Blue because you don't have summer vacation plans? We have some good news! North Carolina is international, multicultural, and a whole lot of fun during the summer! This summer you won't need a passport to visit any part of the globe. North Carolina offers a number of exciting opportunities to experience the outside world, through museum exhibits, concerts, and festivals. This summer the world is right at your doorstep.

Nouns: Children’s Book Artists look at People, Places, and Things
Asheville Art Museum, through July 11, 2010
Nouns: Children's Book Artists Look at People, Places and Things examines original book illustrations from artists who are committed to the genre of children's books. The exhibition includes working drawings, finished paintings, collages, molded paper, woodcuts, and digitally produced illustrations from well-known and emerging artists. www.ashevilleart.org

Only Skin Deep? Tattooing in World Cultures
Museum of Anthropology,Wake Forest University, through August 28, 2010
Only Skin Deep? features photographs, prints, implements, and tattoo ephemera on loan from photographers, artists, collectors, and museums to explore the various ways humans introduce pigments into the skin to mark identity. www.wfu.edu/moa/
Warning: Some might find images in Only Skin Deep? startling or consider them inappropriate for young children. Visitor discretion is advised.

Esse Quam Videri: Muslim Self Portraits
FedEx Global Education Center (times vary), UNC at Chapel Hill
Our state motto is “To Be Rather than to Seem.” Artist Todd Drake worked with Muslims across the state to create self-portraits that share real, rather than seeming, reflections of self. Muslims from a variety of backgrounds worked collaboratively with Drake to realize their vision. www.global.unc.edu

Along the Silk Road: Art and Cultural Exchange
Ackland Art Museum, UNC at Chapel Hill, through June 5, 2011
Drawing from the Ackland's celebrated collection of Asian art and installed in three Museum galleries, Along the Silk Road highlights the significance of trade-related cross-cultural contact with works of art created and traded in numerous parts of Asia and Europe. These works of art span an area from China and India to points west (Iran, Syria, Italy, and France), north through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, on to Russia, and south and east to Burma, Thailand, and Japan. www.ackland.org

In the Eclipse of Angkor by Binh Danh
NC Art Museum, Raleigh, through January 30, 2011
In the Eclipse of Angkor presents new work by Binh Danh, including chlorophyll prints, found butterfly specimens, and Daguerreotypes. Danh’s work reconstructs memory and history, both personal and collective, and his methods and materials comment on the fragility and elusive nature of both.This exhibition focuses on Danh’s recent works, which document and interpret the genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. This body of work stemmed from a trip in 2008 to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Choeung Ek, the site of the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge; and Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s famous Khmer temple. www.ncartmuseum.org

The Transformed Self—Performance Masks of Mexico
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, through December 31, 2010
Public performances of epic tales, historical events and religious narratives are a key part of modern life in Mexico. Dance dramas, presented in city streets and church plazas, embody a community’s essential beliefs and common human problems while imparting moral lessons. The works presented here come from the primary mask-producing regions of Mexico where dance performances commonly accompany religious rituals and civic events. Particularly rich in pageant traditions and variety of performance masks are the states of Veracruz, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Sinaloa, Michoacán, Hidalgo, and Guerrero. www.mintmuseum.org

Threads of Identity: Contemporary Maya Textiles
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, through December 31, 2010
Throughout the world, clothing transforms the biological body into a socio-cultural being, integrating the person into the community. Among the Maya, dress is an outward expression of cultural pride. Dress also conveys one’s place in the world, signaling social identity and geographic origin or current community. It also articulates social structure, political affiliation and religious ideology by way of its decoration which comprises a symbol system of visual codes, the ability to read the message reflecting one’s degree of cultural initiation. www.mintmuseum.org

Chinese Court Robes: The Mint Museum Collection
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, through December 31, 2010
In 1644, the Manchu-Qing nomads took control over China, overthrowing the Ming Dynasty. To exert power over the defeated Han population, the Manchu imposed a dress code. Court robes of this era display a rich ornamentation of symbolism and decorative representations of the Manchu cosmos. The Mint Museum’s Asian Art Collection includes ceramics, historic costumes, works on paper, and furniture. Look for more selections from this collection as the Museum begins its Randolph Road reinstallation following the opening of the Mint Museum Uptown, October 1, 2010. www.mintmuseum.org

Folkmoot USA
Western North Carolina (various sites), July 22-August 1, 2010
Folkmoot USA, North Carolina’s official international festival, is a two-week celebration of the world’s cultural heritage through folk music and dance. Held each summer across the mountains of western North Carolina, Folkmoot features performances, parades, and workshops by more than 350 performers from a dozen countries. Performers demonstrate cultural heritage through original reproduction costumes, dance, and music. During its 24-year history, over 200 folk groups from more than 100 countries have shared their heritage and culture at Folkmoot USA. Visit www.folkmootusa.org for a complete schedule, ticket information, and directions to the venues.

