Penland Line
FALL CONCENTRATION
Continued from page one
working with students on installation projects. Gyongy
Laky will come for a five-day residency.
Robert Gardner’s class on Light, Site, and Self will use the
inspiring forces of nature and a spirit of inquiry to explore
the potential expressive qualities inherent in glass and the
possibilities for using glass for outdoor installations.
Visiting artist Rob Levin will work with students on skills
as well as exploring the potential for developing large scale
mixed media pieces for use in the landscape. This has been
an interest of Rob’s for a number of years. Paul Marioni
will take a painterly approach, incorporating specific im
agery and color theory. Paul will also draw from his own
work which is about human nature and the metaphysical
paradox in the tradition of surrealism.
In the iron studio, Dan Ravden will be the guide for
Blacksmithing: Functional/Contemplative during the first five
weeks. For the final three weeks, David Secrest will take
over for some of his brand of metaphysical metalsmithing.
Iron dominates the aesthetic aspect of the public’s eye and
architectural, sculptural, and utilitarian objects created in
this material are easily integrated into daily life.
Mark Wessinger will be the instructor for a wood class
entitled Involving Space: Making Stuff. The premise is the
development of personal aesthetics, with a focus on issues
which confront the designer such as functionality, space
imagined for the object, and how the artist wants to affect
the viewer. There will be discussions of materials in regard
to renewability, recycleability, and found objects. Visiting
artist George Lorio will join the class for two weeks to
work in the construction of images in wood using lamina
tion and power tool carving. As another supplement to the
class, James Schriber will work directly on student
projects as he focuses on design and construction issues.
Installation artist Patrick Dougherty builds large scale
site-specific work using tree saplings gathered close at
hand. In a two-week workshop he will foster an under
standing of site-specific sculpture and provide practical
experience in how to develop a concept about a place,
gather available materials, choose an appropriate site, and
finally construct forceful sculptures which suggest a reci
procity with their surroundings.
Ken Botnick and Eileen Wallace will share responsibil
ity for book arts, which will cover the process of develop
ing an edition of a book From the Beginning to the End,
drawing inspiration and imagery from the landscape.
Dorothy Field will teach papermaking using native plant
materials and techniques adapted from Nepal, Korea, and
Japan. Papermaker Neal Bonham will share with the class
the possibilities for incorporating imagery into the book
pages using watermark technique.
Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire with Gil Leebrick is a class in
photography, perception, and the exploration of our
connections with the earth. Through photography, read
ings, and dialogue, students will investigate earth, nature,
wilderness, landscape, and themselves from both a personal
and a political perspective. Visiting artists Jay Phyfer, John
Scarlata, Oliver Schuchard, Evon Streetman, and Sam
Wang will share their work and ideas with the group
throughout the session.
Students' models for ADA housing
REMOVING BARRIERS; CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
A new building is taking shape behind the Lily Loom house. More than just construction, however, what has been going on
in the woods is an exciting educational project: fourteen University of Michigan students under the direction of Assistant
Professor Melissa Harris designed and began building four units of new housing which will conform to all the accessibility
guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This project is being funded by a grant from the North Carolina
Arts Council.
Given the hilly terrain of the Penland campus, it will never be an easy place for the disabled, but when Director of
Development, Donna Jean Dreyer, attended a conference on the ADA last year, the message was clear: no one knows what
the disabled can and will do until the barriers are taken down. Most of Penland’s studios are accessible, but the lack of suitable
housing has remained a virtual wall.
Penland’s director, Ken Botnick, decided that simply hiring an architect and a builder to come up with a solution to this
problem would be passing up an important educational opportunity. “So we had this group of passionate young people who
came to live here and really study the site and wrestle with the tough issues of designing for our needs and environment,’’
he said.
t , •
The problem that confronted these young designers was a formidable one. On a hilly site, they were to create a four-bedroom,
two-bathroom unit which conforms to all the accessibility guidelines, will blend organically with the site, and will be useful
as a prototype. What they’ve designed is four rooms that form a sort of pinwheel, so that each room has windows on two
or three sides and some feeling of autonomy, but is connected in the center to the utilities core and the other rooms. The
whole building is surrounded by a deck and connected to the parking lot by a carefully engineered, sloping ramp. The floor
plan will be useful in many different situations; the two outer elements of the design—the deck and the roof—are what tie
this building to its particular site.
The design process was an interesting one for these students, who are used to working individually. “The whole notion of
ownership and the relationship between the passion you put into your work relative to whether that idea was originated by
you or not has been a real struggle for them.’’ said Melissa, “The easiest thing to do is to start referring to ‘Pete’s plan’ or ‘Fay’s
roof and then those names stick with those design elements. We had to make an effort to give non-ownership names to the
parts of the design.’’
Once the design was complete, these young architects had to put down their pencils and pick up their hammers. They first
dug foundations by hand and poured the concrete footings. By the time they left at the end of June, the shell was finished.
This is the first design/build project Melissa has supervised, and her enthusiasm stems from her belief that architects must
understand the craft of construction. Of course, understanding craft is something the Penland school is always happy to
promote.
The students who participated in the project are Nat Finley, Ryan Giblin, Teresa Go, Heather Huebner, Fay Hsu,
Shannon Kile, Peter liao, Kemba Mazloomian, Dan Moss, Brian Selkow, Liz Swanson, Ferdie Williams and
Whitney Wood.
Construction of ADA housing