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Penland Benefit Auction a Success


We did it! The 39th Penland Benefit Auction was a beautiful gala weekend, filled with friends, music, art, and great weather. We honored our friends, celebrated craft, and enjoyed demonstrations in the letterpress, glass, and clay studios. We shared a cocktail party, coffee at The Barns, studio visits with the Penland Resident Artists, a Penland Core Fellows pop-up, curated gallery shows, and artists talks. We admired and acquired art during two silent and one live auctions, and we soaked up the beautiful views from Penland’s Blue Ridge Mountain campus.

Over the course of the weekend, we used our revelry to support a special place that is greater than the sum of its parts. Mia Hall, Penland’s director, reminded us that our storied auction supports our mission of making lives meaningful through making, and helps make manifest the ideas in our strategic plan: “leading with access, inclusion and sustainability.” 

Next year, the 40th Annual Benefit Auction will be held August 22-23, 2025. Please save the date!

-More photos HERE.
-Short video HERE.
-39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction Catalog HERE
-Please enjoy this slideshow of all the fun:

Sustaining Funds for Penland

This year’s “Fund-a-Need” invited guests to directly support improvements to The Barns complex, home of the Penland’s Resident Artist Program. Established in 1963, the Resident Artist Program is one of the longest-running residencies in the US. Inspired by former resident artist David Chatt who regaled us with tales of indoor woodland creatures, patrons donated $84,250 towards renovations of The Barns studios and living spaces for Penland Resident Artists.

More than 200 inspiring works of art, donated by generous invited artists, found new homes as we turned our love of craft into funds that will sustain our mission of making lives meaningful through making. Thanks to a bevy of artists, collectors, and donors, we raised a total $467,000 for Penland.

Auctioneer Jesse Miller with Director Mia Hall, “Captain” Corey Pemberton, and contributing artist Mercedes Jelinek. Photo by Jennifer Sudul Edwards

Inspiring Art

Dan Friday, Kreh Mellick, and Hitomi Shibata and Takuro Shibata were the 2024 Penland Benefit Auction Featured Artists . The school commissioned original short videos to highlight their work, and each artist donated a piece that was featured in the auction. We invite you to click on the name of each artist above to view the videos and learn more about them.

Featured Artists Hitomi Shibata and Takuro Shibata and their beautiful work at the Penland Benefit Auction

Over 200 works of art were donated to the 39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction by invited artists. Each was created by a Penland affiliated artist, and we celebrated works in clay, books, paper, drawing, painting, glass, iron, metals, photography, print, letterpress, textiles, and wood.

A newcomer at this year’s benefit auction, Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists, remarked upon the event’s place in the wider craft world–

“When you come to an event like this you can see work that is very resonant of a long history of the discipline of craft as well as work that shows artists innovating on that history. Its’ lovely.”

We are deeply grateful to the more than 200 generous artists who donated their work and made this event possible–and special! You can see all of their beautiful pieces in the auction catalog. 

This stunning piece by Thomas Campbell created a stir when it sold for four times its retail value!

Morgan Hill, Jack Mauch, Nick Fruin, and Courtney Dodd created a special moment with their item, “Round of Drinks,” including a round of handmade cocktail glasses (with cocktail), marquetry coasters, and cocktail-themed jewelry for the winning table.


Special Honors

Named for Penland’s founder, the Lucy Morgan Award celebrates people who have made an extraordinary contribution to the school. This year’s award honors three long-time staff members: Kathryn Gremley, Robin Dreyer, and Stacey Lane. We celebrated their combined 100 years of dedication to Penland. Together they have led us with honesty, humor, empathy, and kindness– our tastemaker, our voice of reason, and our goodwill ambassador. 

Thank You!

The Penland Benefit Auction is a labor of love, made possible only by the collaboration of hundreds of dedicated individuals. We are so grateful to our volunteers, contributing artists, staff, patrons, and sponsors. It was complex, ambitious, and totally worth it.

Thank you to the over 100 volunteers! We could not have done it without these wonderful folks.

Thank you to our staff! Here Clay studio coordinator Susan Feagin demonstrated how to apply her famous “floofs” to create surface design on clay.

Thank you to our patrons. Here admiring featured artists Dan Friday’s piece, “Aunt Fran’s Woven Basket.”

Thank you to our contributing artists! Clay buds and contributing artists Kurt Anderson, Sean O’Connell, Julie Wiggins, Suze Lindsay, and Courtney Martin get silly in the photo booth.

Thank you to our Sponsors! Seen here Kevin Bitterman and friends from of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts with Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists.

39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction Sponsors

Auction Leader ($10,000)
Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts

Auction Supporters ($5,000)
Brown Brothers Harriman
Society of North American Goldsmiths

Auction Patrons ($2,500)
American Craft Council
Art in America
The Laurel of Asheville
WNC Magazine

Artist Table Sponsors ($1,500)
Norman Audio Video
Sysco Foods of Knoxville
US Foods
Classic Event Rental
EbenConcepts
Sculpture Magazine
John Marek

Beverage Sponsors
Pennycup Coffee
Pisgah Brewing Company

Auction Contributors
Grassy Creek Hardware
Edwina Bringle

Individual Artist Sponsors:
Alan Peterson & Priscilla Kistler
Virginia A. Kraus 

Table Sponsors:
MINT Museum
Char Walker and Dianne May
Tom Oreck
Lillian and Greg Giornelli
Gina Phillips
Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art

 

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Penland Auction Mug Maker, John Quick!

