Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, Offers Installation Events Beginning Apr. 19 and 20, 2013

Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, will have two events marking the opening of a group of four art installations on the Penland campus. The installations are the work of Dan Bailey, Alison Collins, Kyoung Ae Cho, and Anne Lemanski, and they are part of a project called “0 to 60: The Experience of Time through Contemporary Art,” which is a collaboration between Penland School and the North Carolina Museum of Art. The opening events will include a evening slide lecture on Apr. 19 and an afternoon walking tour on Apr. 20, 2013.

On Friday, Apr. 19, the four artists will each make a short slide presentation about their work. They will be joined by Linda Dougherty, the museum’s chief curator and curator of contemporary art, who will give an overview of the project. This event will take place in the Northlight building at Penland at 8pm. On Saturday, Apr. 20 there will be a walking tour of the four installations beginning at 1:30pm. Penland’s director, Jean McLaughlin, will make some introductory remarks at the Pines Portico and then each of the four artists will speak when the group visits their installation. The installations will remain on view through Aug. 31, 2013.

Filmmaker, animator, and photographer Dan Bailey has created a two-part work using time-lapse and low-altitude aerial balloon photography. “Looking Up” is a slow-moving time-lapse video of the sky over Penland. The vantage point is reversed in “Looking Down”, a large printed wall piece that is a collage of photographs of the campus made over many months using a camera attached to a helium balloon.

Alison Collins’s “Temps Perdu” will fill the Dye Shed, a historic log structure at Penland, with hundreds of yards of muslin and hundreds of muslin leaves. On the yardage is text from Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time”. On the leaves are words that refer the things the artist herself has lost. The text is written using a dye Alison made from the rust that collected under some of her steel sculptures.

Anne Lemanski’s “Extirpated” is about animal species that once inhabited this region but have disappeared with no hope of return. The format of Lemanski’s piece is a series of clotheslines suspended between steel supports based on the contour of Kentucky long rifles. Hanging from the lines will be silhouette images of species that have disappeared from Mitchell County.

Kyoung Ae Cho’s “Shining Ground,” memorializes her discovery of mica the first time she visited Penland in 2000. The piece incorporates mica collected from the banks of the Toe River into vertical panels made of cloth, pins, and wood, which will be installed on the outside of the Northlight building. The piece is her attempt to recapture, many years later, the moment of quiet surprise when she first saw the ground covered with the sheen of mica sand.

The other component of the “0 to 60″ project is a major exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. The exhibition, which is open now and runs through Aug. 11, 2013, includes work by the four installation artists along with twenty-eight other artists, many of whom have connections to Penland. This exhibition engages the viewer in an experiential and conceptual journey through time, looking at how time can be used as form, content, and material, and how art is used to represent, evoke, manipulate, or transform time.

For information about the Penland installations and the events on April 19 and 20, call 828/765-2359 or visit (www.penland.org/0to60). For information about the exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art, visit (www.ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions). Penland School of Crafts is located just off Penland Road, near Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, North Carolina

Penland School of Crafts is an international center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in Western North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, printmaking and letterpress, photography, textiles, and wood. The school also sponsors artists’ residencies, an outreach program, and a gallery and visitors center. Penland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution which receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

For further information call Robin Dreyer at 828/765-0433 or visit (www.penland.org).

Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, Offers Community Open House – Mar. 2, 2013

The Penland School of Crafts, in Penland, SC, community open house will take place on Saturday, Mar. 2, 2013, from 1-5pm. This popular annual event is a chance for the public to spend time in Penland’s studios and get a taste of what draws students from all over the country to this renowned school. Most of Penland’s studios will be open with activities in clay, iron, glass, metals, pastepaper painting, textiles, printmaking, letterpress printing, and wood.

In the clay studio you can make a pot on the potter’s wheel or make a little clay sculpture and decorate it. In iron, you can use a hammer, heat, and an anvil to create a decorative garden stake. Visitors to the metals studio can hammer out a one-of-a-kind bracelet and decorate it with stamps and the roller press.

