Polk County Art Auction moved to March

Polk County Red Cross Eclectic Art Auction, previously scheduled for Feb 6 is now slated for March 20.Come join the fun for an eclectic art auction for the benefit of the Polk County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Tickets for the event are $20 donation in advance and a $25 donation at the door. Ticket donations includes admission to the auction, heavy hors d' oeuvres and one free beverage of your choice. 5:00 PM Preview and Silent Auction at 6:30 PM

Commemorative Community Quilt Available for Community Exhibit

Throughout history, quilt-making has been viewed as a community-building activity as well as a form of communal creativity. The Blue Ridge Parkway Commemorative Community Quilt Project created on the occasion of the Parkway’s 75th Anniversary provides a visual and lasting reminder of the region’s relationship with the Parkway and how the Parkway inspires us all!

The finished quilt celebrates the positive role that the Parkway plays in our lives and its ability to bridge the area’s urban and rural life with the preservation of the region’s rich natural and cultural resources. The Parkway region is rich and diverse and the final quilt is as well. Looking at the finished work of art, the purpose of the quilt becomes apparent. As each square portrays an individual community’s expression or identity, it inherently compliments adjacent squares, all of which are bound together by threads of community. Greater awareness of these relationships and continued understanding and collaboration is its message for our region.

Please consider participating in a traveling exhibit in development that will bring the quilt to your community and help tell the important story about the relationship between the Parkway and its neighboring communities.

Please send an email to leesa.brandon@ncdcr.gov to request a host venue application.

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New Monthly Contest from The Asheville Art Museum

Test your art knowledge with the Asheville Art Museum's new monthly contest! Once each month we will have a name that artist or piece of art contest in the e-news and the first person to correctly name the artist or piece of art will win an awesome artsy prize.  

Hint for this month's contest: This beautiful ceramic piece (pictured above) by Michael Sherrill was donated to the Museum by Barbara Keleher in honor of John Cram who owns a local gallery with the same name as the piece. Name that piece of art!

This month's prize: A year-long Individual Membership to the Asheville Art Museum (valued at $50; not redeemable for cash)! If you win, you'll get free admission to the Museum for a year, invitations to openings and parties, a subscription to the Member magazine and much more.  

To enter your guess: E-mail Kim Zdanowicz at kzdanowicz@ashevilleart.org with "contest" in the subject line. Good luck!

Western North Carolina Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition

January 28, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM at the Pack Place Community Gallery the Western North Carolina Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition Opens. The Asheville Art Museum, with the assistance of its volunteer docents, partners with the Asheville Area Section of the American Institute of Architects each year to sponsor the Western North Carolina Regional Scholastic Art Awards.

Students in grades 7 - 12 from all across our region are invited to submit work for this special juried competition. The 2011 Western North Carolina Regional Scholastic Award recipients will be honored at a ceremony on February 20 at 2:00 p.m. in the Diana Wortham Theatre and the exhibition of their artwork will be on view at the Pack Place Community Gallery from January 28 - March 6, 2011. Regional Gold Key recipients' work will be sent to the National Scholastic Art competition in New York City. For more information on the Scholastic Art Awards, please visit www.ashevilleart.org or www.artandwriting.org.

Sponsored by the Walnut Cove Member's Association and the Asheville Area Section of the American Institute of Architects.

Impressionistic Painter Jenny Buckner Exhibits at the Swain County Center for the Arts

Twenty impressionistic oil paintings and two pastel paintings by Jenny Buckner of Waynesville will be on exhibit at Swain County Center for the Arts in Bryson City through March 28. Her subject matter includes people, animals, landscapes, flowers and still life.  Her style incorporates bold strokes and movement withing representational life forms.

In addition to the paintings, an assortment of Buckner’s jewelry creations made of natural stones with pewter and brass are also displayed.  Get details about this exhibit and other activities at The Swain County Center for the Arts...

