Events Calendar

Join us for Empower Hour, a one-hour program and facility tour where you will experience firsthand the YWCA’s work to bridge gaps in earning power, education, health & wellness and access to childcare.

Empower Hours take place twice a month on the first and third Tuesday at 11:30 am.
Lunch is served as part of our Empower Hour, so reservations are required.

To make a reservation: contact Elizabeth Alvandi, Advancement Assistant, at (828) 254-7206 ext. 103 or [email protected].

This class offers a creative, hands-on experience perfect for all skill levels!  Participants will decorate terracotta pots using vibrant paints to transform each one into a heartfelt gift just in time for Mother’s Day.  Feel free to get creative with your design!  Everyone will get seeds to take home with them to plant in the pot once the paint is dry, creating a thoughtful and lasting token of appreciation for Mother’s Day.

Tuesday May 6th, 2:00 – 4:00. $20/$15 for Friends of Bullington Gardens.

Head on out to the ballgame at Fifth Third Park. Spartanburg is taking on Greensboro. Game starts at 6:05pm.

The gong resounds, the curtain opens, and a heavenly scene is right before your eyes. Fairies emerge from a sea of billowing clouds. Mongolians ride on horseback across grasslands as vast as the sky. Classic stories of love and loss, of humor and heroic deeds, come to life. You will be amazed by how vibrant, exciting, and profound classical Chinese culture can be.

Bob Ray (b. 1952) works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and even correspondence and performance. Born in Warrensburg, Missouri, just east of Kansas City, he now lives with his wife in the small town of Washington in eastern North Carolina.

Guest-curated by Mark Sloan, Bob Ray: Suit Yourself features a selection of the artist’s most recent paintings and drawings. Inspired by the Abstract Expressionist painters, Ray also draws from the Dada and Fluxus movements. Each of Ray’s artworks offers evidence of its own evolution. Erasures, false starts, notes, scribbles, overpainting, and tentative asides are visible on the layered surfaces. The artist incorporates household substances into his work, including housepaint, tar, masking tape, coffee, butter, tea, and collaged fragments of previous works.

Ray was the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in 2015, and he has had recent shows at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina; Lump Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina; and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

The GCMA has published an exhibition catalog of Ray’s works that includes a commissioned collaboration with California poet Allison Benis White, which will be available for purchase.

During the FREE workshop, we will discuss and learn new potty-training strategies to make the process go more smoothly.

All in-person participants will receive a free $10 gas gift card. Doughnuts and juice will be provided.

Head on out to the ballgame at Fifth Third Park. Spartanburg is taking on Greensboro. Game starts at 11:05am Education day.

The Johnson Collection presents Art of the Athlete at TJC Gallery, located at 154 West Main Street in downtown Spartanburg. TJC Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 to 4 PM, with free admission. This exhibition celebrates the twin expressions of human excellence—art and athletics—each requiring creativity, elegance, and mastery of form. Just as art can reflect as well as shape the culture around it, sports provide powerful community bonds and a sense of identity. Art of the Athlete highlights the artistry inherent in athleticism and showcases the many dynamic connections between art and sport.
On display are artworks showing the remarkable breadth of the world of sport, spanning not only familiar professional forms such as baseball and football but also fishing, hunting, and racing. In certain cases, the connection between art and athletics can be quite personal and literal, as in the case of Ernie Barnes, who not only played in the National Football League himself, but became the official artist of both the NFL and the 1984 Olympic Games.

Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin… Fans of Stacey Willingham and Sally Hepworth do not want to miss Lunch & Lit with Lucy Foley to celebrate the paperback release of The Midnight Feast!

Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin… Fans of Stacey Willingham and Sally Hepworth do not want to miss Books Over Drinks with Lucy Foley to celebrate the paperback release of The Midnight Feast!

The gong resounds, the curtain opens, and a heavenly scene is right before your eyes. Fairies emerge from a sea of billowing clouds. Mongolians ride on horseback across grasslands as vast as the sky. Classic stories of love and loss, of humor and heroic deeds, come to life. You will be amazed by how vibrant, exciting, and profound classical Chinese culture can be.

Bob Ray (b. 1952) works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and even correspondence and performance. Born in Warrensburg, Missouri, just east of Kansas City, he now lives with his wife in the small town of Washington in eastern North Carolina.

Guest-curated by Mark Sloan, Bob Ray: Suit Yourself features a selection of the artist’s most recent paintings and drawings. Inspired by the Abstract Expressionist painters, Ray also draws from the Dada and Fluxus movements. Each of Ray’s artworks offers evidence of its own evolution. Erasures, false starts, notes, scribbles, overpainting, and tentative asides are visible on the layered surfaces. The artist incorporates household substances into his work, including housepaint, tar, masking tape, coffee, butter, tea, and collaged fragments of previous works.

Ray was the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in 2015, and he has had recent shows at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina; Lump Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina; and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

The GCMA has published an exhibition catalog of Ray’s works that includes a commissioned collaboration with California poet Allison Benis White, which will be available for purchase.

The Johnson Collection presents Art of the Athlete at TJC Gallery, located at 154 West Main Street in downtown Spartanburg. TJC Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 to 4 PM, with free admission. This exhibition celebrates the twin expressions of human excellence—art and athletics—each requiring creativity, elegance, and mastery of form. Just as art can reflect as well as shape the culture around it, sports provide powerful community bonds and a sense of identity. Art of the Athlete highlights the artistry inherent in athleticism and showcases the many dynamic connections between art and sport.
On display are artworks showing the remarkable breadth of the world of sport, spanning not only familiar professional forms such as baseball and football but also fishing, hunting, and racing. In certain cases, the connection between art and athletics can be quite personal and literal, as in the case of Ernie Barnes, who not only played in the National Football League himself, but became the official artist of both the NFL and the 1984 Olympic Games.

Piedmont Natural Gas Downtown Alive presented by Spectrum benefiting Metropolitan Arts Council, kicks off the weekend every Thursday night with music at NOMA Square on Main Street. FREE ADMISSION. More than 45,000 people attend this event annually. The event serves as the single largest fundraiser for the Metropolitan Arts Council. Piedmont Natural Gas Downtown Alive opens at 5:30 p.m. and closes at 8:30 p.m. Bands play two sets at 5:50 p.m. and 7:20 p.m

Join us for a free In Conversation event with poet Susan Tekulve for her new collection, Bodies of Light! She will be discussing her work with fellow poet Claire Bateman, so this is an event not to be missed!