penland school of craft | Washington Glass Studio

Tim Tate 2018 Penland Auction Featured Artist

Posted on April 12, 2018 by admin |

Tim Tate, 8 Bats, 4 Seasons, wood, mirrors, cast objects, LEDs, 36″ x 36″ x 6″. Photo: Pete Duvall.

Glass artist and mixed-media sculptor Tim Tate has been part of the Penland School of Crafts community for decades, and for 2018, the education center will showcase his work at this year’s auction gala. The Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction is the premiere craft auction in the southeast, providing funds to support the operations of Penland School of Crafts while introducing new artists to collectors and expanding public understanding and awareness of craft.

Tim’s featured piece 8 Bats, 4 Seasons is a remarkable assemblage of materials, history, and imagination.

Detail of bats

8 Bats, 4 Seasons may remind viewers of a classic wood-framed mirror, but Tim has added a rich composition of imagery to the mirror’s face and then transformed it further into a dimensional portal that stretches toward infinity. “The beauty of endless mirrors is in creating a space that exists nowhere else on Earth,” Tim explains in a recent interview for American Craft. The work feels familiar and inviting and utterly mysterious all at once.

But the story goes deeper than beauty. Tim has imagined his mirror as an artifact, “an undiscovered object from the 1860s commissioned by Cornelius Vanderbilt during the Golden Era. He had just returned from his grand tour of Asia…” While the four seasons are a nod to Currier and Ives, Keats and Thoreau, and Western decorative traditions, the piece’s eight bats are a nod to China, where bats have long served as a symbol of good luck.

The wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt, after returning from their grand tour in Asia. It is clear that by this time she had become obsessed with bats.

American Craft’s interview with Tim describes him as “as much explorer as artist, seeking out the uncharted.” With 8 Bats, 4 Seasons, Tim beckons us into a parallel world of his creation full of questions and possibility. All are invited to look into Tim’s mirror—and the space beyond it—at this summer’s Penland Benefit Auction.

Penland’s 33rd Annual Benefit Auction is August 10-11, 2018, which means the spectacular weekend is only four months away! Register now to join this gala event and the great craft, great friends, and great memories it celebrates.

2018 Annual Benefit Auction

Friday, August 10 & Saturday, August 11

About Penland’s Annual Auction
Entering its 33rd year in 2018, the auction attracts over 800 collectors and volunteers to the Penland campus in the mountains of North Carolina each August. The weekend brings artists and patrons together and provides collectors with opportunities to meet established and emerging artists, learn about trends in contemporary craft, and see and purchase exceptional new work. If you are passionate about art and interested in investing in the health and the future of the arts, join us for this gala event.

Posted in penland auction, penland school of craft, Tim Tate

Penland Mountain Comes To Washington, DC

Posted on April 3, 2016 by admin |

Jean McLaughlin (center) Exec Director of Penland School of Craft visits Washington Glass School

A Penland School of Crafts contingency was in Washington, DC as Jean McLaughlin, Penland’s Executive Director is to be honored at the James Renwick Alliance (JRA) “Educator Award” this weekend. Others receiving the biennial award is Jamie Bennett, Chunghi Choo and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Fab Lab.

The JRA presents the award to individuals or organizations in the craft world who have made significant and pioneering contributions in craft education.

Artist Vivian Beer - season 2 winner of the Ellen DeGeneres HGTV show "Design Challenge" joins the Penland crew at the glass school.

Artist Vivian Beer (center)- season 2 winner of the Ellen DeGeneres HGTV show “Design Challenge” joins the Penland crew at the glass school.

Michael Janis talks about his process to the Penland group.

Posted in james renwick alliance, JRA, penland school of craft, Washington School of Glass

Dean Allison’s Glass Sculpture Finalist in Smithsonian Portrait Competition

Posted on March 14, 2016 by admin |

Dean Allison; “What would the earth look like if shadows disappeared?”; 15 x 20 x 16 inches; cast glass

Introduced to glass in 1998 at Illinois State University, Dean Allison currently is a 3-year resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts. Dean’s work is an exploration of portrait sculpture in glass. He celebrates intrinsic beauty through physical form and through the afflictions and joys of life’s many stages. He begins with a life cast of his subject, usually a friend or family member. The final portrait, made in cast glass and resin, expresses the fragility and transparency of human experience through a medium that inherently captures those qualities. The artist notes, “I’m thinking about the inside/invisible aspect of a person and the outside/visible aspect that one creates and adorns for external display. Glass is the middle ground, the window to look through.”

