- ARROWMONT · SCHOOL OF ARTS & CRAFTS · 556 Parkway · Gatlinburg, TN 37738
- PHONE: 865.436.5860 · FAX: 865.430.4101
- SITE BY: Robin Easter Design
February 2012 Newsletter
- 2012 Workshops: The Catalog
- Awards: Legacy, Leadership and Celebration
- The School That Never Sleeps: Local Winter Programs
- Resident Artists on the Road
- Fall Fund-Raisers
- People: Circular Paths
2012 Worshops · The Catalog
On December 31st, the 2012 Workshop Catalog began arriving in mailboxes—a harbinger of opportunity for the new year. Coupled with the online version going live in the first week of January, the annual anticipatory buzz started with calls and emails and online registrations. As we move into February, the energy that occurs from the release of this singular entity—The Catalog—is still palpable.
The annual workshop catalog embodies potential. It cracks the window… opens the door… widens the horizon with possibilities like a strong spring breeze when many of us are shuttered up, sealed in, and hunkered down for the winter.
From March through October, Arrowmont is offering 161 workshops in baskets, books, clay, drawing, enamels, fiber, glass, jewelry, metals, mixed-media, paper, painting, photography, printmaking, special topics, stone, textiles, and wood. The range of courses scheduled reaches multiple layers within each studio area and the instructors represent some of the most innovative and accomplished artists and craftspeople of our time. From basic techniques to sophisticated surface treatments to open exploration workshops, the weekend, one-week, and two-week classes promise to once again enrich lives through art as has been the case since Arrowmont's workshop program began in 1945.
Important deadlines:
- February 1 (POSTMARKED TODAY!): Artists-in-Residence Application Deadline
- February 6 (extended): Early Registration 10% Off Workshop Fee Offer Ends
- March 1: Studio Assistant Application Deadline
- March 1: Work-Study Application Deadline
- March 1: Select Scholarship Application Deadline (some scholarships are on an open cycle)
For those who missed out on The Catalog's arrival, it's not too late. Download pdf or a copy will be mailed upon request. (email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; call: 865-436-5860.)
Oops… several errors were made when the catalog was printed
Nick DeFord's June 3-9 workshop has the wrong course title and description in the print version. Please click here for the correct description of Ripping Yarns: Stories and Fibers.
Pi Phi and Friends Arts Weekend, an important annual session, was inadvertently omitted as a special designation on the 2012 Schedule at a Glance. This is a blended weekend workshop session, March 29 - April 1.
The course fee for Beginning Bookmaking/Instructor: Darryl Maleike, March 29 - April 1 (Weekend) is $310, not $495.
Awards: Legacy, Leadership & Celebration
Resident artists are provided a studio, living quarters, and stipend and have the opportunity to devote a year to developing a body of work. They assist with campus events and have paid teaching opportunities. Here, a resident artist assists with a gallery installation.Autumn brought good news on many fronts with recognition of the School's historical legacy, its leadership, and support for a special anniversary.
Celebrating 20: Building and Maintaining a Community
In October, the Windgate Charitable Foundation awarded Arrowmont a $20,000 grant to support Celebrating 20: Building and Maintaining a Community and in November, the School received a National Endowment for the Arts grant award of $20,000 for this project. Arrowmont's Artists‑in‑Residence Program will commemorate its 20th anniversary in May with a creative retreat reunion for the 91 early career artists who have lived and engaged in art making within the supportive community on the School's campus. The celebration will include studio sessions, panel discussions and programs, a traveling exhibition, catalog, and national research endeavor. Planning for the anniversary event 
Teachers Cottagespawned a new partnership with the Alliance of Artists Communities to conduct national research on best practices in residency programs, as part of this initiative. Celebrating 20 would not be possible without the generous grant support from the NEA and Windgate foundation.
Resident artists are provided a studio, living quarters, and stipend and have the opportunity to devote a year to developing a body of work. They assist with campus events and have paid teaching opportunities.
Bill & Bill
Staff HouseMost people recognize leadership when they see it, but it is often difficult to define or acknowledge without a banquet, program, plaque or hand-crafted bowl. In mid-December, an anonymous donor-designated check for $40,000 arrived at 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN from the Ayco Charitable Foundation. The simply stated purpose: "To honor the work of Bill May and Bill Griffith in this exciting time for Arrowmont." In 2012, Director of Programs, Bill Griffith marks his 25th year of guiding and creating programs at Arrowmont and Bill May begins his second year in the pivotal Executive Director role. The identity of the anonymous donor is a mystery, but we are grateful to that person for recognizing the contribution our leaders make every day in keeping the School vibrant and relevant in promoting craft education.
