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Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is an Arts and Crafts center in the U.S. city of
Gatlinburg, Tennessee Gatlinburg is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. It is located southeast of Knoxville and had a population of 3,944 at the 2010 Census and a U.S. Census population of 3,577 in 2020. It is a popular vacation res ...
. The oldest craft school in Tennessee, Arrowmont offers workshops in arts and crafts such as
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
,
woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mate ...
, drawing,
glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...
,
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
,
basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
,
ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
, fiber arts,
book arts Book arts may refer to: * Artist's books, works of art in the form of a book * Book illustration, illustration in a book * Book design Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various compon ...
and
metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scal ...
. The School has an 11-month
Artists-in-Residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
program for early career artists. Arrowmont's campus contains the oldest buildings in Gatlinburg and comprises two historic districts listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
. Arrowmont's history is rooted in a
settlement school Settlement schools are social reform institutions established in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century with the purpose of educating mountain children and improving their isolated rural communities. Settlement schools have played an import ...
founded by the
Pi Beta Phi Pi Beta Phi (), often known simply as Pi Phi, is an international women's fraternity founded at Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois on April 28, 1867 as I. C. Sorosis, the first national secret college society of women to be modeled after ...
women's fraternity in Gatlinburg in 1912. The school provided the only public education for children in the Gatlinburg area until Sevier County assumed control of its public schools in the early 1940s. The early writings and reports of the settlement school's teachers provide an important glimpse of Gatlinburg in the days before the establishment of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, w ...
radically changed the city's economy and culture. Pi Beta Phi helped prime Gatlinburg for the coming tourism boom, and also helped Gatlinburg residents tap into the national market for the crafts of Southern Appalachia with the establishment of Arrowcraft in the 1920s. After the county gained control of the settlement school in 1943, Pi Beta Phi and the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...
established the craft workshops that evolved into what is now Arrowmont.Susan Knowles
Pi Beta Phi Settlement School
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
The school's campus was damaged on November 29, 2016, when a wildfire from the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park spread throughout Gatlinburg. Arrowmont lost two dormitories and a maintenance shed. All other buildings were unharmed.


History


Establishment of the settlement school

In the early 20th century, reports of widespread poverty and lack of education in Southern Appalachia gained the attention of religious and philanthropic organizations. Inspired by the settlement house movement that began in the previous century, these organizations established "settlement schools" in remote mountain communities to provide free education. In June 1910, former Pi Beta Phi Grand President Emma Harper Turner spoke at the fraternity's national convention and suggested the fraternity establish such a school as a memorial for its 50th anniversary. The fraternity's National Alumnae Association authorized the school on June 30, and fraternity leaders initiated an extensive study to locate a mountain community that would most benefit from a new school. The U.S. Commissioner of Education suggested they establish such a school in Tennessee, and the Tennessee Department of Education identified Sevier County as having the fewest schools. An East Tennessee teacher, Mabel Moore, pointed the Pi Beta Phis to Gatlinburg— then a tiny mountain hamlet at the edge of the
Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...
— as the community most in need of a new school. In 1910, Pi Beta Phi Grand President May Lansfield Keller made the trek from
Sevierville Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...
to Gatlinburg over what she called "the worst road in Tennessee" and verified that Gatlinburg was the best choice for the fraternity's first philanthropy.Pearl Cashell Jackson, ''Pi Beta Phi Settlement School'' (University of Texas, 1927), pp.6-14. Nashville native Martha Hill was chosen as the school's first teacher, and classes began February 20, 1912, in an abandoned schoolhouse at the confluence of Baskins Creek and the Little Pigeon River. As many of the locals were initially suspicious of the Pi Beta Phis, the school's first-year enrollment was just 13, but by the end of the term the school's enrollment had grown to 33, and continued growing the following term. Sevier County allowed the Settlement School use of the county's school along Roaring Fork the following autumn, but as enrollment grew, the Settlement School needed more classroom space. When Ephraim Ogle offered to sell along Baskins Creek for $1,800 in 1913, the fraternity offered $600 toward the purchase price, but demanded the city put up the remaining $1,200.Steve Davis
The Founding of Pi Beta Phi Settlement School
''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
When the locals showed little enthusiasm for the purchase, Pi Beta Phi threatened to close the school. A last minute effort led by Andrew Huff, Steve Whaley, and Isaac Maples raised the necessary funds, however, and Ogle transferred the deed on the evening of the deadline set by Pi Beta Phi.


