Penland Receives Generous Donation from Blacksmith

Iron studio coordinator Daniel Beck overlooks smithing donation

Penland School of Crafts has received a remarkable donation from Ed Crane. Ed is a blacksmith who lives in Little Switzerland NC, just a ways uphill from Penland. His age forced him to give up blacksmithing, so he gave Penland everything in his shop: lock, stock, and boxes of nuts and bolts. 

The donation includes several large tools that will go right into the iron shop, many hand tools, and a few pieces of equipment that are needed elsewhere on campus. Thanks, Ed!

 Get more Penland news on their Blog, The Penland Sketchbook

Penland Participates at SOFA in Chicago

Come visit Penland School of Crafts at this year’s SOFA Expo in Chicago November 5-8. The event is an annual art fair that celebrates sculpture and functional art, complete with gallery exhibits, lectures, and special displays.

photo courtesy of  Penland Sketchbook

Penland staff will be part of two SOFA educational lectures:

The Penland School of Crafts Gallery & Visitors Center 2016 Expansion Friday, November 5, 9:00am
Penland gallery director Kathryn Gremley and Penland executive director Jean McLaughlin will give a talk about the new Penland Gallery & Visitors Center. The discussion will feature artists Stoney Lamar and Kate Vogel and will cover the new programming possible in the gallery’s expanded space.

Art Quilts: A Contemporary Conversation Friday, November 5, 10:30am
Penland’s Jean McLaughlin will be part of a panel discussion on trends in contemporary quilt making put on by the friends of Fiber Art International.

In addition to these lectures, Penland friends will be staffing a Penland table to tell you about upcoming workshops and events on campus. They will also be represented alongside Arrowmont, Haystack, Pilchuck, and Peters Valley at a table for the Craft School Experience. Stop by to see all the opportunities.

 

Penland School of Crafts Update

April at Penland find the studios are humming with activity. There are many ways to keep up with the action of Penland life: subscribing to the blog, the Penland Sketchbook; visiting their Facebook page for images from spring; following the Instagram feed for more instant views of what's happening  and checking Penland's community Tumblr page for images of Penland generated by you.

Above, Andrew Hayes visits Mike Rossi's spring iron workshop. Don't miss the upcoming Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival with demonstrations at Penland and in downtown Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Keep up with this annual event featuring a wealth of demonstrators, exhibits, and vendors here. This year's festival will take place on April 26-27.

You won't want to miss the Penland Gallery's spring Focus show, featuring drawing and painting by former Penland core fellow Eleanor Annand. The show will be on view until May 11. All the works are viewable and available for purchase online from the Penland Gallery. Below is Annand's Failed Logic, a painting on steel.

 

Summer Workshops:

Get ready for summer: consider diving into a Penland workshop. Kristen Martinic will be teaching relief mark-making and wood block printing methods to students of all levels, May 25-June 6. 

Needle to Paper 
an all-levels embroidery (on paper!) workshop with Nick DeFord, May 25-June 6. 

Owls & Antlers   
a printmaking workshop that asks: "what if you had time to make images of anything you wanted (kittens, anyone?)" Meow. Hoot. Grrr. (with Erika Adams)   All levels, June 8-20.

View the  list of open summer workshops.     Ready to dive in? Register here. 
 

If a workshop is full, there is no fee for signing on to a waiting list. Penland also offers half-price tuition to all K-12 teachers, current college, university, or community college faculty, and residents of several nearby counties (a complete list is available on the website) who take unfilled spaces. Click here for more information about Penland's standby program.