Home fo the Perfect Christmas Tree Featured Artist

Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree Shop in Spruce Pine NC Artist Spotlight: Alice Houser. Having completed a course in kaleidoscope making and design at Penland School of Crafts, Alice is looking at the world with a new perspective. Trying to capture the delicacy of a snowflake or the intense variety of fall leaves and "bottling" it in a kaleidoscope has given her a new appreciation for the infinite imagination and awesome resourcefulness of God.
Click Here to read more about Alice and her kaleidoscopes

Photo Credit: Our State Magazine

The Asheville Area Arts Council Opens The Artery

On Friday Evening The Asheville Area Arts Council held a grand opening for its new community art space, The Artery.  Located at 346 Depot Street in the River Arts District the 1400 sq foot facility will will have multiple functions from providing visitor information for the River Arts District to hosting after-school programs, workshops, performances, and gallery-style shows.

The mission of the Asheville Area Arts Council is to unify established creative professionals and organizations into a collaborative and thriving sector, to cultivate emerging grassroots entrepreneurs through direct financial support and access to opportunities, and to enhance the profile and visibility of our unique culture.

Featured NC Mountain Gallery: Crimson Laurel Gallery

The Crimson Laurel Gallery  has one of the largest selection of studio ceramics in Western North Carolina, plus fine jewelry, hand crafted furniture, glass, sculpture, and paintings. Owned and operated by working artists John Lara and David Trophia the Gallery represents artists who have been recognized locally and nationally, from Bakersville Creek Walk Best in Show to the Smithsonian Collection.

John C Campbell Folk School Catalog of 2011 Classes Available

At John C Campbell Folk School the new year kicks off with a brand new catalog, full of interesting classes to take in 2011. To request a copy of the catalog in the mail click here. Registration for all 2011 classes is open, so call soon.
The cover of the current catalog features the painting Garden Gate at the Folk School by instructor, Robin Popp. The beautifully delicate wrought iron gate in our vegetable garden was constructed by Walt Hull's blacksmithing class in 2007.

New Instructors & Classes in 2011:
Along with our favorite classes we look forward to each year, we are introducing some exciting new instructors and classes that are certain to become staples at the Folk School. A sampling of our new classes include:

March 6-12
Cooking: California Cuisine with Andrea Bell
June 12-18
Woodworking: Hands to Earth: Build a Family Casket with Mark DeCou
September 4-10
Music: Ballads and Songs From Scotland to Appalachia and Beyond with Sara Grey
September 25-30
Enameling: Wet Inlay to the Max! with Karen L. Cohen
October 16-22
Quilting: Spectacular String-pieced Quilts with Elsie Campbell
October 23-28
Painting: Life Begins at the End of Your Pastel Stick with Karen White Chambers
November 6-12
Leather: Introduction to Leatherworking with Donna Wiggins

Current Exhibit at the Center for Craft Creativity and Design

Jan. 14 – April 22, 2011  Jan. 14 – April 22, 2011  WNC MODELS OF SUSTAINABILITY IN CRAFT MAKING.  This exhibition features studio craft artists working in residence at EnergyXchange, located in Burnsville, NC; and Jackson County Green Energy Park, located in Sylva, NC. Both facilities are national models that use methane gas from capped landfills along with other alternative energy sources to fuel ceramic kilns, glass furnaces and blacksmithing workstations as well as greenhouses. Additionally, these organizations serve as business incubators for the artists who are in residence and for the plant growers

Images top to bottom:
Lisa Gluckin -  breathe, 2010, hand-built earthenware, terra sigillatas, patinas, methane-fired
Clayton Hufford, Powder Blue Series, 2010, glass
Joy Tanner, Cups, 2010, wood and soda fired porcelain

Participating Artists: From Jackson County Green Energy Park: Clayton Huffard, Hayden Wilson, Julie Boisseau, Laurey Masterton.
From EnergyXchange: Lisa Gluckin, Joy Tanner, Michael Hatch, and William Baker.

Moderated Panel Discussion: Wednesday, March 16 7-8pm at UNC Asheville Owen Conference Hall
Panel Participants:
Dee Eggers, Professor, Environmental Studies, UNCA
Dan Asher, Exec. Director, EnergyXchange
Tim Muth, Exec. Director, Jackson County Green Energy Park
Hayden Wilson, Artist in Residence, Jackson County Green Energy Park
William Baker, Artist in Residence, EnergyXchange

Jan. 14 – April 22, 2011  The Center for Craft Creativity and Design is Located on the UNCA Kellogg Center,  1181 Broyles Road, Hendersonville, NC

Opening Reception for A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes

January 28 from 5PM to 7PM Opening Reception A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes  - Free with Museum Membership or Museum Admission . For more than 60 years, Karen Karnes (1925 - ) has been at the forefront of the studio pottery movement. Over her long career, she has created some of the most iconic pottery of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She has worked at some of the most significant cultural settings of her generation including North Carolina's avant-garde Black Mountain College in the 1950s.

