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.
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