With a soft-spoken prayer, a few dozen members of the Eastern Band Cherokee welcomed others to view what they have held sacred for centuries: handcrafted baskets.

When something catches Tema Stauffer's eye, it's through the lens of a camera using expandable bellows and 4-by-5-inch film.

It was only a few minutes after noon on Saturday when Tricia Arcos made her first sale at her first Big Crafty.

Paul Edelman remembers being four or five years old and hearing Bob Dylan on the family stereo.

If the arts in Asheville were a representative democracy, it might look a lot like a new coalition built by the Asheville Area Arts Council.

Julyan Davis has evolved into a novelist in part through stubbornness but, as he sees it, also by necessity. Davis is far from blind, but degenerating eyesight has prompted visits over the past decade to ophthalmologists.

On a recent Friday night, the avant garde musical duo Okapi performed for a handful of people at Revolve in Asheville. The only illumination came from two table lamps and a few candles behind them and a string of tiny footlights along the cement floor.

In the early 2010s, anyone following the author Wiley Cash on Facebook would find what they'd likely expect. There were posts about Cash's upcoming books and readings, raves about other authors and some photos of Cash's wife and the birth of their first child. But toward the middle of the decade, Cash began sprinkling in posts of a more political nature.

Decades before he retired from the ministry, Fred Northup devoted himself to a more creative calling.

Alicia Armstrong can't count how many times she has turned down Jeremy Russell.