Meeting and event planners could be hard-pressed to find a destination that offers as many arts and activitty options as Asheville, North Carolina, in such a tight package.
A center of arts and culture, the Blue Ridge Mountains town located a couple hours’ drive from Charlotte, N.C., also boasts a bounty of culinary and brewery options, all set in one of the most scenic areas in the U.S. with adventurous off-site activities such as ziplining, white-water rafting, stand-up paddleboarding and endless hiking opportunities.
“Asheville offers meeting planners an opportunity to incorporate the authentic culture of Asheville into meetings relatively easily,” said Carli Adams, group communications and services manager for Explore Asheville, the city’s CVB.
“We’re a foodie destination—we call it ‘Foodtopia,’” Adams continued. “Our chefs can easily incorporate local farm-to-table cuisine and we have over 250 independent restaurants in Asheville, so for a meeting planner wanting to offer a dine-around or incorporate local cuisine, it’s easy.”
With roughly 40 local craft breweries, many planners host off-site events featuring local liquors and beers.
Asheville Off-Site Event Venue Gathering
Top brewing draws that also feature stages for live music include Pisgah Brewing, Highland Brewing, French Broad Brewery, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, UpCountry Brewing, Whistle Stop, Habitat Brewing, Archetype and Sierra Nevada Brewery. Beer and bluegrass aficionados should note September’s Brewgrass Festival.
Asheville’s music offering doesn’t disappoint, and is hard to pin down as the city stages a diverse collection of performers and genres.
Unique venues include the repurposed automotive repair shop, Ben’s Tune-Up; the Salvage Station, a former junkyard on the French Broad River that now boasts shipping containers; a car-dealership-turned-music venue, White Horse Black Mountain; The Odditorium, a dive bar choked with oddities and artifacts; and local musician jam spot the Asheville Guitar Bar, a new venue with music-themed art installations. Another standout for groups is the Orange Peel, which was named one of Rolling Stone magazine’s top rock clubs in the U.S.
Asheville Arts Scene
An arts and culture draw, the city is set to reopen the Asheville Art Museum in spring 2019. Located downtown, the group-friendly venue will offer rooftop event space and guided group tours.
Founded in 1948, the museum is undergoing a major expansion and renovation project that will preserve the historic architecture of its North Wing, the former 1926 Pack Library Building.
The project will also renovate existing spaces and construct new areas with a mission to provide a more cohesive visitor experience and offer expanded spaces—the Permanent Collection space will increase by 70 percent—to display a fuller amount of art collections.
Other highlights include new exhibition galleries, classrooms and studios; the addition of a rooftop sculpture terrace and cafe; and a glass exterior that will illuminate Park Square Park and the city center in the evening.
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Besides the many galleries in the downtown arts district, with options such as Lexington Glassworks for glass-blowing demonstrations and beer in the back of the venue, the city also offers two arts-centric neighborhoods.
Lexington Glassworks in Asheville
“We’re the Portland of the South, or like the Austin of North Carolina,” Adams said, noting the city’s bohemian reputation. “There are a lot of arts neighborhoods, including River Arts District a few miles southwest of downtown, which is undergoing a lot of revitalization. There are close to 300 working artist studios and/or galleries, with several offering guided tours through Asheville Art Studio tours and Art Connections.”
According to Adams, West Asheville is also emerging as a major arts district and culinary attraction.
The Painting with Beer tour, during which attendees mix beer, water and paint to create art—while also being provided the option to imbibe some brew, of course—is a popular group activity.
Asheville Meeting Space Options
Offering approximately 8,000 hotel rooms, major meetings properties include the 513-room Omni Grove Park Inn, the largest meeting space in the city, with 30 meeting rooms and 55,000 square feet of space; the 270-room Renaissance Asheville Hotel, with 13 meeting rooms and 21,000 square feet of space; and the 272-room Crowne Plaza Tennis and Golf Resort-Asheville, with 17 meeting rooms and 34,500 square feet of space.
Other properties of note include the stylish AC Hotel Asheville Downtown and Aloft Asheville Downtown. The U.S. Cellular Center Asheville, which can seat 7,654, offers an Exhibition Hall with more than 25,000 square feet of space that can accommodate up to 2,000, as well as nine meeting rooms.
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, Credit: Steven McBride Photography
One can’t discuss Asheville, of course, without mentioning one of the grande dames of U.S. hotels and resorts, the Biltmore.
The former mansion of the Vanderbilt family, built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 and with 250 rooms is America’s largest private home, is a popular off-site event option for groups that want to immerse themselves in its historic grandeur and expansive grounds and gardens.