Meet Artist John Quick, official mug maker of the 39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction.

Quick’s works can be easily recognized by their minimal forms and bright colors. Sure to light up anyone’s day with their glowing presence, these beautiful mugs will be selected by guests at our Saturday morning auction tradition: Breakfast at the Barns.

Making 500 unique, slip cast mugs
John joined us for a week in the Penland clay studio back in the spring, slip casting and glazing 500 beautiful mugs, each of them with a unique signature.

For the Penland benefit auction mugs, Quick employed a “two-part strategy for efficiency.” First, they created a mother mold – a durable mold made of rubber – for both the handle design and the mug body. This master mold allowed them to cast multiple, less-durable plaster molds (around twenty for each component) to expedite the production of 500 mugs. To add visual interest to the uniform design, Quick used colored slips with a variety of stains. This approach introduced variations in color and pattern across the mug set.

Why was slip casting the right choice? “While slip casting ensures the consistency I seek in functional ware, it also offers flexibility in terms of surface decoration and final outcome,” they told us. 

About John Quick
John is a queer artist who recently swapped the sandy shores of Saint Augustine, Florida for the bustling streets of Philadelphia. Their work is a captivating fusion of practicality and artistic exploration. Earlier collections featured airbrushed functional pieces with meticulous wheel-throwing and slip-casting techniques combined with stunning airbrushed gradients. These pieces, often minimalist with an emphasis on refined details, showcased a fascination with simple forms. Recently, Quick’s artistic voice has taken a new direction, embracing a more conceptual approach that centers on themes of identity, nostalgia, and the Y2K aesthetic. This experimental body of work delves into new forms, surface decoration, and personal narratives that hold deep meaning for the artist. Quick aspires to bridge the divide between functional and conceptual art by finding connections between their beautifully crafted wares and this evolving dialogue.

John’s Penland Connection
John’s  journey as a ceramic artist took a pivotal turn in the fall of 2022 during their first visit to Penland as the studio assistant for Matt Repsher’s fall concentration workshop, an experience they remember as transformative. Fueled by newfound connection to Penland and the ceramics community, John returned in the summer of 2023, this time assisting Brooks Oliver in his mold-making class. John had this to say about the effect that Penland has had upon their artistic journey:

As a ceramicist who has largely charted my own course through self-study, these experiences at Penland were invaluable. Assisting these renowned instructors not only honed my technical abilities but also provided a crucial link to the wider ceramics community. The knowledge, guidance, and camaraderie I gained at Penland have been instrumental in shaping my artistic path. So much so that I now share a studio in Philadelphia with a former core fellow (Molly Bernstein) and former work-study student (Claire Whitehurst), both of whom I met during my incredible time there in the fall of 2022. This shared space fosters a constant dialogue and exchange of ideas, further enriching my artistic journey.

We are honored to have John as the 39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction Mug Maker.

 

 

 

 

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Auction Weekend 2019

This August 9 and 10 we celebrated Penland’s 34th Annual Benefit Auction with great art, great views, great fun—and so many of you! Auction weekend is an important time for the Penland community to come together and support our creative programming. And whether that support is through bidding, contributing to our Fund-A-Need cause, donating art, or volunteering time, it all adds up to make a big difference. Thank you, all of you, for turning this weekend into such a success.

Here are a few numbers to paint a picture of the 2019 Penland Benefit Auction:

  • 434 auction guests on Friday and 458 guests on Saturday
  • More than 175 volunteers who helped with everything from washing dishes to arranging flowers to serving drinks
  • 216 pieces of original artwork in glass, clay, metals, and more donated by Penland artists
  • 3 featured artists: glassblower Nick Fruin, metalsmith Lola Brooks, and ceramic sculptor Kensuke Yamada
  • 1 Outstanding Artist Educator: the inimitable Bob Ebendorf!
  • 7 metalsmiths, all students of Bob Ebendorf’s, who created original cynosures to adorn every table under the tent
  • Over 500 mugs handmade by Nicki Strouss for Saturday morning’s Coffee at the Barns
  • 26 generous event sponsors
  • 16 Penland residents artists and core fellows who opened their studios to share their work
  • $472,980 raised for Penland!

And, because a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a short summary of the weekend’s events in photos. A more complete album of auction images can be found on our Facebook page.

The first sign of auction weekend: a big white tent springs up over the volleyball court.

 

Another sign: this incredible crew of volunteers on all corners of campus! There’s a lot to be done, and we couldn’t do it without these folks.

 

Kicking the weekend off: a Penland Gallery reception and artist talk with Hoss Haley, whose exhibition of large-scale steel sculpture is on view through September 15.

 

Honoring a legend: a gathering to recognize metalsmith, mentor, and friend Bob Ebendorf as Penland’s 2019 Outstanding Artist Educator.

 

Getting into the swing of it: silent auction and snacks and cocktails and photo booth fun up at Penland’s new Northlight building!

 

Under the tent: dinner and live bidding begin!

 

To end the evening: coffee, dessert, a preview of Saturday’s artwork, and a live jazz band!

 

Back for day two: Coffee in handmade mugs and a chance to visit the studios of Penland’s seven resident artists.

 

Moving on to more art: an open house hosted by Penland’s core fellows featuring work from their Penland workshops.

 

And now for the big event: 40 original pieces up for bidding under the tent!

 

That’s a wrap: big thanks to everyone who joined us this year and made our 34th auction such a special one! See you next year under the tent on August 7 and 8.