Asheville Art Museum (How to Visit + 7 Great Things to Do)

Published by Carl. Last Updated on August 8, 2024.

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The Asheville Art Museum in downtown Asheville is an excellent experience for any visitor and local resident. An awesome contemporary art collection and thought-provoking special exhibits make this an underrated place to go in the city, especially on rainy days.

If you’re familiar with Asheville, North Carolina, and haven’t visited yet, we highly recommend adding it to your itinerary. Our guide will help you find the Asheville Museum of Art, with admission info, open hours, and the best things to do there and nearby!

Here’s how we’ve organized our guide:

Where is the Asheville Art Museum?
How To Visit Today
Admission Info
Membership Info
Support the Museum
Things to Do at the Asheville Art Museum
Ready to Visit the Asheville Art Museum?
Nearby Things to Do in Asheville

Whether you’re a new resident, a frequent visitor, or a local, we’re leaving no detail behind. If you live in the Asheville area and are wondering, “What are the best things to do near me?” we think this NC travel guide will help you out!

Where is the Asheville Art Museum?

Address: 2 S Pack Square, Asheville, NC
Official Website

If you look at a map, you’ll see that the Asheville Art Museum is right in the middle of Downtown Asheville. You may accidentally bump into the modern glass building if you spend the afternoon walking downtown.

Across the street is Mast General Store, French Broad Chocolate Lounge is next door, and popular Asheville restaurants like Curate and White Duck Taco are very close, too!

The museum is convenient for pedestrians, and there are multiple parking garages nearby. If you’re very lucky, you may be able to pull of street parking but no guarantees!

Read More: Western North Carolina Map

How To Visit Today

The Asheville Art Museum is open throughout the year, except for major holidays. Here’s a breakdown of Asheville Art Museum hours:

Open Wednesdays to Mondays: 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Admission Info

All sorts of pop-up partnerships and exhibit-specific benefits may help you score a deal while visiting the Asheville Art Museum. No matter when you visit, You may qualify for free entry if you’ve served or studied locally.

For non-members, admission to the Asheville Art Museum is:

$15 general admission
$13 adult discounted admission (seniors aged 65+)
$10 student discounted admission (children ages 6 to 17, degree-seeking college students with valid ID)

*These prices of the Ashville Art Museum tickets are before tax is added.

Membership Info

If you plan on visiting often, look into becoming a museum member.

Investing in the year-long pass brings loads of benefits and goes a long way toward keeping the curations flowing. Membership perks include members-only exhibit previews, discounts on museum activities, a subscription to the museum’s in-house publication, and free admission.

Membership levels vary, with options for individuals, families, students, and more.

Support the Museum

Asheville Art Museum things to do in asheville

The easiest way to support the museum is by becoming a Museum member. However, the Museum has made it relatively easy to get involved in even more ways.

If you’re looking for something more, here are some options:

Direct one-time donations
Gifts to the endowment
Memorials
Gifts of art pieces towards the curatorial general

Things to Do at the Asheville Museum of Art

Once you’ve paid or used your membership to get in for free, here are the things that await inside the Asheville Art Museum!

Permanent Exhibits

The Asheville Art Museum has undertaken the vital role of preserving American art through the eyes of Western North Carolina and the entire Southeast in the 20th and 21st centuries.

More than 7,000 works make up the museum’s permanent collection, including pieces from Native American tribes, underrepresented groups, and national icons.

These works cover various mediums, including prints, photographs, sculptures, architectural drawings, paintings, and contemporary crafts. You can find it all, but the museum is particularly proud of its wide-ranging historic and modern glasswork archives.

Special Exhibits

You can also enjoy 10 limited-time exhibitions alongside the constantly curated collections of Asheville Art gallaries. These rotating showrooms highlight unique facets of Americana Arts, spotlighting different ideas for four months at a time.

Depending on when you arrive, you can find local programs displayed from the Penland School of Crafts and Black Mountain College, alongside traveling exhibits from nationally recognized masters of the craft like Andy Warhol.

Museum Events

Along with these special exhibits, the museum offers members-only events like “Slow Art Friday” and summer art camps for children. Camp is available to kids from kindergarten through high school.

Perspective Cafe

Finish out your visit on the top floor and explore a culinary exhibition of local flavors at the museum’s Perspective Cafe. Enjoy a meal and local craft beer while observing 360-degree elevated panoramas of Asheville and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Cafe also sits at a great vantage point for the museum’s Sculpture Park.

Read more: The Best Restaurants in Asheville

Rent the Museum

You and your closest 99 friends can rent out the Atrium, Cafe, Sculpture Terrace, Plazas, and even private viewings of Exhibition galleries. The museum make for a great meeting space for conferences, meetings, and reunions.

Add-ons and rental options can turn the area from a meeting space to a reception hall. The museum gives you the freedom to build out your rental from the ground up.

Get Married at the Museum!

True art lovers can take advantage of the museum’s Elopement Package. Tie the knot amongst the collected works of Anne Lemanski and have a one-of-a-kind trip to the museum.

Virtual Visit at the Asheville Art Museum

If you’re unable to visit in person, you can access the entire museum from home. Enjoy a new perspective of every one of these Asheville art galleries and collections.

Schedule a virtual visit with friends or as a class, and Museum staff will walk you through a 3D tour. You can ask questions, freely communicate with your tour guide, and gain a whole new perspective on Americana Art from the comfort of your living room.

Customize your visit based on four different curriculums or try one of each to get the full scoop.

Ready to Visit the Asheville Art Museum?

Showcasing contemporary art and thought-provoking special exhibits, we think the Asheville Art Museum is one of the most interesting places to visit in Western North Carolina‘s largest city. With multiple ways to experience the museum, we think there’s something for everyone and every age group.

If you’re familiar with this wonderful museum, we’d love to know what you think of it. Let us know in the comments section below or send us an email.

You can also share your adventures in our North Carolina Travel Facebook Group!

Nearby Things to Do in Asheville

Asheville Museum of Science Downtown Asheville NC — Asheville Museum of Science.

You can easily squeeze the Asheville Art Museum into a weekend-long itinerary (or a day trip) with plenty of time to spare for other fun attractions.

Nearby Museums: There are a lot of fun museums in Asheville, including kid-friendly ones. Stay tuned for more, but until then, here are a few nearby.
- Asheville Gallery of Art (82 Patton Ave)
- Contemporaneo Gallery (4 Biltmore Ave)
- Asheville Museum of Science (43 Patton Ave)
Nearby Breweries: Because it wouldn’t be a trip to Asheville without Craft Beer! Here are a few of our favorite breweries in Asheville that are near the Asheville Art Museum!
- Green Man Brewery (27 Buxton Ave)
- Wicked Weed Brewing Pub (91 Biltmore Ave) and Funkatorium (147 Coxe Ave)
- Burial Beer (40 Collier Ave)
Nearby Restaurants: We mentioned a few of these already, but here are some great restaurants nearby with their addresses.
- Cúrate (13 Biltmore Ave)
- White Duck Taco Downtown (12 Biltmore Ave)
- Rhubarb (7 SW N Pack Square)
- City Bakery (60 Biltmore Ave)

Our Western North Carolina Map and North Carolina Travel Map will help you visually plan your trip to Asheville, the Asheville Art Museum, and these great places nearby!

The Asheville Art Museum (How to Visit + 7 Great Things to Do)