Settlement school operations, 1915—1943

Early teachers at the Pi Beta Phi settlement school were moved by the "sad faces" and "stolid character" of the mountain children. The teachers were surprised to learn that many of the children didn't know basic children's games, and most knew nothing about traditional Christmas celebrations.Michael Frome, ''Strangers In High Places: The Story of the Great Smoky Mountains'' (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994), pp. 235-241. As the mountain children were fond of running through the forest barefooted, hookworm was a common parasite, and teacher Mary Pollard spent much of her 1913–1916 tenure trying to eradicate it. The Pi Beta Phis built a new six-room schoolhouse in 1914, and in 1916 added a new ten-room teacher's cottage. During the
1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
, Head Resident Evelyn Bishop made numerous house calls in Gatlinburg and the vicinity that endeared the school to the local population. In 1920, Pi Beta Phi dispatched
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
-born nurse Phyllis Higinbotham (who had previously worked at the
Henry Street Settlement The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...
and
Hindman Settlement School Hindman Settlement School is a settlement school located in Hindman, Kentucky in Knott County. Established in 1902, it was the first rural settlement school in America.
) to Gatlinburg to oversee the settlement school's health care needs.Steve Davis
Pi Beta Phi Health Care Program
''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
In 1920, Pi Beta Phi installed Gatlinburg's first electric generator to provide power to the school. The following year, the school installed the town's first telephone in the Head Resident's office. Around the same time, Pi Beta Phi teachers began teaching classes in the impoverished
Sugarlands The Sugarlands is a valley in the north-central Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. Formerly home to a string of small Appalachian communities, the valley is now the location of the Great Smoky Mountains National P ...
community south of Gatlinburg. A small hydroelectric dam was built in 1924 to replace the 1920 generator, and the school began publishing Gatlinburg's first newspaper, ''The Gatlinburg News'', in 1925. In 1924, the Pi Beta Phis organized Gatlinburg's first agriculture co-op and later organized the town's first Chamber of Commerce. The Settlement School's influence helped Gatlinburg maximize the benefits of the tourist boom that came in the 1930s, and helped keep much of the profits from the tourism industry in local hands. A number of the Settlement School's students went on to play important roles in the development of Gatlinburg and the vicinity in the subsequent decades, among them Bruce Whaley (Riverside Hotel), Dick Whaley (Greystone Inn), Jack Huff ( LeConte Lodge),Steve Davis
Student Life
''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
and Charles Earl Ogle (the Mountain Mall and various other ventures). In 1943, Sevier County assumed control of the Pi Beta Phi schools, and built a new school for elementary school students in 1950. Pi Beta Phi High School was consolidated with the high school at nearby Pittman Center in 1963 to form
Gatlinburg-Pittman High School Gatlinburg-Pittman High School is a public high school located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the Unit ...
. Pi Beta Phi Elementary School, located immediately south of the Arrowmont campus, still serves Gatlinburg's
kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
through 8th grade students (the current school building was built in the 1960s).Pi Beta Phi Elementary School
Pi Beta Phi History
. Retrieved: 10 September 2009.


Arrowcraft

The American Arts and Crafts Revival, which began in the 19th century, helped create a market for traditional handicrafts that settlement house workers seized upon as a means of income for urban immigrants. In the early 20th century, the settlement school movement opened the same markets to the residents of Southern Appalachia. Noting the success of other settlement schools in marketing the region's crafts, Phi Beta Phi Settlement School Head Resident Caroline McKnight Hughes began purchasing handmade baskets and coverlets to sell to the fraternity's alumnae clubs. While Hughes easily found buyers for the items she purchased, she struggled with lack of cooperation from the locals, who didn't fully understand the demand for their products, and often ignored shipment deadlines and refused to sell items on credit.Steve Davis

''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
In 1925, weaving instructor Winogene Redding joined the settlement school's staff, and began teaching traditional weaving. By 1926, 30 families were weaving for the school, and had successfully adapted to Redding's strict factory-like regimen of quality and deadlines. In 1927, teachers Harmo Taylor and Lois Rogers opened the Arrowcraft Shop on the settlement school's campus, which acted as both a showroom for passing tourists and a distribution center for shipments (the shop was named after Pi Beta Phi's primary symbol, the arrow). Representatives from Arrowcraft helped establish the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 1929, which gave local artisans greater access to national markets. The Guild presently operates the Arrowcraft Store, which was built in 1940.