A volunteer helping a visitor to the iron studio at the Penland Community Open House.

In the letterpress studio you can print your own set of greeting cards on the Vandercook proofing presses. Next door in printmaking, you can screenprint a poster designed by Mitchell High School art students. You can also make a sheet of decorative pastepaper using bright-colored paints made from rice. In textiles you can try your hand at weaving and watch demonstrations of spinning, weaving, and indigo dyeing.

Visitors to the wood studio can make a wooden musical instrument, and watch woodturning demonstrations. In the school store, you can paint and embellish your own postcard using watercolor paints, markers, calligraphy pens, and sturdy paper cards.

In glass you’ll have to choose between the flameworking studio where you can make an ornamental glass bead, or the hot glass studio, where you can make a decorative paperweight or a juice glass. Glass is the most popular studio—signups for glass activities begin at 1pm, but the line always forms at least an hour before that, so come early and get in line if you want to try glass. Items made in the hot glass studio will not be available for pick-up until Sunday afternoon. The minimum age for glass activities is 12.

No admission is charged, and children are welcome, but don’t wear your fancy clothes; most of these activities are messy.

Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in Western North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, printmaking and letterpress, photography, textiles, and wood. The school also sponsors artists’ residencies, an outreach program, and a gallery and visitors center. Penland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution which receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

For more information or directions, visit (www.penland.org) or call 828/765-2359. Special thanks to Wells Fargo and Dr. Taylor Townsend, DDS in Spruce Pine for supporting this event.

Rockingham County Arts Council in Wentworth, NC, Offers Several Opportunities – Deadlines in February 2012

The Rockingham County Arts Council in Wentworth, NC, is offering several opportunities including the following:

Penland School of Crafts is pleased to announce its annual scholarship for residents of Rockingham County, NC. The Glass/Apple Scholarship fund provides one work-study scholarship for a summer class at Penland for a student who resides in Rockingham County. This endowment fund was established by Ed and Sue Glass of Cornelius, NC and the Apple Foundation. A schedule of summer classes, scholarship information, and applications are available on Penland’s website at (www.penland.org). If you have questions about the scholarship or the application process, call 828/765-2359.

If you are applying for the scholarship, be sure to mention in your application letter that you are a resident of Rockingham County. Scholarship applications are due at Penland by Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. The minimum age for Penland students is 18.

Rockingham County Arts Council announces a second round of grant applications for Grassroots Funds. Applications are due to the Arts Council on Feb. 20, 2012.

NOTE: This is not a postmark deadline; Applications and all attachments must be submitted by the deadline in order to be considered for funding. Information and forms can be found on the Arts Council website at (www.artsinrockingham.org).

Submit Grants to Rockingham County Arts Council, P.O. Box 83, Wentworth NC 27375 or in person to Rockingham County Arts Council, 1122 NC Hwy 65, Wentworth NC 27375 by 4pm.

ELIGIBILITY FOR SUBGRANTS:
All organizations must have been in operation for at least one year. Applicants must be not-for-profit organizations operating in Rockingham County with a 501(c)3 Federal tax-exempt status. (School projects are covered through their school’s status.) An organization without tax-exempt status may receive indirect funding for its arts project by having a 501 (c) 3 serve as its fiscal agent. It is the applicant’s responsibility to see that a copy of its (or its Fiscal Agent’s) IRS tax-exempt status is on file with RCAC.

All organizations must reside and carry out projects within Rockingham County. Organizations that receive general support funds through the NC Arts Council are not eligible for Grassroots funds. Individuals are not eligible to apply for Grassroots Arts funds. Applications and support materials must be complete and received by the grant deadline.