The Biltmore debuted its new 11,000-square-foot Amherst Ballroom, with the capacity for 850 people, in late 2018. The estate’s newest exhibit, “A Vanderbilt House Party: The Gilded Age,” is an audio tour from the perspective of the Vanderbilt’s butler that features reproductions of the clothing worn by the Vanderbilts and their guests by Oscar-winning costume designer John Bright. The tour will be offered from February 8-March 27, 2019. The estate boasts a calendar of annual events, with its Biltmore Concert Series, held on select evenings in July through August, an elegant outdoor music option for groups and locals alike.
Group options at the Biltmore include tours of the mansion and Frederick Law Olmstead-designed gardens, the Antler Hill Village and Winery, outdoor activities and dining at the estate’s restaurants. The Biltmore also offers professional development and teambuilding programs.
Asheville Meeting Planner Packages
To promote the city as a meetings destination, Explore Asheville offers two programs targeting meeting planners, in addition to attraction discounts, staffing assistance and VIP amenity gifts for qualifying groups.
The Have More Fun on Us program offers an incentive of up to $2,500 that meeting planners can use to procure local experiences and services such as entertainment, tours, meeting venues or transportation.
The CVB’s annual Asheville 48-Hour Experience fam, which includes two full days of tours and site inspections of hotels and off-site venues, will be held March 29, July 23 and November 12, 2019.
Asheville CVB Information
Explore Asheville CVB
828.258.6109
Click over to page 2 for a look at The River Arts District and some new venue openings in Asheville.
PageBreakHip Hood: The River Arts District in Asheville
The River Arts District, located minutes from downtown Asheville, is set along the French Broad River and is home to over 160 studios where visitors can meet artists who work in paint, pencil, pottery, metal, fiber and other mediums.
“Visitors enjoy strolling through the district from gallery to gallery and interacting with the artists while they work,” said Dianna Pierce, vice president of sales at Explore Asheville. “The area is also home to restaurants, breweries, theaters, music venues and outdoor recreation outposts.”
While this popular neighborhood has experienced a lot of growth in the last two years, Pierce added there are several local efforts planned for the next few years that will transform the River Arts District further, including connected greenway spaces, bike trails, rooftop event spaces and new river adventures.
Meanwhile, groups who visit this happening area should check out the following.
Asheville Art Studio Tours offers a great introduction to the River Arts District via a guided tour started by a local glass artist, John Miguel Almaguer. During the outing, the group will stop by a handful of galleries and studios to browse original artworks and meet the artists who created it all. Asheville Art Studio Tours offers customized private tours as well as VIP tours that include a hands-on art-making experience.
The Village Potters @ 191 Lyman St., #180 is another place for groups who’d like a hands-on experience. During the Get Your Hands Dirty Workshop, large groups can learn about and participate in making pottery. And during a Create Your Own Workshop, participants work at the potter’s wheel to make a functional piece that they can take home.
After the group has covered the arts in the River Arts District, they can plan on a waterborne river pursuit with Wai Mauna Asheville SUP Tours @ 159 Riverside Dr. or Bellyak, two outfitters that work with groups during the warmer months.
Wai Mauna Asheville SUP Tours offers guided standup paddleboard tours on the French Broad River from sunrise to sunset. This window of availability means the group may have the river all to itself, depending on when they book the outing. Wai Mauna Asheville SUP Tours also offers a six-person paddleboard excursion that’s great for teambuilding.
Bellyak is both a company and an Asheville-invented watersport that takes place on a face-first kayak that one rides on his or her belly. Riders wear webbed gloves to paddle. Bellyak is often used to help those suffering from PTSD, so if it’s a calm river adventure the group is after, this is it.
Among the places to grab a bite in the district is the Smoky Park Supper Club @ 350 Riverside Dr., a newer restaurant situated along the river. It’s the largest shipping container restaurant in the country, made out of 19 containers stacked together. The Smoky Park Supper Club features a wood-fired menu, a great lawn along the river and the Boat House, an increasingly popular event space that accommodates private gatherings for up to 200 people.
And for groups seeking live entertainment, there is Grey Eagle @ 185 Clingman Ave., a longstanding music hall and taqueria where attendees can enjoy live music, a bite and a cold beer. Grey Eagle also accommodates private events.
Hotel and Event Venue Openings and Renovations in Asheville
The Foundry Hotel, part of Hilton’s upper-upscale Curio Collection, opened November 20, 2018, on The Block, Asheville’s historical business district for the African-American community. The 87-room property offers 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
Hotel Arras is scheduled to open in early 2019 with 128 guest rooms and 5,000 square feet of meeting space. The food-focused property will offer two restaurants by local chef Peter Pollay.
The Biltmore opened Amherst, which at 11,000 square feet of space is the iconic property’s largest meeting and exhibit space. The ballroom offers 17-foot ceilings and a capacity for 850 people, with views overlooking the forests and fields of the opulent estate.