Place Matters
Gallery Manager, Karen Green (center), accepted the preservation award on behalf of Arrowmont. She is pictured with Scott Brooks, ETPA president (left) and Ethiel Garlington, ETPA Director of Preservation Field Services (right).On November 11, 2011, Arrowmont received an East Tennessee Preservation Alliance Award at the annual ceremony where exemplary preservation-minded projects in the 16-county region of East Tennessee are recognized. As stated in the award letter, "by choosing to remain in Gatlinburg, Arrowmont continues to preserve the buildings and legacy of the historic campus." It is fitting that this came on the eve of 2012—the 100th anniversary of an educational presence on the historic campus where the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School was founded in 1912. The site—home of two distinctive National Register of Historic Places districts— serves as the physical embodiment of how history and culture flow through time, opportunity, and recognition of need. Many transitions have occurred at the School as it evolved into a nationally recognized leader in craft education, but one thing that has held true throughout generations—people who spend time at Arrowmont speak of a spirit, experience, and sense of place that permeates the environment, buildings, people and essence of what Arrowmont is. It is deep in the soil, buildings, hearts and minds of those who come here. Now, as in the past, we are committed to continuing our mission on this historic site and appreciate the recognition, community support, and all who have helped advance this goal for the future of the School and those it serves.
The School That Never Sleeps: Local Winter Programs
Phil Haralam - Karaoke BearArrowmont is situated less than three miles from the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which places the school in the heart of East Tennessee black bear country. Even in the densely populated area around the campus, bears are frequent visitors. When the temperature dips, they hibernate, but Arrowmont kicks up the heat and begins a series of winter programming just for locals.
On December 10th the holiday spirit danced through the campus as students of all ages enjoyed popular one-day family workshops with holiday themes in printmaking, enameling, pottery, clay sculpture, jewelry, felting, woodturning and mixed media. The Artists-in-Residence hosted an open-studio reception and the evening concluded with a concert by two Grammy® Award-winning guitarists—Ed Gerhard and Bill Mize.
Holiday Workshops
Left: Resident Artist, Dustin Farnsworth and Director of Programs, Bill Griffith guard the cookie table and sip cider at the residents' studio holiday open house.
Right: Beth Ralph (left) and Bev Jones (center) visit Chandra DeBuse's (right) studio during the open house.
By mid-January, Saturday children's workshops and evening community classes for adults were underway. In the Sandra J. Blain Galleries, the Sevier County Invitational Exhibition opened on January 13th and will run through March 10th, featuring nine local award-winning artists. Artists represented are Wayne Austin—wood carving, Faye Hurley Burke—digital photography, Lisa Canfield—basketry, Rafael Casco—painting, Charles H. Collum—watercolor, Shawn McCrory—Metals, Chuck McMahon—ceramics, Pat K. Thomas—marbling, and Jess Wathen—mixed media drawing.
Left: Bill May, Executive Director, greets guests at the opening reception for the Sevier County Invitational Exhibition.
Center: Featured artist, Rafael Casco (right) talks about his work with Jan Lapides.
Right: Featured artist, Chuck McMahon (right) poses with his wife Amy Evans (left) and Frances Fox Shambaugh (center).
Resident Artists on the Road
Residents mug for the camera before installing their exhibition at MTSU.Arrowmont's four resident artists are spotlighted in an exhibition at the Todd Art Gallery in the Department of Art at Middle Tennessee State University. The joint exhibit of work of artists Chandra DeBuse, Dustin Farnsworth, Phil Haralam, and Lisa Johnson opened January 12th and runs through February 2, 2012. The artists provided gallery talks about their work and a reception was given in their honor on January 18th. View profiles on the residents.
See more photos of the exhibition on their blog.
Fall Fund-Raisers
Super soup bowls all lined up ready to be selected.On November 11, 2011, a good time was had by all as Arrowmont supporters gathered at the DeBusk Lodge on the estate of Pete and Cindi DeBusk of Knoxville for a Meet the Artists dinner and auction. Organized by a committee chaired by board member Margit Worsham and comprised of Kathy Brooks, Cindi DeBusk and Henslee Worsham, the event raised $55,000 for Arrowmont. Lively conversation with visiting artists, exquisite works of art donated for the event, and entertaining auctioneers kept the crowd inspired to give to the cause. The lovely setting made for a perfect evening.
