Penland Coordinators Featured in "Off The Clock" Show at Refinery Creator Space in Asheville NC

Now though September 16, 2016 - Off the Clock: Penland Studio Coordinator Show at  the Refinery Creator Space, 207 Coxe Avenue in Asheville NC.

Penland’s studio coordinators: Jay Fox, Susan Feagin, Nick Fruin, Ian Henderson,
Ellie Richards, Amanda Thatch, Betsy DeWitt, Daniel T. Beck

 
September 2 from 5 PM to 8 PM Artists' Reception. September 3 from 4 PM - 6 PM public talk. 


"OFF THE CLOCK features eight artists, all full-time studio coordinators at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC. The work on view here was made in the off-hours by friends and colleagues who see each other daily and exchange interests, affection, knowledge, and regard for each other. 

This is not a group show in the traditional sense. These artists are not strangers, and the works are not estranged from each other, despite their singular presences. Rather, looking from artist to artist, the viewer might pick up a magical sense that the works were made on the same set of evenings, in studios closeby. One of these artists might have looked up from her work and gazed out the cool, green window. She might have seen one of the other artists riding by on a bike, and waved." - curator and Penland friend Elaine Bleakney.

The job of a Penland studio coordinator is a many-faceted one. These eight coordinators order materials and keep studios clean and equipment running smoothly. They manage budgets and large inventories of supplies. They work with the programming office to plan upcoming workshops, and instructors to provide for specific classes, and individual students to solve problems on the fly. It’s a demanding and unpredictable job, which makes it all the more impressive that these eight individuals are also working artists in their own right. Penland is thrilled and proud that they have come together to put on a group show of their work at the Asheville Area Arts Council. Appropriately, the exhibition is called Off the Clock.

Clockwise from top left: Jay Fox, Ellie Richards, Amanda Thatch, Susan Feagin, Betsy DeWitt, Ian Henderson, Daniel T. Beck, Nick Fruin

Penland School of Crafts in the News

WNC magazine’s current issue contains an excellent story, titled A Tradition of Innovation, that presents an illustrated overview of Penland School. You can read the article on the WNC website. Here’s a teaser:

While remaining true to its past, the world-renowned Penland School of Crafts never stops exploring the reaches of contemporary art. Still nestled into the hills above the tiny town of Spruce Pine NC, Penland has grown into a world-renowned center for contemporary craft, offering a 400-acre campus where more than 1,500 students, instructors, and practitioners collaborate each year in an international melting pot of art and community.

The more time one spends at Penland, the more one understands the sense of connectivity and pulse of mystery that’s hard to define to an outsider. Though almost everyone who visits can agree there is a certain magic to the place. “There’s a removal from the day-to-day that happens when you have to drive up and up and up, and then up some more into the mountains, and you come around a corner and there’s that valley with the studios behind it,” says Steve Miller, another trustee who runs the MFA program in book arts at the University of Alabama and has taught at Penland 14 times. “That remove, that temple at the top of the mountain phenomenon—it moves me every time.” 

Thanks to writer Brian Barth (who is a relative of Penland’s founder Lucy Morgan) and photographer Mike Belleme for their fine work on this piece.

Penland Gets a New Kiln

These are the hardworking folks who have built Penland's fantastic new wood kiln as part of Building Fire, Feeding Flame, the spring clay concentration taught by Kevin Crowe and Dan Finnegan. This picture was taken during the first firing of the kiln, which was a big success.

Get a schedule of Penland School of Crafts exhibits or summer classes HERE.