“I don’t think there’s anything more genuine and true than creating with your hands.”

Tanya Crane is one of two featured artists for the 38th Annual Penland Benefit Auction.

Tanya is a Southern California native who, after years of exploration, has found a home and community in Providence, Rhode Island where she practices her research and makers her jewelry and sculpture.

Tanya is also a Professor of the Practice of Metals at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and at Tufts University in Massachusetts. She says that through her teaching she uses her interdisciplinary focus in jewelry, craft, sculpture, and performance to influence the next generation of artists, craftspeople, and thinkers.

Tanya’s jewelry and sculpture are framed within a dual existence of prejudice and privilege, as she has lived among family in both the rural white suburbs of Los Angeles and the predominately black suburbs of South Central.

Her work embodies many layers of human existence, including history, race, class, and culture.

Tanya first attended Penland as a studio assistant for an enamel workshop taught by Arthur Hash. Years later she came back to teach her own enamel workshop. Most recently, Penland invited her to be an artist mentor for the HBCU (historic black colleges and universities) tour of Penland. “These diverse experiences have cemented Penland as a foundational component to my development as a jeweler and maker,” she says.

Join us for the Penland Benefit Auction this August 25th and 26th!