I
IlPenland Line
I I PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFTS • POST OFFTCF ROX T7 • PFNII ANO t
PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFTS • POST OFFICE BOX 37 • PENLAND • NORTH CAROLINA • 28765-0037 • SUMMER 2004
Celebrating Seventy-Five Years
An installation view from the exhibition at the Mint Museum + Design.
It s been a long time coming. Seventy-five
years, if you count from the beginning. Five
years if you start with the first conversa
tions about how to mark the seventy-fifth
anniversary of Penland School of Crafts. On
an obvious level, a major round-number
anniversary presented an excellent oppor
tunity to attract attention to Penland s his
tory and its contributions to American craft
and the lives of thousands of individuals. On
another level, however, this event was an
opportunity to focus attention, resources,
and thinking in a way that might bring
something new to craft: an anniversary gift
from the school.
Out of these conversations came two
primary projects and two partner institu
tions. A major museum exhibition was
developed in conjunction with the Mint
Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte,
NC. An accompanying book was published
with Lark Books of Asheville, NC. Both
projects were shaped so they would illumi
nate the Penland story while also giving the
viewer or reader a new take on craft.
The exhibition, titled The Nature of Craft
and the Penland Experience, is on view at the
Mint Museum of Craft + Design until
January 30, 2005^. It includes 136 objects
which span the school’s entire history (with
the bulk of the work dating from 1964 to
the present) and the incredible range of
materials, styles, and approaches that col
lectively constitute Penland’s definition of
craft. All of the work is by artists who have
been instructors or resident artists at
Penland, but curators Ellen Denker and
Dana Moore did not want to assemble
Penland’s Greatest
Hits or a history
told through
objects.
Instead, the
exhibition is orga
nized around the
themes of Skill,
Source, Expression,
and Community.
Although most of
the objects could
logically have been
placed in more
than one of the
categories, these
themes created a
structure which
juxtaposes the
work in surprising
ways, as they cut across divisions of time,
period, style, and media. The idea is for
these potent objects, filled with informa
tion, gesture, and intent, to engage with
each other in new ways, giving the viewer an
expanded idea of craft along with a rich
experience of both the continuity and diver
sity of its practice.
The exhibition is accompanied by an
extensive website developed by the muse
um’s staff and Interactive Knowledge of
Charlotte. This is a website unlike any
Penland has had before. It includes an illus
trated history of the school, photos of the
work from the exhibition (including a spe
cial zoom function that lets you see the
details), streaming video clips, and an
online reunion page where Penland students
and instructors can post information.
Everyone who has been part of the school is
encouraged to participate in the reunion
section to share memories of Penland’s his
tory and information about their work. The
site, which works best with a broadband
connection, is found at www.mintmuse-
um.org/penland.
Another component of the exhibition is
a compilation of video interviews with
Penland instructors which is continuously
available at the museum. This thought-pro
voking piece was edited by Dana Moore
from interviews conducted by Joe Murphy,
Tom Spleth, Robin Dreyer, and others.
The book, also titled The Nature of Craft
and the Penland Experience was published in
July and is available now from the Penland
Gallery, online booksellers, and through
book stores nationwide (any bookstore can
The book was introduced at a book
release party at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in
Asheville. Gallery owner John Cram
arranged for an exhibition of Penland artists
to coincide with the party.
The history of Penland School was also
celebrated in a memorable exhibition at the
Corn design by Kristi yejfer
The Nature
OF Craft
ANU THE
Penland
Experience
order it). It is 228 pages long and contains
images of all of the work in the exhibition
and 143 additional illustrations. Ten original
essays were commissioned for the book. The
first is a short history of Penland by staff
member Robin Dreyer. It is followed by an
essay on craft history by exhibition co-cura
tor Ellen Denker. The other
eight essays approach craft, edu
cation, creativity, and the
Penland experience from vari
ous points of view.
The essayists are not craft
experts; rather, they are inter
esting thinkers from a variety
of fields who were invited to
spend time at Penland and then
to write an essay on any aspect
of craft that interested them.
The essayists are sociologist
Galen Cranz, interdisciplinary
scholar Ellen Dissanayake, poet
and Nobel Laureate chemist
Roald Hoffman, cultural com
mentator and MacArthur -r, r r« i ; r «
I hefront cover (f the book. I he cover image is David Ramseys
Fellow Lewis Hyde, cultural photograph tf a large iron gate created by instructors Japheth
anthropologist Norris Brock Howard and Alice James along with the students in their fall,
Johnson, folklorist Michael 2000 iron class.
Owen Jones, poet Eileen Myles,
and art critic Patricia Phillips. The content
of their writings is as varied and diverse as
the content of the exhibition. In addition to
presenting the first detailed history of the
school since Lucy Morgan wrote her mem
oirs in i93’8 and cataloging an extraordi
nary selection of objects, the content of this
book makes a real contribution to contem
porary writing and thinking on the subject
of craft.
In process here is a commemorative glass
murrine created by a class taught by
Dinah Hulet, Richard Ritter, and Jan
Williams, jfter it was stretched and cut,
the brightly colored murrine slices were
about two inches in diameter.
Penland Gallery, titled Penland Retrospect,
which ran from March 2 to April i^.
Curated by archivist Michelle Francis and
exhibitions manager Kathryn Gremley, the
show included objects owned by the school
and some loaned by friends, neighbors, and
the families of Lucy Morgan and Bill
Brown, Penland’s first two directors. It was
exciting to see promotional materials for
the Penland Weavers and Potters next to
examples of their work—to find craft work
made in honor of Penland’s fiftieth anniver
sary sitting in front of photographs from
that celebration. The response to this exhi
bition was so strong that it was hard to take
it down when the time came.
Penland is also organizing a special exhi
bition and a panel discussion on craft educ
tion for the SOFA Chicago exposition in
November (see page 8). Potter and Penland
trustee Nicholas Joerling wrote an essay
about summer workshops which will appear
in the SOFA catalog.
The first event of the year was a special
work session for Penland instructors. For a
week in late February, ninety-seven artists
were given the run of the place. Some
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