WHAT THE GRASSROOTS ARTS PROGRAM FUNDS:
Grassroots Arts Program funds may be used for expenditures to conduct quality arts programs, or to operate an arts organization. Examples of arts programs commonly funded with Grassroots funds include: performances, festivals, art exhibitions, after-school arts programs, artist residencies in schools, arts camps, classes, workshops, art walks and studio tours. Typical uses of Grassroots money include: Program expenses such as artists’ fees and travel, space rental, advertising, marketing and publicity, website and electronic media, scripts, costumes, sets, props, music and equipment rental or purchase. Operating expenses such as salaries, telephone, office supplies, printing, postage, rent, utilities, insurance and equipment rental or purchase.

MATCHING REQUIREMENT:
All subgrantees are required to match their grant amounts dollar for dollar. The funds must come from other public or private sources. Other North Carolina Arts Council funds cannot be used as a match.

GRANT EVALUATION CRITERIA: Subgrant applications are reviewed by a panel of community members including artists, county and public officials and board members of ACMC among others. The panel evaluates each application based on the subgrant guidelines and the following criteria: Artistic quality of proposed project or programs; Community impact of project or programs; Ability to plan and implement project; Stability and fiscal responsibility of the organization.

Panelists discuss and score the grant using an established rating system. The subgrant panel’s funding decisions are then presented as recommendations to the RCAC board of directors, who vote and give final approval to the panel’s recommendations.

For 2011 -12 Subgrant Reports, due May 30, 2012. All projects must be completed before May 30, 2012. Grant applications can be found at (http://www.artsinrockingham.org/grants.shtml). Please call 336/349-4039 or e-mail at (info@artsinrockingham) with questions.

The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro (NC) coordinates the Regional Artist grant program on behalf of a consortium of five counties: Alamance, Caswell, Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham. Funding is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council and matched locally by participating counties. A limited number of grants are offered annually to residents of these counties to further their development as professional artists at any stage in their career.

Grant funds may not be used for tuition in degree programs. Eligible artistic disciplines are music (both classical and contemporary), dance, visual arts and crafts, film/video, drama, and literature. Applicants must submit samples of their work and provide a narrative description of their career development plans. Grant recipients are required to sign a contract and file an evaluation at the completion of their project. This Grant deadline is Feb. 15, 2012, at RCAC by 4pm. The grant, guidelines and evaluation form may be downloaded on the RCAC website at (www.artsinrockingham.org). Please contact the Arts Council by e-mail at (info@artsinrockingham.org) and by phone at 336/349-4039 for more information.

I Heart Art- a celebration of Art that is close to your heART! Reception Thursday, February 16, 5-7pm at Dan River Art Market &  Gallery, 1122 NC Hwy 65, Wentworth, NC. All RCAC members are invited to submit artwork and fine craft, poetry, film, music and sculptural items for our February exhibit, I <3 Art. Deadline for entries is Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, or by special appointment.
For more information visit (www.artsinrockingham.org).

RCAC is the focal point/umbrella organization for the arts and information about the arts in Rockingham County. Our mission is to nurture and enrich the cultural life in Rockingham County.

UNC Asheville in Asheville, NC, Offers Lecture by Amy Tavern and Daniel Marinelli – Apr. 4, 2011

Amy Tavern and Daniel Marinelli, resident artists at the renowned Penland School of Crafts near Spruce Pine, NC, will present a lecture on their work in the next installment of UNC Asheville’s lecture series, “Meet the Maker: Conversations of Meaning with Craftspeople.” The presentation will begin with a reception at 6:30pm, on Monday, Apr. 4, 2011, in UNC Asheville’s Owen Hall, room 302. The event is free and open to the public.

Work by Amy Tavern

Tavern’s work in metal design and jewelry has been included in a number of galleries and exhibits, including the Sienna Gallery in Massachusetts, Quirk Gallery in Virginia and The Museum of Contemporary Craft in Oregon. Tavern received the American Craft Council Searchlight Artist Award, among other awards for emerging artists. Tavern’s jewelry has been published in numerous books, such as 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs and 30-Minute Earrings by Lark Books. In addition to her work at Penland, Tavern has taught at the Pratt Fine Arts Center, and lectured at Eastern Carolina University, the University of Washington, Winthrop University and the 2008 Society of North American Goldsmiths conference.