Dean’s cast glass sculpture was one of the 43 finalists selected from the competition’s more than 2,500 entries received.

Every three years, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery hosts the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery focuses on the important role that contemporary portraiture could play in the life of the gallery, as well as in heralding the museum’s engagement with figurative art and portraiture in today’s world. The exhibit “The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today” will run March 12, 2016 – January 8, 2017.

Vote for the “People’s Choice” selection of the finalists – here – (be like Chicago-born Dean and vote early & often!)

Dean Allison’s sculpture at the Smithsonian. L-R Nancy Kerr, Tim Tate, Dean Allison

Posted in dean allison, penland school of craft, smithsonian

Penland School of Craft Auction Features Michael Janis’ “Flying In Place”

Posted on July 15, 2015 by admin |

Michael Janis, “Flying in Place”, fused glass powder imagery, steel, silver, 24″ x 7″

With less than one month to go until the 2015 Penland Benefit Auction, Penland, the national center for craft education located in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains featured Washington Glass School co-director Michael Janis and his artwork “Flying in Place”. Below, Michael Rogers, Professor of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, describes Michael’s work and his process. “Flying in Place” and many other works of glass will be up for bidding at the 30th anniversary of the Penland Benefit Auction this summer. You can now view all of these works online in the 2015 auction catalog.

“Michael Janis is an exceptional visual artist, an innovator, and a master of the technique of fusing with glass powder-essentially ‘painting with glass on glass.’ It takes years of trial and error for an artist to achieve fluency in an area of artistic endeavor where one must charter unknown territory to make discoveries unique to themselves. Through skill, vision, tenacity, and dedication, Michael has created a strong and clear voice with the material that is truly his own. Certainly painters would envy Michael’s ability to orchestrate translucency, opacity, and transparency in tandem with chromatic diversity to achieve depth in the two-dimensional plane. However, Michael is much more than technically adept.

Michael Janis, “Flying in Place”,glass, glass powder imagery, silver, steel, 24″dia x 7″ The frit powder imagery is presented as distorted in the front-on viewing, and the distorted image is viewed un-distorted in the reflection of the silvered glass cylinder.

“After all, Michael is a storyteller, an artist who draws simultaneously upon the past, present, and future to develop the content of his work. Through memory, awareness, and intuitiveness, one could say Michael evokes meaning in his work. With Flying in Place, we are presented with a stunningly beautiful and fascinating piece of poetic narrative. Metaphorically rich in associations, this work preserves its mystery while engaging the viewer’s curiosity. In the end, Michael’s intense ability with material and technique allows him to transcend these aspects of making to communicate his intention directly. Michael’s genius is in suspending reality and creating an illusion one can get lost in. In this way, he captivates the viewer.

“When I see this work by Michael Janis I think that here is a mature artist, an artist at the top of his game.” – Michael Rogers

Please join the Penland Benefit Auction on August 7 and 8, 2015.

Join Penland’s event page to stay up to date on the latest auction news and stories.

Absentee bidders can register by clicking this link. For reservations, please contact Jackie Head at 828-765-2359 x 112 or auction@penland.org.

For more information about the 2015 Annual Benefit Auction, click here to visit Penland’s auction website or call 828-765-2359 x 112.

Posted in michael janis, michael rogers, mike janis, penland auction, penland school of craft, scraffito, sgraffito technique, sgraffitto, sgrafitto, 玻璃艺术

AACG Awards Cheryl Derricotte “Visionary Scholarship”

Posted on July 14, 2015 by admin |

Artist/Author Cheryl Derricotte awarded AACG Visionary scholarship.

The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (AACG) awarded Cheryl Patrice Derricotte the AACG Visionary scholarship to Penland School of Crafts. Cheryl is from Washington, DC, and was one of the Washington Glass School’s inaugural Artist-In-Resident program participants.

