Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
Scholarship application deadline is August 15.
Regular enrollment begins October 2.
Discounted tuition is available through our Standby Program for people who live in Western North Carolina or East Tennessee and for K-12 teachers and higher-ed faculty, all active, retired, and veteran military personnel regardless of where they live.
NOTE: Before you apply, please read our COVID-19 Safety Guidelines document.
Clay Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Cynthia Bringle
Basics and Beyond
This workshop will be about starting from where you are and getting to the next stop along the way. Whatever your level of experience, it’s always good to review and learn more ways to make handles that function, lids that fit, and pitchers that pour. We’ll do lots of work on forms and options for decoration, including brushwork, glazes, and carving. We’ll work with stoneware, and together we’ll load and fire various kilns. Studio and gallery visits will give you a chance to see different approaches to pottery, studio set-up, and ways of selling. Guest instructor Julie Wiggins will add her perspective by leading the workshop for one week. The ability to center clay and pull a 6-inch cylinder will be helpful, but the workshop is open to all levels. Upper clay studio.
Studio potter and workshop teacher; teaching: Arrowmont (TN), Anderson Ranch (CO), Campbell Folk School (NC), Penland; fellow and trustee emeritus of the American Craft Council, North Carolina Award for Fine Arts, honorary doctorate from Memphis College of Art; collections: Mint Museum (NC), High Museum (GA), Gregg Museum (NC), Fuller Craft Museum (MA), Asheville Museum of Art (NC).
Glass Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Granite Calimpong
Building a Strong Foundation
This workshop is about exploring functional forms as you build a strong foundation of fundamental glassblowing skills. Starting with simple drinking vessels, we’ll cover gathering, marvering, working on center, body position, and movement through the shop. From there we’ll move on to bowls, plates, vases, and other more challenging forms and work through more advanced techniques, including optic molds, color applications, bit work, and handles. This workshop will be about steady improvement that will enable you to produce functional objects for use and enjoyment. All levels. Hot glass studio.
Studio artist; teaching: University of Washington, Pilchuck (WA), Haystack (ME), Penland, Pittsburgh Glass Center; recent exhibitions: Traver Gallery (Seattle); The Jam Factory (Australia); residencies: Museum of Glass (WA), Pilchuck (WA), Northlands Creative Glass (Scotland), Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pottery Northwest (Seattle).
Iron Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Anna R. Koplik
Tongs, Hammers, and Other Slammers
This workshop will explore the self-sufficient nature of blacksmithing as students make a series of tools. Each tool will aid in the creation of the next and this series of projects will help develop basic forging skills. We’ll make hammers, tongs, top tools, power hammer tooling, bending forks and jigs, and more. The workshop structure will allow students to make tools to suit their interests, culminating in making functional or sculptural projects of their own design. Demonstrations will focus on refining forging technique, proper heat treatment, and finishing. We’ll work to understand how form and function go hand in hand. Expect lots of hand hammering, striking with sledgehammers, power hammer work, a welcoming and inclusive environment, and breaks for dance parties. All levels.
Artist fellow at Peters Valley (NJ), journeyman architectural blacksmith, tool and utensil maker; teaching: Penland, Touchstone (PA), Peters Valley (NJ), Haystack (ME), Center for Metal Arts (PA), Campbell Folk School (NC), Desert Metal Craft (AZ), Brookfield (CT), She-Weld (NY), Dragons Breath Forge (CT); recent exhibition: Penland Gallery.
Metals Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Lola Brooks
All You Can Eat: The Blue Plate Special
This workshop will be a feast of technical and conceptual investigation in the metals studio. Students will have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of techniques while working toward a deeper understanding of their own interests in making small objects and jewelry. Focusing on fabrication, we’ll whet our appetites by investigating hollow and wire construction, repetitive elements as structure, forming, mechanisms, and stonesetting. We’ll continue the tasting menu with a week of wax carving and lost-wax casting with guest instructor Suzanne Pugh. Finally for dessert, we’ll sample the delights of color as we explore the basics of working with vitreous enamel. All levels. Upper metals studio. Note: this workshop takes place in a studio that has stairs that compromise access. It is made partially accessible by a stair lift.
This workshop takes place in a ground-level studio with compromised access. It is made partially accessible by a stair lift.
Studio artist; teaching: University of Georgia, Cranbrook (MI), Rhode Island School of Design, University of the Arts (Philadelphia); collections: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Yale University Art Gallery (CT), Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Metropolitan Museum (NYC); representation Sienna Patti Contemporary (MA).
Printmaking Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024
Jamaal Barber
Relief Printing
Dive into the beautiful world of relief printmaking! Learn to design, carve, and print expressive woodcuts and linocuts. Starting with single-color images, we’ll cover the basics of mark-making, tool safety, using the press, and editioning. Then we can build more complex images using multiple blocks, multiple colors, color gradients, laser cutting, and other advanced techniques. As we progress, we’ll discuss traditional and contemporary printmaking from Kathe Kollowitz and Picasso to Elizabeth Catlett and Steve Prince. Students can expect to finish two or three editioned prints, with the potential for many more print variations with experimentation and collaboration. All levels. Printmaking studio.
Studio artist, podcaster (Studio Noize); participant in The Exhibit on MTV and Smithsonian Channel; teaching: Atlanta Printmakers Studio, visiting lecturer at Georgia State University; exhibitions: Samford University (AL), Public Works (SC), Mint Gallery (GA), representation: ZuCot Gallery (GA).
Textiles Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Andrea Donnelly
Weaving Alchemy
Delve deep into your personal artistic language through handwoven cloth and creating artwork with textile processes. After we cover basic weaving techniques we’ll be off to discover what magic we can make with the loom. We’ll experiment with nontraditional interventions such as unweaving and on-loom painting, explore the possibilities of immersion dyeing, and paint on thread and cloth. Off the loom, our woven cloth will become raw material as you learn to stabilize, layer, and assemble handwoven elements to create collage-style work. Come prepared to weave your booty off! All levels. Lower textiles studio. This workshop takes place in a second-floor walk-up studio that has partial access by a stair lift.
Studio artist; teaching: Virginia Commonwealth University; exhibitions: Reynolds Gallery (VA), 1708 Gallery (VA), North Carolina Museum of Art, Mint Museum (NC), Museum Rijswijk (Netherlands); collections: North Carolina Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Capital One (VA), Dominion Energy (VA); representation: Reynolds Gallery (VA).
Wood Spring Concentration
March 3 – April 26, 2024 (8 Weeks)
Ellie Richards
Freeform Furniture
Using furniture and functionality as our muse, this workshop will use traditional techniques to create compelling and imaginative objects that communicate ideas and feelings beyond their utility. We’ll cover traditional methods of processing, joining, bending, and carving wood to make sculptural furniture forms. A variety of surface explorations and wood finishes will be presented, and the use of alternative materials (leather, cork, felt) along with high-quality hardware will be encouraged. Through a cycle of playing and building, students will strengthen their voice while working to question convention, break free of archetypes, and explore the abstract. By the end of the session, Freeform Furniture will take on a shape all its own. All levels.
Studio artist; teaching: Yestermorrow (VT), Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), Haystack (ME), Penland; residencies: Center for Art in Wood (ME), San Diego State University (CA), University of Wisconsin-Madison, former Penland Resident Artist; exhibitions: Mint Museum (NC), Center for Craft (NC), SOFA Chicago, Society of Contemporary Craft (Pittsburgh).