On November 15th, a more modest occasion—Souper Bowl VIII—was held in the Arrowmont Staff House Dining Hall. Each year, staff members volunteer time for this project as their contribution to the local United Way. Delicious soups and breads are prepared. Ceramic bowls are made. Tickets are sold in the community and when the day arrives, guests line up early to wait for the dinner bell to ring so they may enter the dining room to a beautiful display of handmade bowls from which they can choose a vessel to eat their soup from. A dunk in the washing station by the door, and the bowls go home with the guests as an artful reminder of a special community meal. Proceeds from the event are used for United Way projects. In this 8th year of the event, the United Way returned the $5,000 raised to the School for support of ArtReach, a program that annually provides approximately 1,200 students (grades 4-12) from different Sevier County schools with an in-depth, full day art workshop at Arrowmont.
Left: Cindi DeBusk and Geoff Wolpert at the Meet the Artists fund-raiser. Cindi is a new board member and hosted the event. Geoff is the President of the Arrowmont Board of Governors.
Center: Robert Batey, Larry Blount and Andrew Saftel are some of the artists that supporters came to meet.
Right: Robert Watson and Justice Gary Wade enjoy the event.
People: Circular Paths
Instructors
Barbara DillNotable information about instructors who teach at Arrowmont could fill numerous newsletters and it is difficult to single out individuals when there are so many stories to tell. Readers are encouraged to check the website links for instructors included in the catalog and their course description bios. In this issue, we are singling out for note Barbara Dill's work on the cover of the December issue of American Woodturner and the article she authored about multi-axis turning. Barbara retired from a 21-year career as a nurse in 1990 and began taking woodturning classes at Arrowmont that summer. After three years of woodworking courses at the school, she became a full-time studio artist. She was one of the three emerging artists featured at the 2011 AAW National Symposium and has been accepted into the International Turning Exchange for 2012. She is teaching a multi-axis spindle turning workshop, October 25-28, her first time on the instructor side of the big mirror over the demo lathe in Arrowmont's woodturning studio. She joins the impressive ranks of long-time woodturning instructors at the school including Michael Lee, Ray Key, David Ellsworth, Al Stirt, John Jordan and others. Barbara is one of 59 instructors teaching for the first time at Arrowmont, where a healthy mix of new and returning instructors diversifies the course offerings.
New Staff
Deborah JohnsonDeborah Johnson joined the staff in November as the new Director of Development and Communications. She began her relationship with the school in March 1984 taking a week-long split oak basketry workshop and returned that summer as an Assistant. At the end of the workshop season she accepted the full-time position of Staff Assistant and served in that capacity for two years. She left Gatlinburg in the autumn of 1986 to become the Public Relations Director at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, Florida, then returned to graduate school at the University of Tennessee and began a career as a library director in college art programs including the Savannah College of Art & Design, Clemson University's Art & Architecture department, Ringling School of Art & Design, and the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. During this time, she served a term on Arrowmont's Board of Governors from 1994-1997. In 1997, she moved to Beaufort, South Carolina and in 2001 founded Kaizen Consulting, providing services to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and governmental entities for the past ten years. Her work has included grant writing, fund-development, strategic planning, program assessment, board development, events planning and project management.
"I am delighted and honored to be able to return to Arrowmont. The experiences I've had here helped frame my world view—how I see things and what I value. It is wonderful to be able to identify pivotal points of influence in one's life, and Arrowmont has indeed been one for me." said Deborah.
Staff Briefs
Executive Director, Bill May, graduated with the 2011 Leadership Sevier Class in January. He also participated in the January gathering of craft school directors at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, Texas.
Bill Griffith, Director of Programs, was featured in the December issue of Ceramics Monthly, authoring the article: A Pitcher with No Handle.
Virginia McKinney, Campus Liaison and Instructor, earned an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA in December.
Board of Governors
The Arrowmont Board of Governors welcomes two new members: Cindi DeBusk of Knoxville, TN and Deborah Coburn Rice of Los Gatos, CA. Look for new board member profiles in the next newsletter.
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