Newspapers / Penland Line (Penland, N.C.) / June 1, 1995, edition 1 / Page 2
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PF Penland Line The cover of the 1995 Penland summer catalog has generated more comment than any publication the school has put out in some time. The amazing photograph, called Penland Target, was made by former Resident Dan Bailey. Many people have called about this picture; a mother and daughter asked receptionist Lisa Grindstaff to settle a bet they’d about how it was made, and at least one caller wanted to know if the “installation” would still be up this summer. In the spring of 1983, Dan was working with a technique called light painting, which involves moving lights while making long exposure photographs. After director Bill Brown sug gested he use this technique to make a shot of the campus, Dan spent a couple nights doing test exposures and then got ready to “paint” the target. At sunset he took a short exposure to get the trees and the sky. Then, beginning at midnight, he started walking concentric circles carrying a three-foot light stick made from a Mylar tube illuminated by an automobile headlight. The light was powered by a car battery at the center of the circle. Dan used the battery wire as a tether to make the circles, adding ten feet to the wire each time around and taking care to keep the light between his body and the camera. A few times he passed behind other people so their profiles would appear in the circles. Making the target took about two hours. Then, with the camera still open, Dan went into the Pines and turned each light on and then off again. Finally, he went outside and spent another hour sweeping the building with the beam from his headlight so that every part of the Pines would show up in the photograph. The spectacular result was originally used on a Concentra tion flyer later that year. It’s aged well, and like many good things, it has made a second appearance. Penland Line Editor: ROBIN DREYER Senior Editor: DONNA JEAN DREYER Production: DANA MOORE, EILEEN WALLACE Photographs: DAN BAILEY, OSCAR BAILEY, ROBIN DREYER, DANA MOORE, EVON STREETMAN, DIANA PARRISH, DOUG SCHAIBLE Contributors: BILLY BERNSTEIN, KEN BOTNICK, DONNA JEAN DREYER, ). DOSTER, GERALDINE PLATO The Penland Line is published twice a year to communicate thoughts about the programs, people and philosophy of Penland and to keep in touch with several groups of people at once: craftspeople and friends living nearby, instructors, donors, and Friends of Penland. We invite you to share your news, opinions, and/or photographs with us. Write: Editor, Penland Line, Penland, NC 28765. Penland School is supported by a Major Organization Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency. Letter from the Director Support for Penland comes in a many forms. Currently tuition supplies almost 65% of our funding with additional support from individual contributors, our annual auction, scholarship auctions, income from the endowment, and from the state, primarily through the North Carolina Arts Council, which is part of the Department of Cultural Resources. Support from the Arts Council has been significant and consistent over the years, amounting to almost $900,000 since 1969. This funding has sustained the school during lean times, helped us maintain an active scholarship program, and allowed us to take some programmatic risks. Quite simply, the Arts Council has been vital to our growth. But the support of the Arts Council has been more than financial; the Council is a goldmine of information about other statewide programs and fosters important contacts between people and organizations. The Arts Council has also enhanced our ability to measure ourselves as an organization. Site visits by an annual review panel are intended to gauge how well we meet our mission through our programs and internal organization. We talk about finances, the facility, the students, and the overall learning environment, and we assess together, through frank discussion, the condition of the school and our prospects for the coming year. There is a good deal of brainstorming on problematic issues. The consistent leadership of the Council helps us measure growth and development, one year to the next. In serving the state’s cultural resources, the Council itself has become a most important resource. The North Carolina State Legislature, in an attempt to keep step with the rest of the country, is discussing a reduction in funding to the Arts Council as a cost-cutting measure. The Arts Council’s appropriation is only .05% of the state’s general fund expenditures (29th in the nation) which represents 76(i per capita (22nd in the nation). But the larger issue is that every dollar granted by the Arts Council is matched by $7.50 from other sources. In other words, the $5,717,000 granted last year was turned into almost $43,000,000 statewide—a remarkable return. And this does not speak to the enrichment in people’s lives represented by the results of this expenditure. Too often, public funding is portrayed as a gravy train for a few pampered artists making startling or even offensive work. The reality is something very different, despite some well-publicized isolated events. Art, the creative spirit, and the life of the imagination are not luxuries—superfluous add-ons—^but play an essential role in building and maintaining communities and educating our people. Research shows that the integration of art and craft into the core curriculum of our schools can dramatically improve academic achievement. Yet art programs are considered extraneous and continue to be cut. Fear and short-term thinking will undo a great deal of worthwhile work, and we will all pay the price. The leaders of the movement to cut these programs tell us that the private and corporate sectors will fill the gap. That is just not true, as has been proved in recent years. If this move is successful it could mean dramatically reduced support for Penland as well as for other valuable resources around the state, and we will most certainly have to work hard to replace those funds. We are currently engaged in a planning process which will lead the way for the next five years of life at the school. One of our concerns is how to replace the funding which might be lost. This is a serious issue for us as we plan our tuition levels and appeals for contributions. A basic premise of the planning process is to make Penland a more accessible resource which works cooperatively with educational organizations throughout the state. The Arts Council has already given support for a program which brings Mitchell County school children to Penland to work with Meg Peterson. Once again, the support of the Arts Council has gone beyond money: a phone call to the Council’s office can yield incredible results in the most direct way possible. Our ability to extend ourselves and enrich our school through these cooperative ventures is directly affected by the information and connections coming through the Arts Council’s office. ^ My concern goes beyond Penland to a state which has been immeasurably enriched through the work of an informed and dedicated Arts Council leadership. If this leadership is compromised, the cultural life of North Carolina will surely be diminished. —Ken Botnick The whole gang: Penland stajf. Residents, Core students, and studio coordinators. Editor’s Note I have been editing the Penland Line since it graduated in 1989from a photocopied newsletterfor our neighbors to its present form and function. It has been an engaging challenge to create a chatty letter to some 3,000friends of the school which brings news, features, a bit of history, some issues of substance, and appreciation to Penland’s supporters. But my tenure at Penland is coming to end in October when I am retiring in order to do all the things I’ve been postponing. Two years ago, my son Robin Dreyer began writing a series ofprofilesfor the Penland Line and press releasesfor the school. He is now the school’s in-house writer and editor, and the responsibilityfor the Penland Line has passed from my hands to his. Penland gets in your blood and it is in mine; it has been my great privilege to be a part of the Penland community for over nine years. —Donna Jean Dreyer
Penland Line (Penland, N.C.)
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June 1, 1995, edition 1
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