The founders of the Asheville Chapter of Ikebana International considered organizing in 1963 and hosted a visit by Mrs. Ellen Gordon Allen, the founder of I.I., to discuss this possibility. They met at the home of Mrs. E.S. Koon with thirty-six interested individuals who petitioned for the honor of joining. The charter was eventually granted in 1965. Membership was $7 per year. They had four business meetings and nine program meetings a year. There were notes in the file that membership was to be limited to twenty by headquarters.
The chapter has always been small, but has had some ambitious projects and opportunities. In May 1965 the chapter co-sponsored with the other U.S. chapters a gift of one hundred fifty dogwood trees to be planted in Japan to honor I.I. A certificate of appreciation signed by the sensei of Ohara, Ikenobo, Sogetsu and Saga schools is in the chapter files. They enjoyed demos by some of the biggest names in Western ikebana: Martha & Marvin Neese (publishers of the I.I. magazine) in May 1964; and a nageire workshop by Ellen Gordon Allen (founder of I.I.) in April 1970. They had exhibitions: the Grove Park Inn in 1967 with fifteen designs, a flower show in Hendersonville in 1969 with seventeen designs, and an Ikenobo workshop in Hendersonville with Lucille Davis in 1968 with thirty-seven designs.
Records show that there was an I.I. study group in Hendersonville in 1967 that shared programs with the Asheville chapter. It appears that meetings were also held jointly with the Blue Ridge Ikenobo Society. The Ikenobo Society was formally established in 1991.
By the time that Bettie Madsen arrived in the 1970’s the chapter only had twelve members and the meetings consisted of everyone working independently. She was asked to teach Ohara at the meetings and also offered weekly classes.
When the chapter celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 31, 1988, hosted by Teddy Bean, there were still four charter members present and active. A newspaper article said, “They gathered to celebrate the club’s history of helping make the community more cosmopolitan and appreciative of the simple gifts of gardening and nature.” At that time they were still meeting at the North Asheville Community Center and it is probable they always met there until this past decade. It appears that the chapter’s membership peaked at twenty-seven members in 1980 until this decade.
Through those years the chapter had exhibits in banks, department stores, the Grove Arcade, the Grovewood Gallery, the Governor’s Western Residence, City Hall, and the Fireside Antiques in Biltmore. Since 2002 the chapter has had annual exhibitions at The North Carolina Arboretum in conjunction with the Carolina Bonsai Expo. This chapter organized “Art in Bloom” for the Black Mountain Center for the Arts in June 2007 and offered day classes at the Reuter Center at the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2005 & 2007.
The chapter is now 46 years old and enjoying a renaissance. Membership is approximately 60 members and growing.
