“Close your eyes and imagine the night sky. Are you camping by a river, snug in your bed with the sheets pulled high, drinking hot cocoa by the wood burning stove? The howl of a barn owl is in the background, or is it a coyote under a full moon? Are the rhododendrons blooming, or is it snowing,” asks Meg Peterson, teaching artist for the Penland School of Crafts Community Collaboration program. This is one of many exercises Meg uses to help third grade students in Mitchell County, North Carolina, connect art and imagination with science in their community.

Penland teaching artist Meg Peterson and students

Penland School of Crafts’s Community Collaboration program works in close coordination with Mitchell County Public School teachers and principals to provide curriculum-integrated arts opportunities to over 500 rurally-based, under-served students in the Appalachian region each year. The experiential arts program teaches new artistic skills and means of expression and supports students and their teachers and principals by engaging multiple learning styles, helping fulfill the NC Standard Course of Study, and enriching school culture by promoting confidence and self-esteem among students of all backgrounds. “Studies are finding… using art as a teaching tool helps students learn, makes them more creative and improves their overall success in school,” writes T.S. Donahoe of Artsee magazine.

Currently, third grade students are completing their Moon Journal projects with the close of the January/February moon cycle. The Moon Journals help third graders learn astronomy by making meaningful connections through art with the world around them. Not only do students paint, fold, bind, illustrate, and write in journals handmade from scratch, but they persistently record scientific observations about the moon each night for an entire lunar period. “It was hard to learn so many facts about the moon – before this project I never really paid attention,” commented a 3rdgrade student about the Moon Journal project.

Students draw and write in their journal about what they experience each night of the moon’s cycle. Along the way, students notice weather, colors, constellations, sounds, animals, and special events each day.

One goal of the project is to develop a supportive community of discovery. Within the classroom students help other students overcome difficult steps in the bookmaking process. They also share their ideas and observations about the moon with the class. Even the teachers get involved working side by side with students to make their own Moon Journal project. One 3rd grade teacher commented, “I was surprised by how healing doing the collage was. I started out really stressed out and calmed down while working on my collage. I was okay for the rest of the day.” Outside the classroom assignments bring the whole family together in observation and connection with the moon and the outdoors.

Penland School of Crafts is incredibly thankful for local support and involvement over the years and hopes that this and other Community Collaboration programs will serve to give back to the community.

Click here for more information about Penland’s Community Collaboration programs.

After a long history, the Homosote building, which is located in the heart of the Penland campus and has recently served as housing for studio assistants, has been scheduled for demolition in February. Despite occasionally being the subject of student and staff jokes, Homosote has served the school well and is a part of many fond memories for the hundreds of students who’ve made it their home during their time at Penland. The recent construction of sleeping cabins and the new housing building has increased our quality of housing and is offsetting the 10 bedrooms that made up Homosote. The site where Homosote currently sits will be allowed to return to a natural setting that will help buffer the gravel parking area behind the building.

"Haunted Homosote," Halloween 2011, Homosote's gleefully ghoulish last hurrah

In order to reduce the amount of demolition debris, the school will invite the local community to reclaim building materials from the site in the weeks before it comes down.

A 1930s photograph of a student at work in the original Homosote building

Penland archivist Michelle Francis says,

“For those who might not know, Homosote was built as an outdoor metal studio in 1938. It was really just one big partially screened room. Construction took three days at a cost of $75. The Metal Shop, as it was known back then, was enclosed and added onto in the 1960s.  It was at that time that it became known as Homosote, after the building material used to convert the structure into housing for students.”

Michelle would love to have your Homosote stories for the archives. If you’d like to share one, call her at 828.765.8060 or email archives@penland.org.

Penland School of Crafts and The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts cordially invite you to attend a lecture celebrating the William R. Kenan Jr. Fellowships at Penland.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 6:00pm

Featuring Leslie Walker Noell, artist and Penland Core Fellowship Program Coordinator

In the Visual Arts Department, Fourth Floor Workplace Building, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

For information and directions, call the Kenan Institute at 336.770.1432.

