Penland Line
Penland News
NEW IRON, PART II: THE GROUNDBREAKING
Just before lunch was served at Penland’s 1999 benefit auction, everyone was invited to a cere
mony marking the beginning of construction of the new Penland iron studio. State Senator
Kenneth Moore was there along with a number of Penland trustees, architect Frank Harmon, and
a group of iron artists.
Leaning against a tree were a dozen new shovels which had been branded with the words,
“Penland Iron 1999.” Here and there in the crowd were people holding a bizarre a.s.sortment of
handcrafted interpretations of the shovel form. Ten artists had been asked to create commemora
tive shovels for the event, and some of them stretched the concept a bit.
These .shovels, which had been auctioned off the night before, ranged from Jay Burnham-
Kidwell’s sterling silver salsa shovel (it digs by the spoonful) to .SteveYusko’s dysfunctional rubber-
handled .shovel to a major piece of iron and gla.ss sculpture created for the event bv Sally Rogers (it
iiad a shovel embedded in it). Amazing shovels were also contributed by Elizabeth Brim, Jim
Cooper, Doug Hendrickson, Jean McLaughlin and Tom Spleth, Nol Putnam, and Chris
Winterstein.
Local blacksmith Bea Hensley began the festivities by playing anvil music (see page 2). After
remarks by Penland Director Jean McLaughlin, a large group of artists, donors, board members,
dignitaries, and the new owners of the ceremonial .shovels divided up the tools and stirred up
some dust at the corner of the building site. Then everyone had lunch and a few weeks later the
bulldozers showed up and went to work.
The proceeds from the sale of ceremonial shov
els, along with the money raised at the Friday night
patrons’ auction and from the sale of iron work in
the .Saturday auction were designated for the new
.studio.This brought the school $65^,000 closer to the
fundraising goal of ^77,300 for the project. Over
$500,000 has been raised for the studio, including a
$150,000 challenge grant from the Meyer Family
Foundation, $150,000 from the 1998 North
Carolina General Assembly, and $25,000 from the
James G. Hanes Memorial Fund. The school still
needs to raise $77,000 for the building which will be
completed in the summer of 2000. If you would like
to help close this gap, contact the Penland School
development office. Steve Yusko’s less-than-Junctional ceremonial
shovel.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Bobby Kadis, the chair of the Penland Board ofTrustees, is an
amiable, immediately likable man. At Penland it wouldn’t be
surprising to hear someone say, “everybody knows Bobby.”
While this is not literally true, his twenty years as a Penland
student combined with his ten years of service on the board
have made him a well known figure at the school.
Bobby has lived his whole life in Goldsboro, North
Carolina, where he works in real estate and property develop
ment. In 1976, he was supervising the con.struction of his own
house. It was a stressful time and his wife Claudia enrolled him
in a clay class at the Goldsboro Arts Council, hoping that it
might be a good way for him to relax. He fell in love with clay.
Bobby had once visited Penland with nothing more than a
casual curiosity. After his first experience with clay, however,
he visited again and what he saw here started some wheels
turning (actual wheels).
The next summer he came to Penland as a .student for the
first time. “I had one of those life-changing transformative
experiences that so many people have here,” he .says. He’s been
back everv summer since.
In addition to his pa.ssion for
clay, Bobby has a passion for the
arts in general; not only has he
served three terms on the
Penland board, he is akso on the
board of the North Carolina
Arts Council. At Penland he has
served on a variety of board
committees, which was good
grounding for his role as chair.
“1 did not agree to be chair
of the board because I had a par
r i.T.i'.tl'-
Ann Haivthornc
Board chair Bobby Kadis working at the Penland clay studio.
ticular agenda in mind,” Bobby says. “But I have felt for a long
time that we needed to get our physical plant in order. After
we received a facilities evaluation report, I became a .strong
advocate for this. We’ve got to get the current physical facili
ties back into good shape and then there are several new facili
ties that we need up here. So my agenda now is to raise the
necessary resources to put the facility in good order to further
the program. It’s all aimed at what’s good for the program.”
Bobby feels that this is a fortunate time to chair the
Penland board because it is such a strong group of people.
“The first strength of this board is its diversity,” he says. “We
have people from around the country. We have people from the
immediate community. We have people who arc artists. We
have people who arc not artists but who have a close associa
tion or a deep feeling for Penland. These things come together
with an amazing degree of consensus to do what’s right for the
school. It’s been a real pleasure to be the chair of this group.
I have also known Jean McLaughlin for several years and I am
enjoying working with her for the betterment of Penland.”
Another thing Bobby has emphasized as chair is open
process. He does not want board mem
bers to feel that a small group is run
ning things, and he doesn’t want the
staff or the larger Penland community
to feel that the board is a mysterious
entity. He’s bappy, he says, to discuss
the workings of the board with anyone
who is interested, because be .sees this
interest reflecting a love for the school.
Asked if his many years as a Penland
student have been valuable to him as a
board member, Bobby answered that.
while he doesn’t feel that this kind of experience is necessary,
it is definitely an asset. “There are very few, if any, areas of the
school that I am not familiar with. I know what someone is
talking about if they talk about a studio assistant and the
re.sponsibility of a .studio assistant. I know the facilities well. If
someone mentions a particular house at Penland, I’ve probably
slept in it.”
NEW BOARD MEMBERS
Tbe Penland Board ofTrustees welcomed five new members
at the November, 1999 meeting.
Carol Cole Levin (Greensboro, NC) is a painter and
sculptor. She is also a collector, a board member of the
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, and past presi
dent of the board of the Weatherspoon Gallery at UNCG.
Cricket Crigler (A.sheville, NC) is an active community vol
unteer, glass student and mom. She is a past president and
board member of the Buncombe County Medical Auxiliary
and a frequent and enthusiastic student at Penland.
Nick Joerling (Penland, NC) is a studio potter. He has an
MFA from Louisiana State University, has taught workshops
throughout the country, and is a former program staff member
at Haystack School of Crafts. Bob Culbertson (Charlotte,
NC) is an insurance executive with a passion for pottery, his
new profession. He is on the board of the Tryon Center for
Visual Art, a past president of the Arts and Science Council,
and has served on the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board.
Laura Edwards (Chapel Hill, NC) is president of an
independent film and video production company. Laura is a
trustee of the Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund, and co-chair
of the Woman’s Forum of North Carolina, and co-founder of
Lillian’s List.