This weekend, Beaverdam Valley opens its studios to visitors. The 9th annual Beaverdam Studio Tour runs Saturday, October 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All of the studios sit off Beaverdam Road, which branches from Merrimon Avenue. It's free and self-guided.
On the surface the numbers are almost the same as last year: 24 artists this time, 25 last year. Two years after the tour had to stop altogether, the valley's own group of artists is back at full size. The newcomers on the 2026 map include people who make their work on these streets, along with the invited guests.
How the Valley Got Its Tour Back
The tour started in 2017, when Mountain Xpress covered its first edition. It grew from there until the fall of 2024. After Helene, the organizers described fallen trees, damaged studios, lost artwork, and weeks without power or water across Beaverdam Valley, and the 2024 tour was cancelled.
In 2025 the tour came back as what the organizers called a "Bounce Back Year." The 2025 listing on ArtsAVL counted 25 artists: 17 from Beaverdam Valley and 8 guests. This October is the second tour since the cancellation.
The 2026 numbers show the valley's side holding steady. The official map shows 24 artists across 14 stops. The Laurel of Asheville lists seven of them as guests. That leaves 17 valley artists, the same count as the comeback year. The tour has one fewer guest and no fewer neighbors.
Five New Names, and Where They Come From
The 2026 brochure flags five artists as new: Ruthie Cohen, Heidi Bleacher, Karen Ives, Margot Kornfeld and Bob Smedley. Three of them, Cohen, Bleacher and Ives, appear on The Laurel's guest list. The rest of that list is Amy Brandenburg, Susan Codega, Nancy Dunn and Janice Levitt.
That leaves Kornfeld and Smedley, who are new to the tour but not on the guest list. Kornfeld shows work at 88 S. Black Oak Drive and Smedley at 3 Brookgreen Place. Two years ago the question was whether the valley's artists could put on a tour at all. This year the valley's group of artists has gotten bigger.
The Laurel also ran a September feature on Julie Calhoun-Roepnack and first-time participant Heidi Bleacher. Both show at stop 2 on Edgedale Drive.
The Map, Stop by Stop
Most of the 14 stops are in homes and working studios. The tour is set up to open "the homes and working spaces of artists in Beaverdam Valley plus invited guest artists." The one clear exception is stop 13, which uses the Beaverdam Run Clubhouse. Here is the roster from the 2026 map:
Stop | Address | Artists |
|---|---|---|
1 | 48 Inglewood Road | Susan Sinyai, Susan Codega |
2 | 14 Edgedale Drive | Julie Calhoun-Roepnack, Ruthie Cohen, Heidi Bleacher, Amy Brandenburg |
3 | 110 Robinhood Road | Peggy Johnston, Michele Alexander |
4 | 100 Gibson Road | Kathy Mack |
5 | 385 Beaverdam Road | Susana Abell |
6 | 3 Brookgreen Place | Bob Smedley |
7 | 10 Bassett Road | Annette McAlister, Nancy Dunn |
8 | 29 Beaverdam Knoll | Pat Barratt |
9 | 88 S. Black Oak Drive | Margot Kornfeld |
10 | 125 Black Oak Drive | Reb Haizlip, Karen Ives, Janice Levitt |
11 | 29 Stony Ridge | Bonnie Cooper |
12 | 44 Clubside Drive | Tei Tober |
13 | 54 Clubside Drive, Beaverdam Run Clubhouse | Joanne Bossert, Deb Druhot, Cathy Stryker |
14 | 3 Webb Cove Road | George Handy |
If you're going to see Ruthie Cohen, note that the artist-profile pages in the 2026 brochure list her with stop 9, while the map puts her at stop 2. Check the printed map on the day.
14 Edgedale Drive has the most artists in one place, with four. 125 Black Oak Drive and the clubhouse at 54 Clubside Drive have three each. If you have a single afternoon, those three stops let you see ten artists with only a few parking spots.
The work covers ceramics, painting, jewelry, sculpture, textiles, paper art, photography, glass and wood. The brochure's examples go further: stoneware, fiber and felt, mixed-metal jewelry, mosaic, encaustic, watercolor, enamel sculpture and carved glass. The tour is run by the artists themselves. The official contact page lists Joanne Bossert for publicity, Susana Abell for artist communications and Reb Haizlip for sponsors. All three also host stops.
One Thing on Beaverdam Road Is New Since Last Year's Tour
Anyone who drove the tour in 2025 will find one change on the road. On July 27, 2026, the N.C. Department of Transportation made the intersection of Beaverdam Road and Kimberly Avenue an all-way stop. Before that, traffic on Beaverdam Road had no instruction to stop there.
NCDOT says it counted 11 crashes at that skewed intersection over five years. The agency estimates the all-way stop would have reduced or prevented nine of them. Crews also put up "Stop Ahead" and "New Traffic Pattern" signs and new pavement markings, and the agency expects drivers to slow down along Beaverdam Road.
On tour weekend the road will carry visitors who don't know it, slowing down to read house numbers and turning into side streets. Here's how to keep the day easy:
- Download the 2026 map PDF before you leave. Plan your route around the stops you care most about rather than going in number order.
- Budget for Sunday's earlier close. Studios open at 10 a.m. both days but close at 4 p.m. on Sunday instead of 5.
- Expect a full stop at Kimberly Avenue, along with a driver who may not know the intersection changed this summer.
- If you live on one of the tour streets, plan your own errands for the morning. Visitors start arriving at 10.
Lunch on Merrimon, Then Owls the Following Week
All of the studios are reached from Merrimon Avenue, so the obvious place to stop for food is the stretch of Merrimon near Beaver Lake. AVL Today's October roundup lists Miyagi, a Japanese restaurant at 1435 Merrimon Ave., among its September openings. If you haven't been yet, tour weekend gives you a reason to go. A short way up the road is Saffron India Barrel House at 1459 Merrimon Ave. 828 News NOW reviewed it in January as a new Indian restaurant just north of Beaver Lake.
The week after the tour has a quieter outing just down the hill. On Wednesday, October 28, from 7 to 8 p.m., Blue Ridge Audubon presents a talk on saw-whet owls at OLLI at UNC Asheville, 300 Campus View Road, with an option to join online. On Saturday, October 31, the North Asheville Library leads a guided bird walk around Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary with Blue Ridge Audubon. Registration is required.
Submissions for 2026 are closed, and the organizers already ask artists interested in the 2027 tour to send inquiries to [email protected].
I spent years in kitchens where the best ingredients came from people working a few miles away, so a weekend of buying straight from the hands that made the work feels familiar to me. If one of these Beaverdam Valley studios leaves you curious about the streets around it, or about what a working studio needs from a house, I'd love to compare notes. Annie Blue Pettry is glad to talk about it whenever you're ready. Let's Connect.
