) program designed a custom-packaging solution and other marketing materials for Moosepacks™, a local, student-owned business.