Community Calendar

This popular shutterbug weekend includes presentations from top nature photographers, hands-on field courses, a friendly contest and the rare opportunity to photograph the mountain’s spectacular scenery before and after regular business hours.

This popular weekend welcomes all levels of photographers, making it fun and engaging no matter what your skill level is – while better connecting participants with the wonders and unique ecology of Grandfather Mountain. This year, more than ever, we hope to not only help participants learn about photography, but to also inspire them to preserve the natural world. Activities begin Friday evening and conclude Sunday midday. Registration opens April 9 at 10 a.m. and closes June 4 at 12 p.m. or when the event sells out. Advance registration required.

Be a part of our region’s largest celebration of trails and the outdoors! Hike, bike, paddle and play along the Carolina Thread Trail on National Trails Day. On Saturday, June 6, Carolina Thread Trail is spreading the National Trails Day fun across the region with five guided outdoor programs along the Thread Trail. Hiking, biking or paddling...pick your adventure and join in for a day of family-friendly fun outdoors in nature. Registration required. More info and registration at carolinathreadtrail.org/ntd.
Sponsored by Towne Bank

Join us on June 6 for the annual Liver Life Walk in Charlotte! Honor the 50th anniversary of the American Liver Foundation (ALF) and support the 100 million Americans affected by liver disease. The Liver Life Walk in Charlotte includes an accessible route at McAlpine Creek Park and provides an amazing opportunity to bring people together to support and raise awareness of the liver community. All funds raised by ALF’s Liver Life Walk in Charlotte benefit the millions of people and families affected by liver disease. Together, we are moving closer to a world without liver disease.

Registration/check-in begins at 9 am and the walk kicks off from 10 am until 12 pm.

Incentives Deadlines:
• Team Captains who register by April 7 will receive ALF branded shoe charms.
• Individually raise $100 by May 7 to reserve a commemorative 2026 Liver Life Walk t-shirt in your size. Note: T-shirts will be available for pick-up the morning of the event at the check-in/registration table.
• Registered participants who raise $100 after the deadline will receive a t-shirt, however sizes are not guaranteed.

It's time to celebrate the 12th Annual Charlotte Family Festival & Walk for Bleeding Disorders! As part of our largest fundraiser, the Bleeding Disorders Foundation of North Carolina (BDFNC) is raising $65,0000 for the bleeding disorders community. One-hundred percent of all the money raised goes directly back to support people affected by bleeding disorders in North Carolina through: financial assistance, medical IDs, scholarships, travel grants, educational programs, support groups, camps for children with bleeding disorders, and support to research for better treatments and cures for bleeding disorders. The Family Festival & Walk includes a walk on a beautiful greenway in Pineville Lake Park and a festival component including live entertainment, food and drinks, games and more.

The Park CDC's seasonal urban garden open houses introduce community members to local food systems, gardening and nutrition education, and food independence.

Programming includes:
- Garden-to-Go container gardening workshops
- Farm-to-table cooking demonstrations & taste tests
- Nutrition education
- Children’s gardening activities
- Opportunities to learn about The Park CDC’s volunteer program supporting the urban garden’s operations.

Each event welcomes up to 60 community members and take place annually in March, April, June, and September.

“Decomposers Glow,” an art installation with larger-than-life glowing snails and mushrooms, is the centerpiece for the museum’s summer programming and events

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Nature, art, and technology come together for “Decomposers Glow,” an awe-inspiring larger-than-life landscape of illuminated snails and mushrooms. Created by Meredith Connelly, a Charlotte, N.C. based and award-winning multidisciplinary artist, the site-specific installation portrays the agents of decomposition through an interplay of light and technology. A curving path leads visitors through a soft glowing, otherworldly environment to observe over one hundred hand-constructed and 3D printed sculptures. Decomposers Glow is open from May 10 – Nov. 10, 2024.
Leading viewers into Connelly’s “Decomposers Glow,” a concurrent exhibit highlights the variety and importance of nature’s agents of decomposition. “Return to Earth” features photographs of actual fungi by Mike Hammer, painted mushroom models, a Carolina Piedmont snail shell collection, and two-dimensional cut paper works by Meredith Connelly that reference nature’s microscopic structures. “Return to Earth” on exhibit at Museum of York County from May 4 – Dec. 15, 2024.
More of Mike Hammer’s photography is on exhibit in the museum’s Nature Nook Gallery. “Endless Trail” features the natural settings of the Carolina Piedmont and beyond, capturing the uniquely beautiful moments of each season. “Endless Trail” opens at Museum of York County on May 18, 2024.

Artist Talk: April 25, 2-3 pm
Workshop: April 30, 6-8 pm

Through the Ether is a group of mixed media works deeply influenced by and connected to film editing. April collects and stores unrelated images from different modalities and mediums—3D modeling, photographs, paintings, advertisements. She removes the color, texture, and context from which they originate. These elements form a visual depository or footage bin, from which she uses the montage process to construct a new landscape independent of their source. This reconstruction process resembles building a scene in a film. However, it creates an emotional landscape unto itself, devoid of the requirements of narrative and story—nullifying the necessity of a beginning, a middle, and an end.

About April Simmons: April received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in film. She worked as an experimental non-narrative filmmaker and as a film editor for both nonfiction and fiction films. Her films have screened at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center (Views), Anthology Film Archives in New York, the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) in Chicago, among others. April taught film production, theory, and history at the university level for nearly two decades. She began working in digital photo collage and mixed media in 2022. Her work has been shown at The Galleries at Cabarrus Arts Council (“Liminal”) and at The Mint Museum (“Coined in the South”) in Uptown Charlotte.

Join the Rapha Way Foundation for our 2nd Annual Legacy Lap, a community wellness walk celebrating health, connection, and the power of coming together. What started as an inaugural vision to unite Charlotte and surrounding area has grown into a beloved tradition, and this year we're inviting even more neighbors, families, seniors, and friends to walk with us.

Dive into adventure with our NEW IMMOTION VR Experience: Shark Dive, launching May 22nd at CSC!

Get up close with the incredible sharks of Tiger Beach in this thrilling, immersive underwater experience. No wetsuit required.

Unleash your inner artist and engineer in Brick Masters Studio: Build with LEGO® Bricks Like a Pro, an immersive exhibition by world-renowned artist Sean Kenney.

Produced by Imagine with science content developed by Science North, Brick Masters Studio features over 100 sculptures built with over 2 million LEGO® pieces, inviting guests to explore the intersection of art, science and engineering. Hands-on build challenges, real-world engineering concepts and insights into the artistic process show how imagination and innovation come together to create something extraordinary.