Dillsboro Creative Arts Center

Spring 2026

Dillsboro Creative Arts Center: Fired up for another 20 years

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Courtesy of Dillsboro Creative Arts Center

For two decades, Jackson County Green Energy Park has turned trash into treasure, converting gas released by the breakdown of landfill material into power for heavy-duty arts equipment. Now, on the heels of its 20th year, the colorful entity has rebranded as the Dillsboro Creative Arts Center (DCAC) and gotten a new look thanks to a vibrant mural by painter Amanda Messick.

At a former trash transfer station, the innovative site houses blacksmith forges, a foundry, a glass furnace, and outdoor ceramic kilns that serve more than a dozen rotating craftsmen. “With this facility, we’ve helped artists develop the skills to support their own businesses,” says program director Chelsea Seaman. Beyond studio space and large-scale equipment, DCAC offers a catalog of classes, from flameworking and silver clay to glassblowing and soap making, with promises to introduce a wider variety of material-based instruction this year, as well as a kids art camp. Visitors are encouraged to peruse the gallery, watch the artists work, and tour the facility (call ahead for the best show).

Inside, another mural explains the science behind turning garbage into energy. Since opening in 2006, the facility has continued to modernize its valve-driven setup, adding more gas extraction wells to draw methane up through the detritus and replacing manual pumps with pneumatic ones to help keep leachate out of the neighboring Tuckasegee River. “Eventually, the gas will run out,” admits Seaman, but experts believe the site has at least another 20 years’ worth. “Production isn’t slowing.”