Ashvegas Hot Sheet: LEAF awarded $12,500 arts grant

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Some of what’s going around this Tuesday between Christmas and New Year’s 2016, including

Applebee’s on Hendersonville Road abruptly closed over the Christmas holiday, opening up some prime frontage on one of the city’s busiest roadways.

Asheville City Schools superintendent Pamela Baldwin has been hired as the new superintendent for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

Allison “Alli” Trask has been named the new execuitve director of the Asheville/Mountain Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. Trask comes to Asheville from Rome, Ga., where she served as executive director of the William S. Davies Homeless Shelter for nearly 10 years, according to a press release.

Word on the street: Fred Anderson Auto has purchased Jim Barkley Toyota.

The next edition of Creative Mornings, Asheville’s free monthly breakfast speaker series for the creative community, is set for 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 30 with yoga instructor Letitia Walker as the featured speaker. She will will deliver a talk titled “Sound Mind, Sound Body, Sound Practice.” 

-The  nonprofit Southern Highland Craft Guild has a new logo and new branding to support it. More:

The Guild’s new look will roll out over several months through the organization’s website, signage, advertising, and brochures. Starting in 2017, there will be a push towards membership recruitment to invite makers and educational centers to utilize the creative benefits and opportunities of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

Membership in the Guild is open to makers in eleven different craft media; clay, glass, wood, fiber, metal, leather, natural materials, paper, jewelry, manmade materials, and mixed media. An updated mission statement clearly defines the Guild’s relevance to the creative community today: Cultivating the crafts and makers of the Southern Highlands for the purpose of shared resources, education, marketing, and conservation.

LEAF Community Arts has been awarded a $12,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for LEAF’s Legends of Africa project set for the May 2017 edition of the LEAF Festival. More:

To support the LEAF Festival. The weekend-long Legends of Africa themed festival will feature performances by internationally renowned African artists such as the proposed headliners King Sunny Ade (Nigeria), Rocky Dawuni (Ghana), African Guitar Summit (Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Barundi/Rwanda, Madagascar), Daby Toure (Mauritania), and Masankho Banda (Malawi). Selected African heritage artists also will conduct instrument, vocal, and songwriting workshops for festival attendees. Additional educational and outreach activities with festival performers will include up to two multi-day residencies for underserved youth at Buncombe County schools and culminate in a school concert with student participation. In addition, one of the festival headliners will conduct an educational performance with a question-and-answer session for as many as 500 youth in grades
K-12, teachers, and the community in downtown Asheville.

-The Rockets Sports Network will be broadcasting seven basketball doubleheaders involving the Reynolds High School women’s and men’s teams this year. More:

January 6 vs Enka
January 10 vs McDowell
January 20 vs Erwin
January 24 vs Asheville
February 7 vs TC Roberson
February 10 vs North Buncombe

All broadcasts begin at approximately 6:30 PM. The games can be heard live at www.rocketssportsnetwork.com. All games are archived for one year. Canio Costanzo and Derwin Williams will be broadcasting the Rockets games again this season. The Rockets Sports Network is associated with the AC Reynolds Booster Club and is looking for advertisers for our broadcasts. For more information, contact Canio at caniocostanzo@hotmail.com or (828) 779-2270.