Author: Penland

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Featured Artist, Dan Estabrook

Film by Luke Walden

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. His interest in photography has been complemented by forays into sculpture, painting, and drawing.

Dan is one of two Featured Artists for the 38th Annual Penland Benefit Auction. A joyous celebration of craft and community, the auction is Penland’s major annual fundraiser.

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 studio assistant in 1992, and since then he 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 mountains will always be my other home.”

This video shows the creation of Dan’s work, “Dumb Skulls Forever,” generously donated to the Penland Benefit Auction in support of Penland’s mission of making lives meaningful through making.

Dan Estabrook
Dumb Skulls Forever
Black glass ambrotype
14 x 17 inches

To learn more about the Penland Benefit Auction: https://penland.org/support-penland/a…

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Featured Artist, Tanya Crane

“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!

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Handmade Parade and Fireworks 2023

Each year in July, Penland hosts its “Handmade Parade and Fireworks,” inviting the community to participate and to enjoy the show. The day included snacks and beverages from the Ledger Fire Department, a jovial crowd, a whimsical parade, butterfly-winged kids running around everywhere, and a spectacular fireworks display by the Penland facilities and grounds team. We just love this joyful expression of making lives meaningful through making. 

Here’s a slideshow of all the fun!

This year’s parade included the following entries:

Penland facilities and grounds – Bottle Rocket Truck
Pants class – Pants Party!
Penland staff – Tree of Heavenly Raiment
Portrait class – All Hands on Deck
Team Captain
Local families – Circus!
Tom – Bubble Mess
Cody Geci – Pug Bike
Two Potters – Potheads!
The Hive – Butterflies and Moths
Local family – Lettuce Bee truck
Fire and Rescue – ATV7
Fire and Rescue – Ledger Fire Department
Susie Pendley’s family – Golf Cart!

And here’s the awards! (All the trophies were handmade, of course.)

Most Razzle Dazzle – Bottle Rocket Truck (trophy made by the drawing and painting class)
Scrappiest – Pants Party! (trophy made by the pants class)
Most Studio Spirit – All Hands on Deck (S’mores bucket by Penland)
Best Choreography – Circus! (Leg platter by Penland)
Craftiest – Potheads! (trophy by the metals classes)
Fly High – The Hive Butterflies and Moths (trophy by Reagan in the Books class)

A very special thanks to Stacey Lane, Penland’s manager of community collaboration, for working to make the parade a fantastic success!

Fireworks

The spectacular fireworks are produced by Penland’s facilities and grounds team, with many hours of training and hard work, as well as frequent checks of the forecast (Sunny this year!). We think they did a spectacular job!

Couldn’t make it? We captured the entire display for you HERE! Special thanks to grounds manager Casara Logan for her stellar leadership and to the facilities and grounds crew for pulling off this exciting display to our joy and delight.

Thank you to everyone who made this day so very special. We look forward to next year!