On a six-acre campus of renovated barns and an old covered bridge, The Bascom gives people from the rural western part of the state a chance to experience the awe of seeing fine art and the satisfaction of bringing their own creations to life.
Color Amid the Kudzu
In 1999, a crew of urban artists descended on rural Moore County, painted some 25 tobacco barns and other buildings, and then zipped back up to New York City. Two decades later, folks still drive to Cameron in search of these curious murals.
Follow the Barn Quilts
Like your grandmother’s narrative needlework, the growing patchwork of creative designs on rural outbuildings across the state tells a larger story.
Playing the Doodad
It started as a 50th birthday gift to a music-loving dad: Turn a 140-year-old tobacco barn on a family’s 60-acre farm near Greensboro into a stage. Eight years later, it’s a gift to music lovers across the Piedmont.
Altered State: Photographer Watson Brown Preserves a Landscape
A retired city planner finds his calling photographing the barns and historic homes of Edgecombe County. His images preserve a fading landscape while helping us see it anew.
History in a Handbag
In neglected barns and abandoned pickup trucks in eastern North Carolina, a seamstress finds old, forgotten stories — in the form of vintage fabrics — that she makes new again.
Mountain Ripples
On a farm in a cove in the Smokies, a biologist turned cheesemaker is bringing a slice of woods back to life. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, every careful decision she makes, every creature she cares for, has a lasting effect on the forest she’s trying to save.
The Fairest of Them All
In Pinehurst, an unusual barn once served as an exhibition hall for livestock and a stump for local politicians, who’d snap their suspenders and make big promises. Today, this restored barn in the heart of horse country hosts weddings, dinners, and even rock concerts.
Humble Hideaway
Since 1983, hikers and wanderers traveling the pass between Roan and Hump mountains have taken refuge in a simple red barn known as the Overmountain Shelter. Little do they know, they’re following in the footsteps of revolutionaries.
