The Penland School of Craft ("Penland" and formerly "Penland School of Crafts") is an

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

educational center located in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virg ...

Spruce Pine, North Carolina Spruce Pine is a town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,175 at the 2010 census. History Spruce Pine was founded in 1907 when the Clinchfield Railroad made its way up the North Toe River from Erwin, Tennesse ...

, about 50 miles from Asheville.

History

The school was founded in the 1920s in the isolated mountain town of Penland, North Carolina. In 1923, Lucy Morgan (1889–1981), a teacher at the Appalachian School who had recently learned to weave at Berea College, created an association to teach the craft to local women so they could earn income from their homes. The center, called Penland Weavers and Potters, provided instruction, looms, and materials. Local volunteers built a cabin and then a larger hall. In 1929, Penland was officially founded as the Penland School of Handicrafts after Edward F. Worst, a weaving expert and author of the ''Foot Power Loom Weaving,'' visited the school to provide weaving instruction. Worst added classes in

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

ry and pottery. Bill Brown, who took over in 1962 after Morgan, created a resident artist program and expanded the number and length of courses. There are 51 buildings on 400 acres. Penland buildings were designed primarily by North Carolinian architects, including Frank Harmond and Cannon Architects in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Sout ...

and Dixon Weinstein Architects in

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada *Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbou ...

. The school campus was added to 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 ...

in 2003 as the Penland School Historic District. The district encompasses 31 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 3 contributing structures. The district is characterized by one- and two-story frame farmhouses dating from the turn of the 20th century, associated agricultural outbuildings, and

Rustic Revival Rustic may refer to: *Rural area * Pastoral Architecture * Rustication (architecture), a masonry technique mainly employed in Renaissance architecture * Rustic architecture, an informal architectural style in the United States and Canada with sev ...

style log buildings. Notable buildings include the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

style Lily Loom House and Pines; the Craft Cabin; Homer Hall; Ridgeway; and Beacon Church.

Overview

, Penland offered Spring, Summer, and Fall workshops in craft disciplines, including

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

and

dyeing Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular c ...

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

work,

glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

, paper making,

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 scale ...

, and

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 ...

. It also offers

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

s subjects, such as

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniqu ...

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 a ...

, and

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 emplo ...

. Workshops are taught by visiting

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and international artists and professors, a tradition that started with Worst and until he died in 1949. Academic degrees are not awarded by Penland, but students can receive college credit through

Western Carolina University Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded ...

(WCU). There are about 1200 people who study at Penland each year. Penland holds an annual Community Day in early March, when the school's studios are open and visitors can work on a small project with the help of the artists. An exhibition of works created at Penland was held at the Mint Museum.

References

External links

Penland website

The Penland Experience
{{Authority control

Art museums and galleries in North Carolina North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east ...

Art schools in North Carolina Crafts educators Education in Mitchell County, North Carolina Education in North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1929 Tourist attractions in Mitchell County, North Carolina School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Colonial Revival architecture in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Mitchell County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Mitchell County, North Carolina Artist's retreats 1929 establishments in North Carolina Glassmaking schools

History

Overview

References

Further reading

External links