Arrowmont

After Sevier County assumed control of the Pi Beta Phi schools in 1943, the fraternity began focusing on its Arrowcraft division. In 1945, with the help of the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...
Home Economics Department, Pi Beta Phi established the Summer Crafts Workshop, which provided craft classes to students and teachers. The success of the workshops led to a proposal at the fraternity's 1954 convention to create a permanent, year-round school in Gatlinburg. The 1962 convention authorized the project.Steve Davis
The Founding of Arrowmont
''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
In 1968, Pi Beta Phi disbanded the Settlement School Committee and established a Board of Governors for the new crafts school. The following year, the name "Arrowmont" was chosen, and Summer Crafts Workshop director Marian Heard was selected as head of the new school. In June 1970, Arrowmont dedicated its new Emma Harper Turner Building, which provides offices, classrooms, and studio space (the building's architect, Hubert Bebb, earned an Award of Merit from the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
for his design).


Arrowmont today

Arrowmont is currently known for its seasonal weekend, one-week and two-week workshops, which attract students from all over the world. Along with traditional handicrafts such as weaving and basketry, the school's curriculum has expanded to include courses on metalworking, ceramics, jewelry making, painting, photography, drawing, book binding, quilting, glasswork and woodworking. The school displays its work in five galleries on campus. Arrowmont sponsors an 11-month Artist-in-Residence program for five artists selected annually. The school has also hosted dozens of conferences for various entities, including the
American Craft Council The American Craft Council (ACC) is a national non-profit organization that champions craft based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb, the council hosts national craft shows and conferences, publishes a quarterly mag ...
, the Tennessee Art and Education Association, the Tennessee Watercolor Society,Steve Davis
Contemporary Arrowmont
''From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont'', 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
and a 1985 woodturner's conference that spawned the
American Association of Woodturners The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) is the principal organization in the United States supporting the art and craft of woodturning. It is sometimes stylized as American Association of Wood Turners (AAW). Established in 1986 and headquart ...
.The American Association of Woodturners
How the AAW Came to Be
. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
Major exhibitions hosted by Arrowmont have included the 1979 Southeastern Conference and Traditional Basketry Forms Exhibition, the 1982 Forms of Leather Exhibition, the 1983 Directions in Surface Design Exhibition, and the 1999 All Things Considered Exhibition. Arrowmont hosts major symposia, such as Utilitarian Clay: Celebrate The Object. Additionally, Arrowmont hosts over 1,200 local school children annually for a day of hands-on art immersion through its ArtReach program.


Property sale proposals

In July 2008, Pi Beta Phi notified Arrowmont that it had entered into negotiations with anonymous business interests for the sale of its Arrowmont property. While the fraternity offered to help fund the relocation of Arrowmont (and the business interests seeking to purchase the land stated that the preservation of Arrowmont was part of their development plans), the Arrowmont Board of Directors staunchly opposed the sale in a statement issued in 2008, arguing that any relocation would affect the school's future prosperity. On October 30, 2008, Pi Beta Phi withdrew from negotiations to sell the property.
. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.
In late 2013, Pi Beta Phi informed the Board of Governors of Arrowmont that they could purchase the property for $8,000,000 but that they had to raise the amount in 7 months. The City of Gatlinburg contributed $3,500,000 and the Sevier County Commission invested $750,000 "for a lot of reasons but ultimately, it was the right thing to do," according to Larry Waters, Mayor of the Sevier County Commission. A private foundation added $2,750,000 and the Arrowmont Board of Governors $300,000. Numerous gifts from Arrowmont's local and national friends narrowed the gap until only $500,000 remained to be raised. On April 2, 2014, the Board of Governors closed on a loan for $500,000 that made up the difference and the property was sold to Arrowmont.This information is from a fund-raising letter sent out to the Friends of Arrowmont on November 28, 2014.


