The first thing most visitors see when they land in Asheville is the mountains out the window. This November, the next thing they’ll see is what those mountains gave us after the storm.
Echoes of the Forest is partnering with Asheville Regional Airport for an in-terminal activation on Thursday, November 5, from 10 AM to 2 PM in baggage claim. We’ll be set up alongside our friends from the Cradle of Forestry, sharing the story of Helene salvaged wood and the artisans who are turning it into something lasting.
500 ornaments, one for each of the first 500 arrivals
Mike Ayers of Whetstone Woodworks has been creating wooden airplane ornaments by the hundreds, each one with the Echoes logo on one side and the AVL logo on the other. The first 500 arriving visitors on November 5 take one home. If you’re flying into AVL that morning, come find us in baggage claim.
See the work
We’ll have bowls and small pieces from our artisans on the table, along with a topographic mountain sculpture by Mickey Strivelli, carved from Helene salvaged wood into the ridgelines of the Pisgah range. A one-minute Echoes video will play on the baggage claim video walls throughout the day.
Win a piece of the mountains
On Friday, November 6, AVL will launch a social media contest to win one of Mickey’s topographic sculptures. Watch AVL’s website and social channels for details on how to enter.
And it doesn’t end on the 5th
Echoes artwork will appear on the airport’s gate-area screens the week of November 16, so travelers passing through the terminal will keep meeting our artisans and their work.
Why the airport
More than two million people a year pass through AVL. Most of them come from the mountains. Our artisans are still at work with wood from those mountains, and we wanted travelers to see where it goes: into public art across Western North Carolina, into pieces you can take home, and into the livelihoods of the woodworkers who make them.
Learn more about our work and how to commission an Echo at echoesoftheforest.org.