Karnes and her then husband, David Weinrib, were invited in 1952 to head the ceramics program at Black Mountain College. While at Black Mountain College, Karnes sold her pieces through the Allanstand Shop, now part of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. After two years, the couple left Black Mountain and moved to Stony Point, New York. Karnes is noted for her functional pieces as well as her organic sculptural forms. Since 1983, Karnes and her partner, Ann Stannard, have lived on a farm in Vermont.

This exhibition was organized by Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona, and curated by Curator of Ceramics Peter Held. A handsome exhibition catalogue with essays by Christopher Benfey, Garth Clark, Jody Clowes, Peter Held, Janet Koplos, Edward Lebow and Mark Shapiro is available for purchase in the Museum Shop. The exhibition is traveling to only five museums, including the Asheville Art Museum.

Asheville Art Museum's Art Mob Event kicks off Fringe Arts Festival

January 20, 7:00 PM the ARTmob Presents PechaKucha Night! PechaKucha means "chit chat" in Japanese, and ARTmob will be "exhibiting" 20 images for 20 seconds each. You might see 20 images of someone's artwork, 20 images of someone's vacation or 20 images of scary clowns. There are a limited number of presenters, but no limit on our audience! Have fun watching while enjoying beverages and refreshments. $3 Museum Members; $5 Non-Members at Pack Place Lobby and Asheville Art Museum.

Portraits of Martin Luther King Jr

Echo Gallery in Biltmore Closing Today

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Echo Gallery is closing. The last day of business is today  January 16, 2011.  The Gallery Members express  sadness over the closing, they are very grateful for the opportunity to share their work and the work of other Asheville-area artists with you and for the opportunity provided by Biltmore Park.

The website and  email will remain active for patron inquiries. If you'd like to contact an artist you found at Echo Gallery, please send an email. All of the Echo Gallery artists are in the Asheville area, so look for their work in other fine galleries or at upcoming shows.  gallery@echoasheville.com       http://www.echoasheville.com

Echo Gallery was proud to share the work of many Asheville area artists. The following artists most recently showed work at Echo Gallery:

• Katherine Aimone, Painting
• Kimberly P. Anderson, Sgraffito on Board
• Heather Allen-Swarttouw, Ceramics, Textiles
• Celia Barbieri, The Button Florist
• Dona Barnett, Drawings & Mixed Media
• Jennifer Berkowitz, photography
• Alicia Chatham, Painting & Jewelry
• Stephen Chilingirian, Blacksmith
• Lisa Coulson, Plush Toys
• Dawn Dalto, Ceramics
• Holly de Saillan, Ceramics
• Brian Fireman, Furniture
• Jennifer Goff, Ceramics
• Anna Koloseike, Ceramic Sculpture
• Cynthia Lee, Ceramics
• Timothy Maddox, Furniture
• Genie Maples, Painting
• Laurie McCarriar, Photography
• Tif McDonald, Encaustics
• Stephanie Onel, Jewelry
• Judy Simmons, Textiles
• Alex Stevens, Furniture
• Angelique Tassistro, Ceramics
• Lori Theriault, Ceramics
• Cindy Walton, Painting
• Susan Webb Lee, Textiles
• Susan Webb Tregay, Painting

8th Annual Saluda Arts Festival calls for applications

Attention Artists! - More Than $1,500 Cash Awards

The Saluda Business Association invites all artists to enter the eighth annual Saluda Arts Festival to be held May 21, 2011 in downtown Saluda.

This is a juried event and applications and instructions can be downloaded at saluda.com. Click here to download an application and here to download festival map of booth locations. Applications will be accepted until March 15, 2010. Please contact Susie Welsh for more information or to receive an application. She can be reached at 828-749-3900 or sswelsh@tds.net.