Cheryl Derricotte, La Negresse, 2014, glass

Cheryl holds the Master of Fine Arts, (MFA), from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) (2015), a Master of Regional Planning (MRP) from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Cornell University (1989) and a BA in Urban Affairs from Barnard College, Columbia University (1987).Cheryl recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and lives in Oakland, CA.

Cheryl Derricotte, “Oil and Water” 2014, glass

Cheryl also writes nonfiction and is the author of the book Being the Grown-Up, Taking Care of Someone with a Terminal Illness. Her next book is about managing life changes and is scheduled to come out in the next year or two.

Posted in aacg, art alliance for contemporary glass, Cheryl Derricotte, penland school of craft

Sean Hennessey Class @ Penland

Posted on July 10, 2015 by admin |

Sean Hennessey's class in the Spring 1-week sessions.

Sean Hennessey’s class in the in the new Penland Catalog

The renown craft education center – Penland School of Crafts – located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, will have Sean Hennessey teaching his mixed media cast glass technique. Penland’s 2016 Spring one week session (April 24-30, 2016) looks to be a winner! Sean’s artwork often combines cast glass, concrete, photography, drawing, light, vdeo, found objects and steel. He holds a BA in Sculpture and a Minor in Philosophy from Berea College and also studied at the Institute for International Studies in Florence, Italy. He has also exhibited at SOFA Chicago, John Hopkins University and was a featured artist at the National Institute of Health Gallery, as well as many select group exhibitions. Click HERE to jump to Penland’s online listing of the Spring 2016 classes.

Posted in "dry plaster casting" "washington glass school", penland, penland school of craft, sean hennessey

Penland School of Crafts Seeks…

Posted on February 3, 2015 by admin |

Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books & paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, and wood.

Penland School of Crafts is an international center for craft education offering residential workshops, residencies, community education programs, and exhibitions. Located on 420 acres in the NC Mountains, Penland is located about an hour northeast of Asheville, NC.

The arts education center has several job openings and summer internships available. The detailed job descriptions and internships are available online at http://penland.org/about/jobs.html. Applications are due on February 16, 2015.

Penland School of Crafts is an equal opportunity employer with a staff of 62. Penland operates with a $16 million endowment and an annual operating budget of $5.5 million.

Current Job Openings – Applications due February 16, 2015

Employees at Penland enjoy competitive pay, engaging benefits and a unique work environment of creative inquiry. We have a variety of seasonal, part-time and full-time positions. Classes are offered in the spring, summer and fall with a short winter residency in January and February. For more information about Penland, please visit http://penland.org/index.html.

The Dinner Cook reports to the Food Services Manager for planning and executing dinner menus, managing the dinner kitchen staff, and coordinating serving and shut down of dinner service. In addition, the Dinner Cook assists the Head Chef in menu planning and preparation of dinner menus and helps prep for breakfast and lunch. The Dinner Cook helps manage a rotating group of scholarship students who often have minimal kitchen experience. The ability to work as a team member with all other functions of Penland is an important aspect of this job. The capacity in the kitchen and dining room is 230 with daily averages of 230 in the summer and 130 in the spring and fall. This is a full-time, seasonal, hourly position. Anticipated start date is March 2015.

The Hospitality Services Manager works closely with the school’s administrative, facilities and programming staff to ensure that all hospitality service functions of the school are managed smoothly and effectively. The Hospitality Services Manager is responsible for managing housing, housekeeping staff, Core Fellow service functions, vendor relationships and the work-study students. This position also serves as co-manager of the Core Fellows program and is responsible for on-site service training and management. Additional duties include special event responsibilities such as Community Open House, Easter, July 4^th, etc. The position is a full-time (40 hours/week in spring, summer & fall and 30 hours/week in winter), year-round, benefits eligible, salaried position and reports to the Deputy Director.

The Communications Associate for Digital Media has primary responsibility for managing Penland’s digital communications and online presence, including social media platforms, blog, website, and e-mail news. The position will share responsibility with the communications manager for creating compelling online content. The ideal candidate will have a keen interest in craft and arts education and be a skilled writer and an effective communicator. H/she will be technologically competent and have an interest in the digital world. The Communications Associate will use digital media to inspire support for the school, promote workshop enrollment, and promote the value of craft in the world. The Communications Associate will work with the communications and marketing manager to develop new strategies for promoting the school and participate in other communications and marketing activities as needed. This is a full-time, year-round, benefits-eligible position that reports to the Communications Manager and also works with the Director of Development and Communications.

