Penland Line
Pearl, photograph by Evon Streetman, 1994
SIXTY SUAAMERS IN THE KITCHEN
Not many people have workctl in the same place for sixty years,
but Pearl Grindstaff, who bakes the pies, rolls, and cookies that
make Penland meals so special, has done just that. She .started
setting tables at the school in 1933, when .she was eleven years
old, and she’s worked every summer since then except one.
Pearl took over Penland’s kitchen in 1956 after the regular cook
made a terrible mess and infuriated Miss Lucy by refusing to do
anything about it. Pearl valiantly tried to clean it up, but when
she was called to the office the next day, she thought she might
get fired. Instead they put her in charge. She protested that she
didn ’ t know enough about menu planning and bookkeeping, but
Miss Lucy said the office would take care of all of that. Pearl
agreed to try it for a week. “Well after a week 1 was stuck,” she
recalls, “Iff had tried to quit then, they would have offered me
more help. There wasn’t much way out of it, so I told them I’d
just go day to day, and I’ve kept on ever since.”
When Bill Brown came along six years later, he insisted that
Pearl assume all responsibility for the kitchen, which she did
during his entire tenure. For the past twelve years she has
worked in various capacities with a succession of Penland cooks,
now concentrating on baking. She almost retired in 1990, but
when her husband, Carl, died in his sleep she decided she’d
rather go on working. “This place is more like home than home,”
she laughed, “I reckon I’ll go on as long as they want me to.”
I asked her about the strangest thing she ever saw at Penland,
thinking she’d have a wild tale of crazed artists. Instead she told
me about the foreign exchange students Miss Lucy used to invite
in for the Christmas holidays. One winter Pearl came in every
morning to find w'ater dripping through the ceiling of the Pines.
“There are certain kinds of people,” she explained, “who just
won’t bathe in a bathtub. They were standing
right out in the middle of the floor pouring pitch
ers of water over each other, and that’s how they
bathed.”
Pearl has seen a lot of change over the years and
thinks that some of it has been good (especially the
switch away from labor-intensive, family-style
serving). “On the whole, I think the school is going
up,” she said. “That’s what I want to see; things
going up.” —Robin Dreyer
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
GLASS ARTS SOCIETY CONFERENCE
From Mav 11 to 14, the Glass Arts Socictv (GAS) will be
returning to North Carolina for its 25th conference. GAS was
founded at Penland School in 1971 by Fritz Dreisbach and
Mark Pciscr. The first conference was an informal gathering of
about twentv people to .share ideas and techniques.
Since the earlv davs, GAS has grown to a membership of over
1400. This conference, w hich w ill take place in several Asheville
locations and at Penland, w ill feature four days of lectures,
demon.strations, artist presentations, surveys of contemporary
and historical gla.ss, technical papers, and discussions of educa
tional programs and i.ssues of concern in contemporary art.
Other events .surroumling the conference w ill include studio
tours, tw enty-five gallery exhibitions in Western North Caro
lina, and the opening, at the Asheville Art Museum, oi Southeast
ern Glass, w ith over 100 works. In addition, Charlotte will host
a number of activities including twelve gallery exhibitions.
Pack Square, a major pede.strian crossroads in Asheville, will
come alive on the evening of May 12 for the opening of the glass
and light exhibition organized by Robert Gardner and Joe
Nielander of Penland. On Saturday May 1 3th GAS w ill come
to Penland for a day of demos, tours of the school, exhibits, open
house at the Barns, bluegrass music, and barbecue. Then and Now,
the exhibit at the Penland Gallcrv, will feature the work of the
original members of GAS.
WORKSHOPS AT PENLAND
Following the Conference there will be three days of post-
conference workshops at Penland utilizing the new' Bill Brown
Glass Studio as well as other studios. A list of the workshops and
instructors follows:
Presenting Art/Presenting Yourself, John Perreault
Pressure Sensitive; Hot Glass in Flames, Ruth King
Casting Glass and Steel Sculptures, Gene Koss
Vitreograpby: Printmaking from Glass Plates, Judith O’Rourke
Flameworking Goblets at the Lamp, Don Niblack
Photographing Glass, Douglas Schaible
Glass Painting, Walter Lieberman
For more information about the GAS Conference or a full listing
of exhibits, call Kate Vogel (704-688-4858) or the Glass Arts
Society Office (206-382-1305). For more information about the
Penland Post-Conference Workshops, call Penland’s registrar,
Caren Bros! (704-765-2359).
Pearl ScLucy May Hoyle, I960
PENLAND COAAMUNITY
Paulus Berensohn is having an especially active vear of
workshops and talks. He is currently offering: Shining Clay,
Journal Making S^Keeping, and Poetry by Hand Si^Heart. Upcoming
engagements include Dartmouth, Bennington, and Sarah
Lawrence Colleges; the Touchstone Center for Children in
NYC; Redw ood Art Center; Che.ster Springs Studio, Anderson
Ranch, and the Omega Institute. Next fall, Paulus plans to
continue the “w alkabout” he .stumbled upon la.st fall in North
western Au.stralia with an aboriginal family.
Trustee Rob Levin was commissioned by the NC Department
of Cultural Resources to create the major award for the
Governor’s Entrepreneurial Schools Program, which was’estab-
lished to recognize schools that “dare to innovate to improve
teaching and learning.” The design for the award combine the
mathematical symbol for pi with the image of the Japanese gate.
Shane Fero, Harvey Littleton, Kate Vogel & John
Littleton, Gary Beecham, Stephen Dee Edwards, and
Tommie Rush were all included in the I and 100 show at the
Essener Glasgalerie in Germany. Shane’s work was also in
cluded in the New York Biennial of Glass and in Mindscape Gallery
this fall. He has a solo show coming up in January at the
Ariodante Gallery in New Orleans.
The collaborative work of Yaffa Sikorsky-Todd and Jeff
Todd will be featured in two solo shows this spring: Mixed
Bouquet at the Joan Hodgell Gallery in Sarasota in March and
Glass Garden at the New Morning Gallery in Asheville in May.
They also have work in the Verriales ‘94 at the Galerie
Internationale du Verre in Biot, France. And Yaffa’s work will
be included in the May show at Priscilla Hope’s new Vitrium
Gallery which opened in Asheville in September. A part of the
gallery walk for the GAS Conference, the show is called In
Women We Trust and will feature the work of women glass artists.
Three years ago Randy Shull saw an exhibition of Turkish
crafts at the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe and
decided he wanted to visit Turkey. With the help of a 1994
North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, Randy was able to
spend last summer bicycling through rural Turkey. Back home
again, he is at work in preparation for a solo show at the Franklin
Parrasch Gallery in New York in March. The American Craft
Museum has acquired the Diamond Queen clock Randy made
while teaching at Penland in 1993.
PENLAND RESIDENTS
Rick and Val Beck, Alice Carroll and Doug Harling all
completed their residencies and moved on this fall. All have
independent studios which we take as evidence of successful
residencies. The Becks are just down the road in Spruce Pine,
Alice has moved to Portsmouth, NH, and Doug has set up shop
in Greensboro. Deb Groover bid a fond farewell to all her
Penland friends just before Christmas and can now be found at
1715 Monticello Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32303. In addition to
enjoying the warm weather. Deb will be in the Smithsonian
Craft Show and setting up a studio.
The salt kiln at the Barns, a memorial to Jack Neff, is now
completed. Many thanks to all those who donated funds for