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Stuart Kestenbaum on the Craft School Experience

portrait of Stuart Kestenbaum
Photo by Gabe Souza

 

Congratulations to Stuart Kestenbaum, who completed 27 years as the director of our sister school Haystack Mountain School of Crafts at the end of May. And congratulations to everyone at Penland, who will have the pleasure of Stuart’s company for two weeks later this summer craft_school_experiencewhen he will be a participant in the Andrew Glasgow Writing Residency.

Stuart will also continue to be involved with the Craft School Experience, which is a consortium of five schools working together to promote craft workshop education. Stuart wrote a short article for the consortium’s website talking about his time at Haystack and his belief in the power and importance of this kind of immersive craft education. You can read the article here.

 

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Through a Student’s Lens

students and instructors working together in Penland's hot glass studio
Penland glass studio photo by Andrew Peter King

 

Fine art photographer Andrew Peter King joined us as a student for Jo Whaley’s session 1 class “The Theater of Photography.” In addition to learning some new approaches and techniques for lighting while at Penland, Andrew also took some captivating images of his fellow students and their work.

Head on over to Andrew’s blog post on Penland to read more and view the images he took for Jo’s class. And don’t miss his second blog post with dramatic photos of Penland’s hot glass studio!

 

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Photo of the Week: Kiln Break

Michael Kieghery at Penland

Internationally-known ceramic and performance artist Michael Kieghery taking a break in the Penland wood kiln. Michael was part of a special summer session that was taught entirely by artists from Australian National University.

“What’s it like in there, Michael?”
“It’s wonderful! I have a beautiful view of the mountains, it’s cool, and nobody cares if I smoke.”