| Located
in the heart of Asheville, North Carolina, just 60 miles East of Bryson City, is
educational Pack Place. It is home to five member institutions, which include the
Asheville Art Museum, Colburn Gem & Mineral Museum, Diana Wortham Theatre, The Health
Adventure and YMI Cultural Center.
The Asheville Art
Museum is the single visual arts facility serving Western North Carolina. Its collection,
programs and art classes are the only such resources available to the diverse communities
in the region. The museum houses a permanent collection of over 1,500 20th century
American works with an emphasis on the Southeast, but showing visiting exhibitions from
around the nation.
The Colburn Gem
& Mineral Museum exhibits mineral crystals and gemstones which includes some 4,500
specimens from North Carolina and around the world. The museum also includes a sampling of the over 350 minerals found in North
Carolina as well as gems, ores, and historic mining photographs.
The Diana Wortham
Theatre, a 500-seat jewel box of intimate space in the tradition of a European Court Opera
House. Separate, but adjacent, is a large, unstructured "black-box" performing
area called The Forum. Both facilities host local and visiting performers in theater,
dance, music and other creative performing arts and is available for rent by organizations
and individuals for the presentation of performances, lectures, presentations and
meetings.
The Health Adventure
has 11 galleries which contain the spectrum of hands-on motor activity for toddlers and
informational exhibits for adults. The galleries and their exhibits also serve as
classrooms for the school groups who come for curriculum-based programming in health and
science.
The YMI Cultural
Center is devoted to African American Culture. YMI houses exhibits, performances, lectures
and other cultural and educational programs, and is headquarters for "Goombay,"
an annual summer street festival, the year-end Kwanzaa Celebration, and the Martin Luther
King Jr. birthday observance. |