Work by Daniel Marinelli

Daniel Marinelli’s two- and three-dimensional pieces explore the relationships between wood, steel, paper and paint. He serves as an adjunct instructor at Appalachian State University, and has instructed workshops in various schools, including University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Virginia and Lu Xen Art Academy in China. Marinelli’s work has been exhibited in the Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville, Slocumb Galleries and the Reece Museum in Tennessee, among others. He is the recipient of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts Honorarium and the NICHE student award.

The Windgate Charitable Foundation generously supports the Meet the Maker lecture series at UNC Asheville.

For more information about this series, call 828/250-2392 or visit (www2.unca.edu/craftcampus/mtm.htm).

UNC Asheville’s Center for Craft, Creativity and Design Announces Karen Karnes Activities in WNC in April 2011

Many community events highlight renowned ceramic artist Karen Karnes, Artist in Residence at the Black Mountain College (1952-54).

If you ask any potter, they will likely know the name “Karen Karnes.” Karnes has had a long career creating some of the most iconic pottery of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This spring there are many opportunities to learn and experience more about Karen Karnes and her contributions to American studio pottery.

To begin, there are two complementary exhibitions, one exploring a lifetime of work by Karnes at the Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, and a second exploring the legacy and influence of Karnes at the Penland School Art Gallery in Penland, NC. A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes is on view at the Asheville Art Museum through June 26, 2011. The exhibit, Many Paths: A Legacy of Karen Karnes, is on view at the Penland Gallery & Visitors Center through May 8, 2011, and will display works by fourteen artists whose lives and artistic practice has been touched by Karnes.

In support of these two extraordinary exhibitions, there are a number of other opportunities to engage with Karen Karnes and her work, starting with a series of events taking place the second week of April.

Kicking off the week is a lecture at UNC-Asheville on Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2011, at 12:30pm with Mark Shapiro, editor of A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Arts of Karen Karnes. As a potter who is known for his engagement with scholarly research as it relates to his pottery, Shapiro’s lecture is titled, Exquisite Torture: Research, Writing, and Publishing from a Maker’s Perspective. This lecture will take place in UNC-A’s Owen Conference Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

On the evening of Apr. 6, 2011, at 7pm, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, NC, will host a film screening Don’t Know, We’ll See: The Work of Karen Karnes, by Lucy Phenix. The filmmaker will be in attendance as will Karen Karnes and Mark Shapiro. Admission is $7 for non-members / $5 for BMCM+AC members and students w/ID. For info visit (www.blackmountaincollege.org).

On Thursday, Apr. 7, 2011, from 6-9pm the Asheville Art Museum will host “An Evening with Karen Karnes and special guests” a discussion and reception with Mark Shapiro, Paulus Berensehn, and Mikhail, and moderated by Andrew Glasgow. This event will take place in Diana Wortham Theatre. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for Students & Seniors (65+). For info visit (www.ashevilleart.org).

On Friday, Apr. 8, 2011, a gallery reception will take place at Penland’s Gallery from 7-8:30pm with Karen Karnes, Mark Shapiro, and Lucy Phenix. During the day on Friday, Apr. 8, 2011, there will be a film screening, Don’t Know, We’ll See: The Work of Karen Karnes, by Lucy Phenix at 4:30pm at Ridgeway Hall at Penland School in Penland, NC.

Ending the week, on Saturday Apr. 9, 2011, you can attend the second annual “{Re}HAPPENING” event at the site of Black Mountain College, where over 50 artists of various disciplines converge for one evening in the spirit of the experimental college that was so important to American cultural history and to Karen Karnes development as a potter. For more information visit (www.rehappening.com).

For further info call 828/890-2050 or e-mail to (klee@craftcreativitydesign.org).