Waldensian Festival
Valdese, August 13-14, 2010
Since 1976, on the second Saturday in August, Valdese hosts an annual festival to celebrate the "Glorious Return" of the Waldenses from exile in Switzerland to their native valleys in the Cottian Alps of Italy in 1689. The 2010 Waldensian Festival will concentrate on unique crafts, great food, and top-quality entertainment. www.visitvaldese.com

Ritmo Latino Music, Art, & Dance Festival
Cary, August 15, 2010, 12-6:30 pm
Diamante Inc. and the Town of Cary invite you to the 6th Annual Free Ritmo Latino Arts, Music, & Dance Festival at the Fred Bond Park. Salsa, Batchata, Nortena, art, dancing, book fair, Latin food, soccer, games, dance lessons, face painting, arts and crafts, free family friendly event, Triangle Salsa Allstars, Cuervo, Rey Norteno, Costa Rica Dance, and much more. www.diamanteinc.org

Goombay!
YMI Culture Center, Asheville, August 27-29, 2010
The YMI Cultural Center's "Goombay!" Festival brings a variety of entertainment that delights every festival-goer. From steel drums, dancers, local gospel groups, and contemporary rhythm bands, the activities are geared for families. The Festival-goer can enjoy an authentic Caribbean meal at "Island of Delight" Café and see vendors line the streets with everything from ice cream to crafts.
www.ymicc.org/goombay

Umoja Festival
Fayetteville, August 21, 2010
The annual African-American cultural festival features music, storytelling, cultural displays, drummers, dancers, steppers, tennis clinic, basketball and horseshoe tournaments, and food. All are welcome to this event celebrating African culture and heritage. For further information contact yawatuprahafrica@yahoo.com.

Grandfather Mountain Highland Games
near Linville, MacRae Meadows on Grandfather Mountain, July 8-11, 2010
Enjoy traditional dancing, piping, drumming, athletics, music and Gaelic culture. Proceeds help to establish scholarship funds for Avery County high school students to study at American colleges and universities. www.gmhg.org

City of King POW WOW
King Fairgrounds, King, August 20-22, 2010
Participants are members of over 30 different Indigenous Nations, Bands & Tribes and travel from 16 different territories to attend. Native drumming, singing, dancing, guest performers and educators, artisans and craftsmen, demonstrations, children's activities, food, shopping, raffles and more. www.ci.king.nc.us

The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma
Memorial Hall, UNC at Chapel Hill
August 17, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his continual search for musical connections that stimulate the imagination. His Silk Road Ensemble takes inspiration from the historical Silk Road trading route as a modern metaphor for multicultural exchange. From Japan to the Mediterranean, the Silk Road promoted an unprecedented sharing of commodities, ideas, arts, sciences, and innovations among people from diverse cultures along the way. www.carolinaperformingarts.org

Eastern Music Festival
Various Locations, Greensboro
June 26-July 31, 2010
Each summer, for five glorious weeks, the North Carolina Piedmont Triad is transformed for music enthusiasts of all ages whose tastes range from classical to jazz to bluegrass to rock and everything in between. Concerts and events happen daily. The Eastern Music Festival also offers many exciting opportunities for young children, including summer day camps and concerts. Each experience is uniquely designed to foster a love and knowledge for classical and non-classical music. www.easternmusicfestival.org

5:40 Music Series: Guillo Carias and Special Guests
East 54 Plaza, Chapel Hill
June 16 at 5:40 pm
Presented by East 54 and the ArtsCenter, this summer music series features a variety of musical acts in an outdoor setting. Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy drink and food specials while the Guillo Carias Trio, a Latin jazz group, performs. www.east54.com

American Dance Festival: Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Co.
Durham Performing Arts Center
June 17, 18, and 19 at 8 pm
Fantasy meets sideshow in Israeli artists Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s master work, Oyster. From human marionettes to double-headed men and armless oddities, reality is thrown out the window in a show that blurs the lines between ballet, acrobatics, mime, and theater. www.dpacnc.com

Viva Mexico!
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University
July 19 - 23, 2010 from 1 - 3 pm
This program is designed to encourage creativity and stimulate imagination through museum activities, art appreciation, and exposure to ancient cultures. Participants will have an opportunity to use the exhibit of In the Shadow of the Volcanoes: Contemporary Art from the Mountains of Central Mexico to learn about contemporary Mexican artists and their medium in order to create a work of art in a similar manner. They will also look at past Mexican artists such as the muralist painters Diego Rivera, Orozco and Siquieros as well as Frida Kahlo. The final project will delve into the mysteries of the Mayans and Aztecs, by looking closely at their architecture, art and culture. Participants will create a work of art that reflects the works of these wondrous ancient civilizations from Mexico. This event is presented as part of the Workshops for Kids program in conjunction with the Turchin Center exhibition In the Shadow of the Volcanoes: Contemporary Art from the Mountains of Central Mexico. www.turchincenter.org