This year, we are proud to honor Tanya Crane and Dan Estabrook. These two individuals embody the spirit of craft education as we imagine it here at Penland. They represent a range of media, balance tradition and imagination in their practices, and have contributed deeply to the school.
We can’t wait to celebrate them under the tent on August 25th and 26th. Both artists have generously donated exciting works that will be featured in the auction. We are currently working to create thoughtful, short videos about each artist and their work. Stay tuned for their release.
The Penland Benefit Auction is Penland’s major annual fundraiser. A joyous and festive celebration of craft, community, and all things Penland, we will welcome collectors, curators, artists, and friends from far and wide to celebrate during a gala weekend on Penland’s idyllic Blue Ridge Mountain campus.
Dan Estabrook
Studio artist, educator
For over thirty years, Dan Estabrook has been making contemporary art using a variety of 19th-century photographic techniques, including calotype negatives, salt prints, gum bichromate prints, ambrotypes, and tintypes. And his interest in photography has been complemented by forays into sculpture, painting, and drawing.
Dan has exhibited widely and has received several awards, including an NEA Artist’s Fellowship. He is the subject of a documentary film by Anthropy Arts, and he teaches alternative photographic processes as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute in New York. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Dan first came to Penland as a photo studio assistant in 1992 and since then has taught over a dozen times, including several eight-week Concentration workshops. His Penland workshops are lively, messy, and filled with joy and conversation. He has also been part of Penland as a visiting artist, a curator, a symposium organizer, and a member of the design committee for the school’s beautiful photo studio. Although he describes himself as a lifelong city boy, he says, “the mountain will always be my other home.”
Tanya Crane
Jeweler, sculptor, educator
Tanya Crane 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 makes her jewelry and sculpture. Tanya is is also a Professor of the Practice in Metals at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts 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 predominantly 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 (historically 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 under the tent!
Tanya Crane and Dan Estabrook will be honored at the Penland Benefit Auction, a gala weekend taking place on August 25th and 26th, 2023. Learn more HERE about Penland’s most important fundraiser of the year. Ticket sales will open May 22nd.
