Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum showcases American art from the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on artists from Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia.

Planning your visit

The Asheville Art Museum reopened in 2019 after a major expansion, and its focus is specific and well judged: American art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with particular depth in Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia.

That regional emphasis matters because of Black Mountain College, which operated near Asheville from 1933 to 1957 and was among the most influential experimental institutions in American art. Josef and Anni Albers taught there after fleeing the Bauhaus; students and faculty included Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Buckminster Fuller, who built his first geodesic dome on the campus. The museum holds significant Black Mountain material.

Alongside sits a strong studio craft collection — ceramics, glass, wood and fibre — reflecting the Southern Appalachian craft revival, and contemporary regional work.

The rooftop terrace overlooks downtown Asheville and the Blue Ridge mountains.

Bookable options are general admission tickets. Current availability is shown below.