In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Fine Art Museum within the Bardo Arts Center (BAC) is currently hosting an exhibition of artwork highlighting the long history of art collecting by the museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 

To note, the museum holds four galleries, a growing permanent collection of contemporary art and rotating exhibitions highlighting regional, national and international artists. 

Acclaimed Japanese ensemble Drum Tao will swing through Southern Appalachia for a special performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

The group returns to North America in 2026 with their all-new show, “The Best.” The internationally renowned ensemble will visit more than 40 cities as part of the highly anticipated tour. 

Longtime Western Carolina University supporters and friends have come together to honor the legacy and dedication of the university’s former sports information director, Steve White, a man many affectionately refer to as “the walking encyclopedia of Catamount athletics.”

WCU alumni David and Joy Wiggins have made a lead gift to the university’s “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign and chosen to direct their gift toward the naming of the football stadium’s new Western Skybox media center in White’s honor.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Fine Art Museum within the Bardo Arts Center is hosting an exhibition of artwork highlighting the long history of art collecting at the museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

Step into a visual timeline celebrating the anniversary of the museum, featuring a dynamic exhibition showcasing decades of WCU’s dedication to collecting and curating contemporary art. 

Western Carolina University students are gearing up for their next adventures with fresh equipment, all thanks to a partnership that brings a new fleet of Liquidlogic kayaks to campus.

The Nantahala, the Tuckasegee and the French Broad rivers are world-renowned destinations for white-water sports. Beginners can enjoy slow stretches in relatively still waters, and seasoned paddlers can take on roaring rapids of every class. 

At the Southwestern Child Development Commission building, the future is meeting the past.

Western Carolina University construction management students brought SPOT, the College of Engineering and Technology’s robotic dog, to scan a 3-D model of the nearly century-old building in Sylva. 

Ron Rash has never been to an opera. But later this month, he’ll sit down to enjoy an opus based on stories and poems he wrote about the Southern Appalachian mountains he calls home. 

“Shelton Laurel: An Appalachian Opera” takes place over a few years around the Civil War. The opera, which will see its world premiere later this month, tells the tale of farmers in Madison County’s Shelton Laurel, not far from Western Carolina University’s Bardo Arts Center in Cullowhee where the work will be performed. 

The Republican-led North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines to allow the closure of a Democrat-leaning early voting site at Western Carolina University, against overwhelming opposition from the people the closure would affect.

To the Editor:

Partisan actions to create electoral advantages have likely always been rampant for both factions in the U.S. The fact that social media permits virtually instant communication to huge populations has added to the perception that such manipulations are much worse now than in the past. 

Three former members of the Western Carolina University women’s basketball team stepped up to the line to tip off the process of raising enough philanthropic support to name the current Catamount squad’s locker room after the founder of the program. 

That opening shot has resulted in a resounding “swish,” as that locker room now bears the name of the individual who launched the program during an era when women’s intercollegiate athletics was primarily an afterthought.