Internships – Applications due February 16, 2015

A Penland internship is unpaid, but offers a unique opportunity to live and work in a dynamic, creative educational community and work with accomplished professionals in a mutual learning and knowledge sharing environment. All housing and meals will be provided at no charge to the intern for the duration of the internship period. The week before and after summer sessions, Penland’s dining hall is closed. Interns working during this time will receive a $75/week food stipend. Class and studio access is not provided.

Penland will work with applicants seeking educational credit for the internship. Details can be discussed in the interview process.

Housing will be assigned when interns are selected. Typically, interns are housed together with 2-3 other summer interns in a residence hall on Penland’s campus.

The Benefit Auction Intern is an important member of the Penland development team who provides administrative support while learning about the preparation and management of the Benefit Auction. This event is a weekend fundraiser that grosses over $600,000 for the school and is the 3^rd largest craft school auction in the U.S. This position allows the intern a high level of responsibility through which he or she will gain valuable knowledge and experience in auction fundraising, planning and executing a multi-day event, event registration, data management, and follow-up procedures. The intern reports to the Development Associate for Special Events throughout the internship and assists the Development Operations Manager with registration and check-out closer to and during the event.

The Community Collaboration/Development Intern supports and implements Community Collaboration initiatives, programs and activities and assists the Development staff with special events. The intern will provide intensive support for Kids Camp activities, plan and implement hands-on activities in collaboration with a community organization, and assist with materials preparation for Teaching Artist Initiative programs. The intern will assist development staff with Penland Friends parties, session auction events, and the Annual Benefit Auction. The intern’s time will be divided between Community Collaboration and Development according to the schedules of these departments.

The Grounds Intern is an important member of the facilities and grounds team. This position will provide hands on research and experience with invasive plants, both native and non-native, along with the maintenance of annuals and perennials alike. The intern will also update a program to track and remove these invasive plants for the future. Additional responsibilities include work in our vegetable and herb garden. This position allows the intern a high level of responsibility for the day to day upkeep of the Penland grounds. The Grounds Intern reports to the Groundskeeper and the Director of Facilities and Grounds.

The Development Intern is an important member of Penland’s development team and works closely with professional staff to gain practical work experience in fundraising and stewardship strategies that support the school’s mission and programs. He or she will learn about each staff role and gain valuable knowledge and experience in donor cultivation and stewardship, events, prospect research, data management and use of the Raiser’s Edge donor database, a widely used software in non-profits. The development intern reports to the Development Associate for Individual Giving.

The Print, Letterpress, Books and Papermaking Intern provides studio support for three areas while learning about studio management and arts administration at a non-profit craft school. This un-paid position allows the intern to gain valuable knowledge and experience in studio support which includes safety procedures, equipment maintenance, ordering and tracking supplies, and working closely with studio assistants and instructors. The Intern reports to the Print, Letterpress, Books and Papermaking Studio Coordinator.

This Teaching Artist Intern provides close exposure to the skills and teaching philosophy employed by Penland’s Teaching Artist Initiative. This is an assistance position. Work includes materials preparation, classroom setup and maintenance, teaching assistance, and administrative support. Program activities take place in Penland’s teaching studio at Ridgeway, and in three partner schools. Hands-on activities include a variety of bookmaking and painting processes, working with over 400 students over the course of the semester. This internship is positioned in fall 2015 (August-December).

The Painting/Drawing and Textiles Studio Intern provides studio support while learning about studio management and arts administration at a non-profit craft school. This un-paid position allows the intern to gain valuable knowledge and experience in studio support which includes safety procedures, equipment maintenance, ordering and tracking class supplies and working closely with studio assistants and instructors. The Intern reports to the Textile & Drawing/Painting Studio Coordinator.

