In December of 1995, 50 volunteers at the Jewish Community Center in Asheville, NC hosted the first "Festivals of Light: Peoples with Many Flames". JCC members created scenes from holidays of light around the world and displayed them in rooms and hallways. 800 teachers and students came that first year and were taken on small docented tours through scenes of Christmas in Greece, the New Year in Korea, Diwali in India, Loy Krathong in Thailand, and Chanukah in Israel. From the enthusiastic response of students and teachers an organization was created.
The Center for Diversity Education set up offices at the JCC and began to offer other programming geared to the NC Standard Course of Study curriculum in grades K-12. Over the next two years, other programs were offered with a growing audience such as Harvest Seasons Around the World, Children and the Holocaust, What Makes a Hero? and others. In 1998, the Center for Diversity Education formed into a separate 501-C3 non-profit organization, created a board of directors, and moved the offices to Pack Place Arts and Education Center in downtown Asheville. The Center currently resides at Carmichael Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina Asheville and operates under a cooperative memorandum of understanding with the university.