TAC Talks
Thursday Art and Culture (TAC) Talks bring collegiate level lectures to your museum. Featuring scholars from around the country, the lectures are selected to provide supplemental information on our current exhibits, or highlight the history and heritage of the mountains.
TAC Talks begin at 6:00pm and feature an hour-long lecture with audience question and answer session at the end.
Cost: $8 General Admission. Members are always free. Not yet a member? Join today!
Upcoming TAC Talks
Join App State’s Mark Coltrain for an exploration of the Appalachian Oral History Project, including audio excerpts of interviews. He will lead a lively discussion about why oral histories are an important way to document our families’ and community’s stories, and how we can all participate in this work.
Join App State’s Dr. Howard S. Neufeld for an exciting look at how trees move water hundreds of feet up their trunks and how this may be affected by climate change.
This cocktail with the curator will focus on the exhibition, Field Studies. Patrons can expect one part gallery tour, two parts conversation, and a splash of cocktail party.
Join one of BRAHM's docents for a special kind of tour that narrows your field of view to one exhibition for an hour. Learn about the artists, the creation of works, and the inside story of the exhibit.
Local artist Wes Waugh will host an art-based activity at the Middle Fork Greenway in
Blowing Rock, focusing on simplified value sketching. Participants can choose a subject
nearby and learn both techniques and the importance of relaxed, creative exploration.
Drawing from thirty years as a counselor and watercolor artist, Wes highlights that
creativity at any age or skill level fosters well-being and peace in a changing world.
The film is called "A Dream for the Future." Through sweeping visuals and personal stories, A "Dream for the Future" weaves together Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina’s rich history, ongoing work, and vision for the future. This documentary film showcases the landscapes they protect, the partnerships they build, and the community that makes it all possible.
Join one of BRAHM's docents for a special kind of tour that narrows your field of view to one exhibition for an hour. Learn about the artists, the creation of works, and the inside story of the exhibit.
Past TAC Talks
Join us for a one of a kind poetic experience when renowned writer Joseph Bathanti read selections from his work that respond to the exhibition, Field Studies: Ways of Knowing Place in Southern Appalachia. This will be one of a kind because the reading will take place in the exhibition, space is limited so place reserve in advance!
Composer Roger Zare responds to the Horizon Line exhibition with a concert of his original compositions. Zare will be joined by musicians from the Hayes School of Music and clarinetist Lucas Gianini, who will perform works inspired by landscapes near and far.
Join one of BRAHM's docents for a special kind of tour that narrows your field of view to one exhibition for an hour. Learn about the artists, the creation of works, and the inside story of the exhibit.
In this talk, Elizabeth Chew will consider how art shaped Americans' perceptions of the American Revolution. Works of art created during and after the war enabled Americans (first as colonists, then as citizens of a new country) to picture the stories and heroes of the fight for independence. Furthermore, works by artists Charles Willson Peale, John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, and others provided Americans with a shared origin story for their new nation.
BRAHM invites performers to respond to our exhibitions in a series we’re naming Called to Response. This month we welcome singer-songwriter Noan Partly to respond to Field Studies. This program is presented free to the public through the generosity of the Bryant and Nancy Hanley Foundation.
Dr. Houck Medford, Founder and CEO Emeritus of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation will discuss how the Parkway evolved as a “ten league canvas painted with a comets tail” to become “America’s Favorite Journey.”
Join one of BRAHM's docents for a special kind of tour that narrows your field of view to one exhibition for an hour. Learn about the artists, the creation of works, and the inside story of the exhibit.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, BRAHM invites you for an afternoon of songs older than America that have been preserved in the hills and hollers of Madison County, North Carolina.
Join us for a special afternoon of Appalachian ballads with three incredible musicians, singers, and storytellers, Donna Ray Norton, and William Ritter.
Join one of BRAHM's docents for a special kind of tour that narrows your field of view to one exhibition for an hour. Learn about the artists, the creation of works, and the inside story of the exhibit.
BRAHM invites performers to respond to our exhibitions in a series we’re naming Called to Response. This month we welcome singer-songwriter Noan Partly to respond to Field Studies. This program is presented free to the public through the generosity of the Bryant and Nancy Hanley Foundation.
In 2024, BRAHM was awarded the prestigious IMLS “Inspire! Small Museums” grant. The goal of this project was to build community and promote neural plasticity amongst senior citizens living in Watauga County using their particular love of fiber arts. This grant funded a series of peer-led workshops in a variety of fiber media, all of which were free to the public and took place at the Lois E Harrill Senior Center in Boone, and the Western Watauga Community Center in Sugar Grove, NC. The works in the exhibition were created during these workshops or illustrate techniques taught in the workshops.
Join the High Country's favorite Jazz artist, Todd Wright, as he gives us a sneak preview of this year's festival headliners:El Arte del Bolero: Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo, Spyro Gyra, Wycliffe Gordon, and the Emmet Cohen Trio.
This program is presented free to the public through the generosity of the Bryant and Nancy Hanley Foundation.
This lecture will explore how Southern landscape painters captured the terrain of the American South. From the craggy ridgelines of Appalachia to the humid stillness of the Louisiana Swamp, artists rendered the region not merely as scenery, but as mythic space—charged with history, identity, and atmosphere. Special attention will be given to artists who frequently explored and sketched the wilds of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In early-nineteenth century America, citizens of the young country began to seek out
accurate depictions of places. They had a real sense of the specialness of their new
country—its wide expanse and its seemingly limitless natural resources. As the century progressed, members of the Hudson River School, a loosely affiliated art movement based in New York City, began producing expressive, Romantic interpretations of the landscape.
This program is presented free to the public through the generosity of the Bryant and Nancy Hanley Foundation.
This installment of Willard's Wonderings will focus on the Watauga Humane Society, Willard will be joined by Ashlee Yepez, Director of Shelter Operations, and Courtney Taylor, Director of Development. Their conversation will focus on the Watauga Humane Society’s no-kill mission, their work of caring for more than 1,700 animals each year, and the role the community plays in sustaining the organization.
Roots and Ridges: A Blowing Rock Story is the new introductory film for the museum. The film will ground visitors in the history of Blowing Rock, the story of Elliott Daingerfeild, and the role BRAHM plays in the community.