For more info – contact

Sally Loftis, Human Resources Manager

P. O. Box 37, Penland, NC 28765

phone: 828-765-2359

Posted in penland school of craft

Mark Your Calendars: Penland Auction Aug 8/9

Posted on June 12, 2014 by admin |

This year’s featured work, created exclusively for the 2014 Penland Benefit Auction, is Gong Cocktail Service by Julia Woodman, and Black Reticello Martini Glasses, (a set of eight), by Kenny Pieper.

August 8 – 9, 2014

The Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction is a gala weekend in the North Carolina Mountains featuring the sale of more than 240 works in books, clay, drawing, glass, iron, letterpress, metals, painting, photography, printmaking, textiles, and wood. The Penland auction is one of the most important craft collecting events in the Southeast and a perfect opportunity to support Penland’s educational programs, which have helped thousands of people live creative lives.

Click HERE for detailed schedule.

Auction Weekend Tickets $385

Includes all Friday and Saturday activities

Friday, August 8

Friday-only Tickets $225

Cocktail party, exhibition preview and silent auction, dinner, live auction, dessert party, live music, and dancing

Saturday, August 9

Saturday-only Tickets $275

Coffee at the studios with Penland’s resident artists, silent auction, lunch, live auction, and a reception at the Penland Gallery

Click HERE to jump to Penland Auction page

Posted in benefit auction, penland, penland auction, penland school of craft

JRA Organizes August Penland Tour – Plan Now!

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Chip Montague |

The Asheville-Penland Tour again promises an exciting 5 Days this Summer! The James Renwick Alliance Board of The James Renwick Alliance (JRA), along with Tim Tate and Sean Hennessey – the organizers – invite you to an upcoming summer excursion and art experience, August 7-11, 2013.

One of the most enjoyable arts trips in this country is to the area outside of Asheville, NC – an area dense with amazing studios. This trip will also include the Penland School of Crafts Annual Auction in a stunningly beautiful setting.

Accompanying us on this trip will be Jennifer Scanlan, independent curator and craft scholar. For over a decade Ms. Scanlan was an associate curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. She brings with her a depth of craft knowledge and a scholarly conversation about the works we will see on studio tours and the auction.

The day before we will be visiting the studios of some of the most talented artists surrounding Asheville.This will honestly be the best five-day excursion you have ever taken…at least we are going try to make it that way. We will be given phenomenal access to some of the finest studio artists this country has to offer!

Here is the schedule of events:

Wednesday, August 7

We arrive in Asheville….either by plane or driving down, your choice.If you come by plane we will arrange pick up. Our base will be the Inn at Little Switzerland on the Blue Ridge Parkway with spectacular views of the valley, a favorite spot, close to both Asheville and Penland.

Our first event will be an evening welcome cocktail and dinner at the Inn. The price of this event is included in the trip.

Thursday, August 8

We leave at 8:30 am to see the sites of Asheville and visits to some amazing artists’ studios for private tours. Below is a list of those studios and events

Randy Shull and the River District Artists.

Randy Shull

Randy Shull is an artist who works fluidly between varieties of media, including furniture design, spatial design, painting, and landscape design. He is highly acclaimed for his rich and sensual use of color and space. A recipient o f many awards and grants, Randy has also had four solo shows in New York in the past decade. His work is included in a number of important museum collections including The Brooklyn Museum, The High Museum in Atlanta, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Mint Museum of Craft & Design ,Racine Museum of Art, The Gregg Museum of Art & Design, and Museum of Art and Design.

Zack Noble

Zack Noble is an artist that specializes in modern sculptural, functional and architectural work. He has taught at Penland School of Crafts and John C. Campbell Folk School. He has studied and worked with noted blacksmiths in Great Britain. His work has been featured in a number of books and craft magazines, and is in private collections across the U.S.

Grove Park Inn

Lunch that day will be on the beautiful Sunset Terrace of the amazing Grove Park Inn. The Grove Park Inn is a nearly 100 year old historic resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. The Inn is an AAA Four-Diamond Hotel and has been since 2001. It serves as one of the most romantic places to stay on the eastern U.S. seaboard and has been visited by many United States’ Presidents and other people of notoriety. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel is an important example of the Arts and Crafts style.

After, we visit with Amy Tavern and Joanna Golderg.