Leslie Walker Noell is an interdisciplinary studio artist and designer. Her background includes a design degree from NC State University, two years of study as a Core Fellowship Student at Penland School of Crafts, and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts. In 2001, Leslie was a resident artist at Caversham Press in Kazulu Natal, South Africa. In 2006, she was a resident artist at the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming. Leslie’s work has been shown throughout the country in a number of exhibitions, including the Holter Museum of Art, Asheville Art Museum, and Mobile Museum of Art. She lives and works in Asheville, NC.

Lloyd the Penland supply store skeleton wishes you a happy new year.

“年年有餘!” (“Prosperity this year!”)

As part of the 2012 Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival, Penland School of Crafts and Spruce Pine Main Street present a master demonstration workshop with Nol Putnam, Friday, April 27, 2012, from 9:30am – 4:00pm in the Penland iron studio. There’s $50 fee and advance registration is required; space is limited.

Nol Putnam (photo: Megan S. Smith)

“I imagine there will be leaves and vines, perhaps something with pipe, assorted peculiar movements with iron, and illustrating questions from the floor. In between there will be philosophy, stories, anecdotes, encouragement and laughs. It should be a great time, a convivial group dance around the anvil. We will also discuss how to handle big work in a one-man shop; drawing; surviving large commissions; design elements; and whatever else may come up.” – Nol Putnam

Nol Putnam opened his first forge in 1973. He taught himself the craft with the help of books, stubbornness and a mentor. Starting in the early 1980s he undertook large architectural commissions – gates, balconies, curved handrails. While he still does a few commissions, his work since 2001 has largely been sculptural, ranging in size from the palm of the hand to architectural scale.

Click here for more information and a downloadable registration form (PDF).

If you would like to ask questions about the workshop, please call Stacey Lane at 828.765.8060 or e-mail staceylane@penland.org.

Kurt Wilberding/The Wall Street Journal

From Tuesday’s Heard on the Runway, a style blog of The Wall Street Journal:

‘As a New York-based fund-raiser for Penland School of Crafts, Laura Taft Paulsen knows a thing or two about craftsmanship…. “Fashion is wearable art,” she says.’

Click here for a complete outfit breakdown in the original post.

Thanks for the shout-out, Laura! Looking good!

A new year, and with it five new Core Fellowship students soon to make their way to Penland to join our little community of creativity and learning. Here they are:

Zee Boudreaux is a textile artist who earned a BFA at California College of the Arts in 2009. He lives and works in San Francisco where he has worked for several years as a dyer, studio assistant, baker, delivery person, and administrative assistant. Zee wants to make a living as a textile artist and hopes to take classes at Penland in textiles, books, and metals with a focus on production, technique, and practical application. He has proven himself talented and resourceful and now wants an educational experience that will propel him towards his professional goals. Zee was a studio assistant at Penland in 2007 and 2011, and (most recently) was a studio assistant during the Instructors Retreat this fall.

Liz Koerner is a woodworker and furniture maker with a strong designer’s eye. She grew up in Iowa and earned a BFA from California College of the Arts in 2009. She is currently working as an assistant in a metal fabrication shop in Oakland, CA. She is a resident artist at a cooperative artist’s studio where she works as the facilities manager in exchange for studio space and shop time. Liz wants to continue learning everything she can about wood and furniture design and is interested in incorporating iron, glass, and metals in her designs. Liz was a work/study student in the Penland wood studio this summer.

Michael Krupiarz is a glass artist, originally from New York, who lives and works in Spruce Pine and the Penland area. He is currently studio assistant to Cristina Córdova and Pablo Soto and has worked for Thor Bueno, Kenny Pieper, Greg Fidler, and Martin Janecky. He earned a BFA from Alfred University in 2005 and has also worked at Pilchuck Glass School. Mike is seeking the chance to step out of his role facilitating other people’s creative process and put his own work first. He plans to continue his glass education while experimenting in complementary classes. He was also the Penland auction assistant in 2010.

Rachel Mauser is the recipient of a 2011 Windgate Fellowship which she has used to expand her education in book arts. She has taken workshops at Haystack, Penland, and Anderson Ranch in wood, books, and letterpress respectively. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Rachel earned a BFA from Murray State University. She seeks to increase her knowledge in books, papermaking, printmaking, letterpress, and metals in order to expand her repertoire in sculptural books. Rachel aspires to be a studio artist and educator in the craft field. She was a work/study student at Penland last summer.

