Community Calendar

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.

DINOSAUR! has made their way back to CSC! Get ready to come face-to-face with jaw-dropping fossils, thrilling prehistoric discoveries, and hands-on Jurassic fun for explorers of all ages.

The ROAR of prehistoric fun is her, don’t miss it!

Step back 66 million years and journey through the final chapter of the age of dinosaurs in Dinosaur Evolution—a thrilling immersive experience that brings the Cretaceous world to life. Witness feathered raptors on the hunt, armored giants defending their turf, and the mighty T. rex at the top of the food chain. But even these perfectly evolved creatures couldn’t escape Earth’s most devastating extinction event. Stunning visuals and cutting-edge science reveal how evolution shaped the dinosaurs—and how birds, their modern-day descendants, continue their legacy. It's a prehistoric adventure that will inspire the next generation of paleontologists and conservationists alike.

Explore the mountain after hours with your own personal guides during our Grandfather by Night series! You’ll discover some of the park’s nighttime wonders, watch a stunning sunset (weather permitting) and experience the mountain as never before! The Twilight Hike version will include a hike after sunset to discuss and look for the creatures that are more active after the sun goes down. The group will explore a unique forest ecosystem from top to bottom in search of salamanders, owls, flying squirrels, fireflies and any other creatures they might come across. The Twilight Hike program is not accessible to guests with limited mobility. Participants signed up for this version will need to participate in the hike, as staying behind while the rest of the group hikes is not possible. Advance registration required.

Join us Saturday, June 13 for one of our favorite weekends of the year, featuring 20 incredible artists working in ceramic, glass, wood, metal, and fiber. This curated invitational is your chance to meet talented makers, shop one-of-a-kind handmade work, and experience craft up close.

NEW this year: live artist demonstrations throughout the day!
• 10am Live Glassblowing
• 12pm Ceramics Demonstration
• 2pm Flameworking Demonstration

Main Event: Saturday, June 13 | 9am–4pm
Preview Reception: Friday, June 12 | 6–8pm

More info and tickets at StarworksNC.org/craft

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.

The focus of this 10-hour workshop is to prepare participants from a variety of educational backgrounds and experiences in both the formal and non-formal sectors to use exemplary Environmental Education teaching methods. Participants will learn about a variety of teaching techniques, methods and instructional strategies; and the workshop will include multiple interactive components. This is a required workshop for all NC Environmental Education Certification candidates. This workshop may also count for Continuing Education for those educators who are already certified. This workshop is free to attend, although advance registration is required. Tickets for this event go online on Grandfather Mountain’s website April 13 at 10 a.m.

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.