Amy Tavern

Originally from Upstate, NY, Amy Tavern received a BFA in Metal Design from the University of Washington in 2002. In the last two years she has had solo exhibitions at Beyond Fashion in Antwerp, Belgium and at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco, CA. She has also exhibited in group shows at Sienna Gallery and Heidi Lowe Gallery, among others. In 2009 Amy received several emerging artist honors including an American Craft Council Searchlight artist. Amy’s jewelry has been published in numerous books such as New Rings and 500 Silver Jewelry Designs and she was featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine’s 2012 “Exhibition in Print.” Amy recently completed a three-year artist residency at the Penland School of Crafts and just celebrated her 10th year in business. Her work can be found in galleries around the United States and abroad.

Joanna Goldberg

Joanna Golberg began making jewelry at the age of 13, using fishing lures, beads, and (very heavy!) old coins. Joanna is also a well-known and respected author. She has written four books on making handcrafted designer jewelry–Making Metal Jewelry, Creative Metal Crafts, The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry, and The Ultimate Jeweler’s Guide –all titles published by Lark Crafts, an imprint of Sterling Publishing, Inc. Joanna teaches jewelry making at noted craft institutions, such as the Penland School of Crafts and Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. Her jewelry has been published in Art Jewelry Magazine, Lapidary Journal, Ornament Magazine, 1000 Rings, 500 Wedding Rings, 500 Enameled Objects, and 21st Century Jewelry. Joanna operates out of an amazing studio in downtown Asheville.

Asheville Art Museum / Curator Tour by Nancy Sokolove

Asheville Art Museum

Stoney Lamar

Founded by artists in 1948, the Asheville Art Museum annually presents an exciting, inviting and active schedule of exhibitions and public programs. Any visit will also include experiences with works of significance to Western North Carolina’s cultural heritage including Studio Craft, Black Mountain College and Cherokee artists. Special exhibitions feature renowned regional and national artists and explore issues of enduring interest. At the time of our visit, there will be a Stoney Lamar 40-year retrospective. Stoney will be joining us to talk to us about the work. At the same time, there will also be a Black Mountain College – New Acquisition show. This should be one spectacular event.

Blue Spiral Gallery

Blue Spiral 1

No trip to Asheville would be complete without a visit to the famous Blue Spiral Gallery. This amazing gallery presents work by exceptional Southern artists and object makers in a beautifully renovated building in the heart of downtown Asheville. The light-filled, 15,000 square-foot gallery spans three floors connected by an open stairway. This spacious setting allows Blue Spiral 1 to offer considerable diversity, affording accessibility to various tastes and aesthetics.

Now, on to dinner! We are planning our meal at the spectacular Limones Restaurant in the center of Asheville. Then back to the Inn at Little Switzerland.

Friday, August 9

Today we will stay closer to Penland, exploring several studios and then joining in the festivities surrounding the Penland auction, which begin at 3 p.m. with auction previews. Dinner is included.

Visit with sculptor Lisa Clague 9:30 to 10:30am

Lisa Clague

The distinctive figurative sculpture by Lisa Clague hovers between fantasy and reality –- playful, mysterious, contemplative. “Although the imagery in my work comes directly from my own dreams which, in turn, respond to very personal experiences. I must also acknowledge a debt to the surrealist movement. Artists such as Hieronymous Bosch, Frida Karlo, Louise Bourgeois and Hans Bellmer have been profoundly inspirational“…“My hybrid figures have been influenced by prehistoric art, the “Great Mother” figurines from the Neolithic period, the animal-headed figures from the rock shelter of La Madeleine, and also the bird-headed Egyptian Goddesses and archaic Greek Kouros figures.”

Visit to sculptor Mel Chin 11:00am to12:30pm

Mel Chin

Mel Chin was born in Houston to Chinese parents in 1951, the first of his family born in the United States, and was reared in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood. He worked in his family’s grocery store, and began making art at an early age. Though Mel is classically trained, his art is both analytical and poetic and evades easy classification. Alchemy, botany, and ecology are but a few of the disciplines that intersect in his work. In 1989, Mel had a one-person exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC.