Molly Spadone is a potter with specific interests in atmospheric firing. She grew up in Maine and recently graduated from Guilford College with a BFA in ceramics. She is currently apprenticing with her mentor (and Penland instructor) Woody Hughes in Maine. She also works at a Bed & Breakfast and on an organic farm. Molly’s focus will be on functional pottery, and she intends to explore ideas for presentation and display for her pots. Her interests include classes in wood, glass, books, and printmaking. Molly was a work/study student at Penland in 2010.

Click here for more information about the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Crafts.

It’s our pleasure to tell you about the three incoming Penland Resident Artists for spring, 2012:

Micah Evans

A lampworker from Austin, Texas, Micah taught the Fall 2011 flameworking concentration, Creative Engineering, and was the assistant for Carmen Lozar’s Narrative Flameworking class this past summer.  Largely self-taught, he has worked in glass since 1999, and has been a visiting artist and consulting flameworker at the University of Miami and taught workshops at several small glass centers. He’s run his own lampworking business in Florida making functional work and small sculpture inspired by natural forms, and says he’s now ready to leave the production world to develop a more personal body of work. He’s interested in storytelling through objects and in translating his family history through his work.

Click here to visit Micah’s website.

Dustin Farnsworth

Dustin is a mixed media artist currently living in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He has a BFA from Kendall College or Art and Design in woodworking with a minor in printmaking. Currently he’s in a year-long residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, where he has taught woodworking, printmaking and drawing. Dustin was a winter resident in printmaking at Penland last year (we blogged about him then) and assistant for Sylvie Rosenthal’s fall wood class, Experimental-Traditional-Sculptural-Furniture Mashup. Dustin’s work includes kinetic sculpture, furniture, and hand-carved figurative sculpture, reminiscent of marionettes. He received a 2010 Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design Windgate Fellowship. Dustin’s work has been exhibited at SOFA Chicago, and published in 500 Cabinets (Lark Books), I.D. magazine, Sculptural Pursuit magazine, and Woodwork magazine.

Click here to visit Dustin’s website.

Rachel Meginnes

Rachel is a textiles artist specializing in works on cloth and currently living in San Francisco. She has an MFA in fibers from the University of Washington-Seattle and is the co-founder of Dorjé Contemporary, a rug company where she worked as sole designer & business manager for six years. Her textiles work involves drawing individual threads out of the cloth, altering the inherent structure, before working with gesso, ink, and paint on the surface. Rachel has travelled extensively researching and studying weaving and dyeing traditions in other countries, including Nepal, India, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Austria, Denmark. She says she’s now ready to leave the rug business behind to devote time to her personal work.

Click here to visit Rachel’s website.

We’re looking forward to welcoming them into the community, and seeing what sorts of amazing things they’ll do here.

Helen Stolyarenko & Sasha Strekopytova, two young glass artists from Russia, travelled to the U.S.A. from Russia this past summer to work a two-month, 3 city internship, including a stay at Penland. They are writing some guest posts about their adventures on the Looking at Glass blog.

At the auction.

“Penland is a wonderland where you immediately feel like home, no matter how long you stay there” they write. “It was our home for 2 weeks, which we’ll never forget. As well as kindness of the school’s stuff, a special thanks to Jerry Jackson (the school deputy director) and Dean Allison (the glass studio coordinator), – people who made our trip possible.” They also had fun working at the Penland auction, which they describe as having a “hot gambling atmosphere.” Of course, the auction is not a gambling event, but it’s easy to see how it might feel like one.

You can read more about Helen and Sasha’s adventures here.

Want to see the future?

Let us pull back the veil of mystery and show you the fabulous wonders that lie ahead! How about the fabulous classes that lie ahead at Penland for Summer 2012, for a start? They’re pretty wonderful.

Click here for complete descriptions of all Summer 2012 classes, photographs of instructor work, links to instructor websites, and registration information.

Paper catalogs will be coming soon by mail, for those who prefer something they can touch.

SUMMER… Summer… summer… whispers that inner voice. Time to dream, time to plan. Eyes ahead!