Contemporary Color at Tryon Art Gallery

Contemporary Color exhibit continues until January 28 at The Gallery at Tryon Arts and Crafts. The showincludes work  from four  talented female artists in multiple styles and media. The exhibiting artists are Kay Larch, Pat Lorenz, Jeannette Schmeichel and Suzanne Vitti. While their styles vary drastically, all four artists use a bold palette and unique design elements. The artists bring together traditional methods and media in the creation of  modern works of art. Get details about the exhibit here...

New Fabrics at Quilters Quarters

New Fabric has arrived at Quilters Quarters in Waynesville just in time for snowed-in winter days:

From Moda - 'Prayer Flag' (April Cornell), 'Happy' (Me & My Sister),  'Morris Tapestry' (2nd edition), & 'Origins' (Basic Grey)...the picture is from 'Origins' made with a layer cake and jelly roll (Hunter's Star).
Lake House - all the new fabrics in zany stripes, dots, big flowers, panels and all the missing colors you need in your stash!
Henry Glass - 'Couleur Vie', blues and limes.
New prints for children...Wendy Slotboom - "Breeze", and several others.
An additional 'rounder' of batiks has been added to the already large collection of batiks we have.

There are also four new panels available in gorgeous, rich colors from "Exclusivel Quilters"...plus fabrics to make fast wallhangings. Quilters Quarters is located between Maggie Valley and Waynesville at 1510 Dellwood Road, Waynesville,| NC

John C Campbell Announces Funding Available for Local Arts Organizations

The North Carolina Arts Council Grassroots Arts Program awards subgrants for non-profit organizations whose purpose is to promote and develop diverse cultural arts programming in Cherokee County. The John C Campbell Folk School http://www.folkschool.org/serves as the North Carolina Arts Council's partner in awarding these subgrants.

Funding priority is given to qualified arts organizations (theaters, galleries, choral societies, festivals), arts in education programs conducted by qualified artists, and other community organizations that provide arts programs in the county. Grassroots funds are not generally awarded to arts organizations that receive funding through the North Carolina Arts Council's General Support Program. Projects must occur before May 15, 2011.

Click here for application forms and grant guidelines. Materials will also be mailed upon request. Applications must be received by Friday, February 4.

For further information, contact David Brose, Folklorist, at 1-800-FOLK-SCH or david@folkschool.org.

Asheville Art Museum Art Break

The Asheville Art Museum offers a Docent-Led Tour, Art Break, Sewell Sillman: Pushing Limits on January 7 from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. The Tour is free with Museum Membership or Admission.

Sewell Sillman: Pushing Limits celebrates the life and work of groundbreaking artist Sewell Sillman (1924 - 1992). In the late 1940s, Sillman studied with Josef Albers at Black Mountain College and continued to work with Albers until the 1970s. Sillman absorbed Albers's approach to color, design, drawing and education over the decades of their work together, bringing Albers's lessons to bear on his own art and teaching. This exhibition features many of Sillman's graceful abstract drawings and watercolors alongside powerful color studies printed in collaboration with Albers.

Cloth Fiber Workshop announces winter/ spring schedule

Cloth's winter/spring schedule is now posted on the website and offers ten great workshops beginning on February 12th with Intuitive Marbling on Cotton & Silk with Laura Sims. Other topics include: embroidery, sewing, fabric collage, fabric printing and encaustic painting, pattern making, fabric upcycling and recycling and a special lecture on getting your work published with former editor of FiberArts Magazine, Sunita Patterson! In addition to the instructors mentioned above, joining us this term are: Heather Allen-Swarttouw, Liz Spear, Susan Stowell, Bernie Rowell, Celia Gray, and Amy Putansu. To find out more about our instructiors see their Bios here. Cloth Fiber Workshop is located at Cotton Mill Studios, 122 Riverside Dr, #D, Asheville, NC

Heartwood Gallery 26th Anniversary Sale

Heartwood Gallery celebrates its 26th year of 100% American Crafts with $26 off all purchases over $100.

Heartwood Gallery offers handmade wearables, jewelry, paper, paintings, fine porcelain, stoneware, glass, metal and wood are just a few of the crafts on display. The Gallery is a destination well worth considering when you're looking for a special indulgence for yourself, your home or a friend. One of a kind describes not only the items found at Heartwood, but also the unique quality of the Gallery itself.  Heartwood Gallery is located at 21 East Main Street, Saluda, NC

Happy New Year

"In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want."

-Celtic Proverb