Mel Chin

Mel Chin has also exhibited in numerous group shows including the Fifth Biennial of Havana, Cuba; Seventh Architectural Biennial in Venice, Italy; Kwangju Biennale, Korea; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Museum of Modern Art; and the Asian American Arts Centre, New York City among others. Mel has received numerous awards and grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Rockefeller and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundations, among others.

Penland Gallery

Elizabeth Brim

No trip to Penland would ever be complete without a visit to the Penland Gallery. The Penland Gallery – featuring work by artists affiliated with Penland School of Crafts – is a stop worth adding to your trip through Western North Carolina. It is the perfect place to choose a gift, add to your craft collection, or learn about contemporary craft.

Bob Trotman

Lunch this day will be on the porch of the Penland Gallery. Lunch will be a box lunch furnished by the spectacular restaurant Knife and Fork. During our lunch we will have special presentations from Bob Trotman (wood sculptor) and Elizabeth Brim (metal sculptor).

Now it’s on to the auction. It begins at 3 p.m. with the silent auction in the new state-of-the-art facilities in the Print/Letterpress Studio. Dozens of Penland’s artists will be showing there. Then on to a lovely dinner and wine under the beautiful tent overlooking the valley on Penland’s grounds while the main Friday night auction goes on. After this, it’s back for a quick cocktail at the Inn at Little Switzerland.

Saturday, August 10

The morning begins with coffee and breakfast at The Barns at Penland, where we will be treated to a show by the resident artists here at Penland, always a highlight and much fun. From there we attend a show given by the Core Students where we will see the work of tomorrow’s most promising artists. On to the Saturday silent auction and artist chats….then on to the main festivities of the luncheon and live auction. This will definitely be the highlight of the weekend!

After the auction we will head to the studio of Anne Lemanski in Spruce Pine.

Anne Lemanski

Through the use of materials such as vintage paper, vinyl, textiles, wood veneer, metal and artificial sinew, Anne Lemanski creates a menagerie of sculptural portraits.

The politically charged content and form of the sculpture happens through the combination of a copper rod armature and hand-stitched “skin.” Anne’s current focus is on the complex, symbiotic relationship between humans and animals, highlighting our admiration for anima ls as symbols, and our exploitation of them to suit our needs.

Afterwards, we head back to the Inn at Little Switzerland, where we will have time to freshen up before a lovely farewell cocktail and dinner party where you will be able to swap stories with the new friends you made on this spectacular trip!

Sunday, August 11
Travel day…..those that need a ride to the airport, we will arrange it. If you are driving down, and wouldn’t mind taking folks to Asheville and Penland from the hotel, please let us know.

The cost of this trip is only $625; $75 is a non-refundable donation to the James Renwick Alliance. You pay the cost of your hotels, meals and transportation (hotel /anywhere from $120 to $200 per night). Meals at the Friday night auction, breakfast and lunch at the Saturday afternoon auction are included. This trip is limited to 20 people. Cut off date is July 1, but please sign up early.

To RSVP, contact Cicie Sattarnilasskorn by email at admin@jra.org or Tel: (301) 907.3888

Posted in asheville, blue spiral, james renwick alliance, JRA, Little switzerland, penland auction, penland school of craft, sean hennessey, Tim Tate

Presentation about Penland School of Crafts at Washington Glass School

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Michael Janis |

Have you ever wanted to attend classes at Penland? Not sure what Penland is all about? Come join us for a discussion and power point presentation about one of the most beautiful and supportive artists communities on earth. Topics we will cover are :

~what classes they are offering

~best choices for your experience level

~upcoming scholarships and their application deadlines

~what is the Penland Experience all about

~why are so many artists committed and dedicated for life to help Penland succeed.

Please join us Saturday, Feb. 9th at 11:30am at the Washington Glass School for this labor of love. Few places have influenced the artist at the glass school and the artists of the Washington region as profoundly as Penland. If you are already a devotee, come join us and help spread the word about this unequaled opportunity for artists.

Where : Washington Glass School

3700 Otis St.

Mt. Rainier, Md. 20712 (2 blocks out of DC)

202-744-8222

When: Sat, Feb. 9th from 11:30 am to 12:30pm

Posted in penland school of craft, washington glass school

The Washington Glass School

Category Archives: penland school of craft