Tag: Craft School Experience

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Lucy Morgan’s Legacy Lives On

Penland School of Craft was started by a remarkable woman named Lucy Morgan. One of the mothers of American craft, she is among those responsible for founding and growing the organizations that to this day foster craft artists and their work. Living during the Great Depression, Lucy Morgan believed that craft could offer self-sufficiency to Appalachian people. She also understood that the benefits of craft education extend far beyond beautiful, tangible objects to include the joy of making, community, and building a better world together.

On Lucy Morgan’s birthday, we’re celebrating what hasn’t changed at Penland in 95 years…

September 20th is Lucy Morgan’s birthday, and today we are taking a few moments to acknowledge her legacy. In 1958, reflecting upon her life, she published her memoir, Gift from the Hills. Below you will find some quotes from Lucy Morgan, taken from her book, that show that while many things have changed in 95 years since the founding our our school, much has remained constant.

Preserving and Advancing Craft

“We have sought diligently and with much zeal to revive and cherish these most-lost arts of our forebears.”

Immersive Learning

“Folk having the time of their lives making things, beautiful things that a few months before they came to Penland few would have thought they could ever make, or would ever dare attempt to make…”

Collective Energy

“Life at Penland is never humdrum, never prosaic. We live on change–on excitement, development, and growth.”

Finding our People

“Almost without exception, those interested in handicrafts are wonderful personalities.”

Community in Craft

“The joy of creative occupation; and a certain togetherness–working with one another in creating the good and the beautiful, working together in love.”

Better Together

“We have been made happy in seeing our hopes materialize as others have gained and shared our interest and have added their enthusiastic support to our efforts. We have watched dreams become realities.”

Thank you for being a part of the world that Lucy Morgan imagined. For 95 years, our community has come together to build and sustain a place that is greater than the sum of its parts. If you are able, we encourage you to make a gift today in Miss Lucy’s honor.

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Summer 2018 Workshop Catalog

Cover image; woman adjusts table saw in woodworking studio

Here it is, the summer 2018 workshop catalog! We’re thrilled to share our lineup with you in anticipation of another summer packed with creativity, energy, new friendships, and new ideas. We’re offering 102 unique workshops led by 116 talented artist/instructors, including favorites like encaustic painting and steel sculpture and special classes like brushmaking and skin-on-frame canoe building. Most workshops are open to serious students of all levels (beginners included!), and all give you access to the slide nights, dance parties, movement classes, scholarship auctions, and more that make a Penland session so special.

This year, summer registration will open to all students on January 8 at 9 AM EST on a first-come, first-served basis; we will not be using a lottery system. Applications may be submitted online, by fax, by post, or in person.

Scholarships are available for every summer workshop, including full, partial, and work-study scholarships. Spaces will be held in each workshop for scholarship students. Scholarship applications are due by 11:59 PM EST on February 17.

We hope you find a few minutes over the holidays to pour over the Penland catalog and find the perfect workshop for you, wherever you are in your creative journey. Look out for full course descriptions on the website by the end of December, with printed catalogs to follow in early January.

 

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Announcing our 2018 Penland Core Fellows

We’re excited to introduce our five new Penland core fellows: Joshua Fredock, Luke Gnadinger, Kento Saisho, Katherine Toler, and Devyn Vasquez! They will join second-year core fellows Stormie Burns, Elliot Keeley, Sarah Rose Lejeune, and Corey Pemberton on March 1, 2018 to begin their two-year fellowships.

As always, there were many outstanding candidates for only five available positions. We received 61 applications from across the United States. Our selection committee did an excellent job reviewing and evaluating these materials; we couldn’t conduct such a thorough process without their generosity, time, and energy. Thank you to everyone involved in this year’s selection.

Joshua Fredock

Josh Fredock portrait and piece of glass/metal sculpture

Joshua Fredock is a former navy rescue swimmer who lives in Asheville and has interned and worked at Monarch Glass Studio (MO), Rock Cottage Glass Works (KS), Metalabs (MO), and STARWorks Glass Studio (NC). Josh has been part of two Penland concentrations—once as a work-study student in the glass studio and once as a Christy Wright scholarship recipient. As a core fellow, Josh is primarily interested in building skills in glass and metals and developing his ability to express himself through his work.
Josh’s website
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Luke Gnadinger

Luke Gnadinger portrait and set of prints

Luke Gnadinger currently works at the KMAC Museum (KY) and is a studio assistant for Jason Bige Burnett; he also spent years working at Kentucky Mudworks in Louisville. Luke has a BA in Studio Art from Transylvania University (KY) and has attended Indiana University Southeast as a post-baccalaureate student. At Penland, he has been a clay studio assistant and winter resident. He is interested in how creative practice can be a connector and catalyst for social change and plans to explore classes in various media towards this end over the next two years.

lukegnadinger.com
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Kento Saisho

Kento Saisho sculpture and portrait

Kento Saisho is a Windgate Fellowship recipient who is currently working as a freelance fabricator in Brooklyn, NY. Kento has interned and worked at Iron Mountain Forge and Furniture (RI) and Fort Standard (NY). He has a BFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and was a work-study student in iron at Penland this summer. During his core fellowship Kento plans to explore sculptural works in iron, works on paper, and how these two areas of interest intersect.

ksaisho.squarespace.com
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Katherine Toler

Katherine Toler portrait and intallation

Katherine Toler currently lives in Little Rock, where she works at the Museum of Discovery. She has previously spent quite a bit of time at Penland—as a work-study student, studio assistant, and summer intern in our textiles and drawing/painting studios—and is looking forward to returning. Katherine has a BFA from the University of Central Arkansas. Her background in painting and her interest in textiles have recently led to explorations in mixed-media sculpture, an area she plans to pursue at Penland.

katherinetoler.com
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Devyn Vasquez

Devyn Vasquez portrait and arrangement of objects

Devyn Vasquez lives in Miami and works at the Fletcher Arts & Cultural Center while maintaining a studio and teaching art classes. She has also worked at Baltimore Clayworks and the Turchin Center for Visual Arts (NC) and has been an assistant to both artists and curators. Devyn has a BFA from Appalachian State University (NC) and has taken a summer metals workshop and fall clay concentration at Penland. Ceramics and jewelry have been her main focus, but she is looking forward to exploring new mediums and finding connections between technique and concept throughout her fellowship.

devynvasquez.com
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Of course, the excitement of this announcement comes with a twinge of sadness as we prepare to send five of our current core fellows on their way at the end of the winter. Eleanor Anderson, Thomas Campbell, Rachel Kedinger, Kyle Kulchar, and Alex McClay have achieved some really incredible things in and out of the studios, and we will miss them dearly. We’re looking forward to seeing where their ideas and talents take them—and not-so-secretly hoping that we’ll see them back at Penland on occasion!