PENLAND ^ LINE
The Bill Brown
Memorial Fund
Though their plans are not yet finalized, it is the
FAMILY’S WISH AS IT WAS BILL BROWN’S TO DIRECT ANY
MEMORIAL GIFTS TO THE PENLAND RESIDENTS PROGRAM.
The Browns envision the fund as a means of
GRANTING EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE TO RESIDENTS DURING
THEIR STAYS AND WHILE IN TRANSITION AT THE END OF
THEIR RESIDENCY. WE HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED A
NUMBER OF GIFTS IN VARYING AMOUNTS TO THE FUND.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE OR KNOW OF OTHERS
WHO MIGHT, PLEASE ADDRESS GIFTS TO THE BILL BROWN
Memorial Fund in care of penland school of
Crafts, penland, nc 28765.
Bill’s memorial service was a moving tribute to
A MAN WHOSE GENTLE LEADERSHIP AND CREATIVE SPIRIT
CONTINUE TO BE A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION. HiS SON
Bill, Jr. described the proposed memorial during
THE SERVICE IN THIS WAY, “THE FUND WILL BE USED TO
HELP THE RESIDENTS THROUGH THEIR TOUGH MOMENTS.
ONE OF THE LAST THINGS BILL SAID TO US ABOUT
PENLAND WAS THAT HE WISHED THAT HE COULD JUST SLIP
INTO THE BARNS WITHOUT LETTING THEM KNOW WHO HE
WAS AND LOOK AROUND, BECAUSE HE FELT THAT THE
Resident program was fully his creation.”
W
,' ' .4
/
m
I'
THE IIUPRiniT or A LIFE
Bill Brown Re me inhered
The Brown Family during their first weeks at Penland.
Bill Brown, Penland's second director, died on October
24, 1992 after a long illness. Bill guided the school
through a remarkable period of transition and growth
from 1962 to 1983. He took the vision passed on to him
by the school's founder Lucy Morgan, and enlarged and
transformed it. While retaining respect for primary mate
rials and traditional techniques, he fostered crafts as a
vehicle for personal artistic expression and experimenta
tion. He expanded the curriculum, added the spring apd
fall concentrations and brought to Penland as instructors
the finest craft artists in the country. He established the
Penland Residents Program, and encouraged crafts people
to settle in the area and to maintain connections with the
school. In short, Bill Brown defined for Penland a new
mission which continues to this day.
Friends and neighbors gathered together on a beautiful
warm fall afternoon in the little white church on Penland's
campus to honor and remember him together. Ceramic
artist and teacher Don Reitz paid him tribute in these
words, "He was a great man, he had great vision and gave
so much. ... He knew that you had to have more than
simply just intellectual pursuit. You had to have love, you
had to have soul, you had to be a person."
A photography instructor during Bill Brown's time, Tom
Cox said," Bill had an abundance of the two characteris
tics which 1 most admire; the first is the courage to do the
right thing even when it looks precarious. The second,
and greatest quality, is selflessness - the giving of one's self
- not being concerned with material things." And from
former Penland Resident Peter Adams came this tribute,
"What Bill taught me was that there is a world out there
that is in a heap of trouble. ... He gave me the courage to
go out there and recognize in everyone that there is that
golden spark that comes from each and everyone of us to
make this a better place."
On November 22, 1991, Bill had received the 1991 North
Carolina Award in Fine Arts for his pivotal role in the
renaissance of American crafts. He was honored at a re
ception hosted by Governor and Mrs. James Martin at the
Executive Mansion during which he received the Award
Medal. He was also honored by the gathering of the many
friends who had come to be part of the occasion.
Over 100 letters had been written by students, instructors
and former Penland Residents in support of the nomina
tion. These warm tributes with many personal stories of
how Penland (and by extension. Bill Brown) had changed
lives, are now a part of the Penland archives. The common
thread throughout is that Bill and his family created at
Penland an environment which nurtured the artist in
every person who came. He did this by indirection, by
providing the place and the best instructors he could find
and then letting people solve their own problems and
make their own discoveries. In addition, he and his wife
jane were available to nurture the whole person if that was
what was needed. It is not possible to share all those
letters, but here are a few excerpts, chosen because they
tell illustrative stories.
♦ ♦ ♦
"A former teacher and always a student, 1 am interested in
how education takes place. ... When Bill Brown was
director at Penland, an atmosphere prevailed which en-
T7T