nr PenLand Line Summer 2004
Drive down Penland Road and look for this sign—then you’ll know
you’re almost here. Our beautiful, new, bulletprot^sign was designed
by Hoss Haley and Kristi Pjejfer and built by Hoss Haley. It stands
just backfrom the corner cf Penland Road and Conley Ridge Road.
PENLAND LINE
Editor: Robin Dreyer
Layout: Leslie Noell
Photographs: Robin Dreyer, Dana Moore, Ann Hawthorne
Contributors: Barbara Benisch, Robin Dreyer, Leslie Noell, Jean McLaughlin,
Sarah Warner
Thanks to Barbara Benisch, Donna Jean Dreyer, Dana Moore, Jean McLaughlin,
Sarah Warner, and Tammy Hitchcock for their help with this issue.
Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education located in western
North Carolina. The school offers workshops, artists' residences, a community edu
cation program, and a craft gallery. The Penland Line is published twice a year to
communicate thoughts about the programs, people, and philosophy of Penland. We
invite you to share your news, opinions, and/or photographs with us. E-mail: publi-
cations@penland.org
Penland School of Crafts
P. 0. Box 37
Penland, NC 28765-0037
828-765-2359
fax: 828-765-7389
e-mail: office@penland.org
website: www.penland.org
Penland School of Crafts is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization. Penland
receives support for its programs from the North Carolina Arts Coundl, an agency
funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts.
c • ,
0 n ^
NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOK THE ARTS
Letter From the Director
Every year students, instructors, and visitors return to
the school, bringing with them memories of times past
and an eagerness to experience Penland anew. This sev
enty-fifth anniversary year has been especially so. There
are many examples. In February, I picked Audrey
Handler up at the airport for the instructor retreat and
learned that she was returning to Penland for the first
time since she taught under Bill Brown. And just last
week Adela Akers returned to teach weaving after
being a resident many years ago. Frequently I’ll catch
up with former board members like Bill Watson or stu
dents like Bill Lee who are walking from the coffee
house to the studios on a visit to campus.
Special anniversary events have enabled us to reach
out to people linked to the school’s history. We con
nected with the family of Aunt Susan Phillips, the
weaver who Lucy Morgan walked miles to meet when
she first arrived at Penland. The Phillips family loaned
us two of Aunt Susan’s coverlets for the Penland
Retrospect exhibition. Publicity and recognition for the
school this year has led to the acquisition of valued new
materials for the Penland archives. We were particular
ly pleased when Nancy Vallient Jones donated to the
school two beautiful Penland smocks woven by the
Penland Weavers and Potters. Mrs. Jones, now in her
90s, was a weaving student at Penland in the 1930s
and maintained a life-long friendship with Lucy
Morgan.
As we reflect back on our seventy-five years we
also look forward to what the future may bring. We
will be conducting a survey in the next few months as
part of a strategic planning process. We’ll be looking at
what craft education means for us now and imagine
how to meets its future needs. We’ll describe the com
munities we now serve and discuss how best to
respond to their interests in the future. We’ll study our
facilities and think through how best to use them. And
we’ll consider our human and financial resources and
determine how to move forward with Penland’s inter
ests at heart. We’ll survey a sample group from our
database for feedback. If you would like to participate,
please give me a call or send me an email.
Land development in the Penland neighborhood is
one specific change that we want to be prepared to
address. How will this kind of growth affect us and
how should we respond? For a recent board meeting,
our archivist, Michelle Francis, put together a photo
graphic look at the prominent role played by Bailey’s
Peak in Penland materials. (Bailey’s Peak is the nearest
mountain beyond the knoll.) It is one of the critical
elements of our retreat environment and your Penland
experience. Several years ago, developers purchased
1400 acres in the Penland area, including much of
Bailey’s Peak, and we have been talking with them
about how to protect Penland School’s viewshed and to
create neighborhoods that will be an asset to the
school. They are envisioning homes and studios that
will be of interest to students and friends who support
the school and make up the Penland community across
the country. Their current development plans are
focused on creating a village with a market, cafe, lodge,
and restaurant. Diamond Lake is being rebuilt and will
be stocked with trout. Greenways and walking paths
are planned. The completed community will include
about 2j£ residences.
To date, the developers have gifted 130 acres at the
top of Bailey’s Peak to the Blue Ridge Rural Land
Trust, and more gifts of land are being considered. If
you want more information on this development,
please contact Joyce Fitzpatrick at Grafitz@aol.com.
The developers are eager to hear from artists interest
ed in live/work spaces and in operating studios open to
the public.
You may have noticed our Penland Line hiatus dur
ing the past year. Our event filled seventy-fifth anniver
sary year diverted energy from our normal biannual
publication schedule. We believe the Penland Line is a
valuable way to stay in touch with you, and we intend
to get back into our former routine in this coming year
with the next issue scheduled for March, 200^.
As you can see from this issue, we are in the midst
of an exciting and challenging year, maintaining our
regular programs, celebrating our anniversary, and
moving forward with improvements to the school we
all love so much.
Jean W. McLaughlin
Director
Aletals studio coordinator Suzanne
Pugh with one of the old bullet-riddled
Penland signs. The new sign went up
the same day as the spring scholarship
auction, so we put one (f the old signs
in the archive and auctioned this one
off. Someone went home with a true
piece of memorabilia. (It’s not that
people don’t like us; it just made a
good target.)