NRHP-listed structures

The Arrowmont campus currently contains two historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Settlement School Dormitories and Dwellings Historic District, added March 20, 2007, consists of six structures and comprises approximately on the east side of the Arrowmont campus. The Settlement School Community Outreach Historic District, added July 11, 2007, consists of five structures and comprises approximately on the west side of the campus.Susan Knowles and Carroll Van West
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Settlement School Community Outreach Historic District
26 March 2007. Retrieved: 2009-09-10.


Settlement School Dormitories and Dwellings Historic District

*Helmick House/Teacher's Cottage, a -story frame bungalow built in 1916, and designed by architects (and Pi Beta Phi alumnae) Alda and Elmina Wilson. Locals provided the lumber and did much of the carpentry work. *Stuart Dormitory, a -story Colonial Revival dwelling built in 1941 and designed by Knoxville architects Barber & McMurry (this firm also designed the headquarters for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few miles to the south). The Stuart Dormitory replaced a cottage of the same name used by teachers before the construction of Helmick House. The original cottage was purchased by Pi Beta Phi sisters Melinda and Ann Stuart for the school's use in 1916. *Ruth Barrett Smith Staff House, or simply "Staff House," a one-story Colonial Revival building built in 1952 and designed by Barber & McMurry. The dining room was added to the west end in 1989. *Old Wood Studio, two attached one-story buildings and with an open-air workspace built in 1952. *Chicken coop, a one-story shed with a metal roof built in around 1923. Along with the Red Barn, the chicken coop was built as part of the settlement school's vocational agricultural program in the early 1920s. *Stock Barn, usually called the "Red Barn" and occasionally referred to as the "Model Barn," a two-story wooden crib barn built in 1923 and renovated in 1959 by Barber & McMurry. The barn was initially built as a model of proper barn construction as part of the settlement school's vocational agriculture program, and later used as a gymnasium and theater. It was renovated in 1959 for use as a dormitory.


Settlement School Community Outreach Historic District

*Jennie Nicol Health Clinic Building, a one-story Rustic-style building built in 1948 and designed by Barber & McMurry. The building replaced a smaller clinic of the same name, which had been set up in 1922. The building's namesake was a founding member of Pi Beta Phi who died shortly after obtaining her medical degree. *Arrowcraft Shop, a one-story Rustic-style building built in 1940 and designed by Barber & McMurry. A one-story annex, also designed by Barber & McMurry, was added sometime around 1960, and now houses the shop's administrative offices. A third addition, designed by the Knoxville firm Cooper & Perry, was added in 1978 and now houses the gift shop. *Ogle Cabin, a half-dovetail notched single-pen log cabin built around 1807 by Gatlinburg's original pioneer settlers. Local tradition suggests that William Ogle (c. 1756–1803) "discovered" White Oak Flats (modern Gatlinburg) in the early 19th century, and cut and hewed the logs for the cabin with plans to return at some point with his family. Although William died before he could return, his wife, Martha Huskey, and her children and brothers made the trek to White Oak Flats in 1807 and assembled the logs. The descendants of William and Martha Ogle are still very active in the public and economic affairs of Gatlinburg. Pi Beta Phi set up a museum of mountain life in the cabin in the early 1920s. This cabin should not be confused with the NRHP-listed Noah Ogle Place, which lies inside the park a few miles south of Gatlinburg. *Cottage at the Creek, a one-story L-shaped Rustic-style building originally built around 1913 for use as a schoolhouse, expanded around 1926 for use as the original Arrowcraft Shop, and currently home to the Thomas Kinkade Gallery. Architect Hubert Bebb used it as an office while designing the Turner Building. *Craftsman's Fair Grounds and School Playground, a large open space between the community outreach buildings and Pi Beta Phi Elementary School, originally used as a food garden by the settlement school, and later the site of the first Southern Highland Handicraft Guild Craftsman's Fair in 1948. Part of the grounds now serve as a playground for the elementary school.


References


External links


Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
— official site
From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont
— University of Tennessee digital collection of essays and photographs documenting the history of Arrowmont and its impact on Gatlinburg
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts page at ''Craft in America''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arrowmont School Of Arts And Crafts Buildings and structures in Sevier County, Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains National Park Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Settlement schools Schools in Tennessee Arts centers in Tennessee Education in Sevier County, Tennessee Tourist attractions in Sevier County, Tennessee Contemporary crafts museums in the United States Art museums and galleries in Tennessee Gatlinburg, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Sevier County, Tennessee Artist's retreats 1912 establishments in Tennessee