Southern highland craft guild raleigh12/29/2023 ![]() Right: Annie Evelyn, a Treats Studios cofounder and furniture artist, constructed this chair with ash wood and long glass vials to hold fresh flowers. According to a 2019 study, revenues in the creative sector topped $1.6 billion in Asheville’s Buncombe County alone. Asheville, which sees over 11 million annual visitors, offers a glimpse of the impact across the 25 counties represented on the Crafts Trails. ![]() And having an economy around art attracts more artists. This all attracts an audience of residents and visitors who appreciate the handmade. They don’t just help makers learn and hone skills, they also cultivate a supportive community of thousands of artists living in western North Carolina. Those craft schools fuel the region’s creative ecosystem. “It’s certainly one key reason why we have so much activity today.” A creative community thrives “This craft movement that happened between the 1890s until about 1945 has shaped Western North Carolina historically,” says Fariello. Amid the woodlands and mountain foothills, the school operates in modern and early 20th-century buildings, including a stone-walled cottage with a crafts supply shop. Photographs courtesy of Penland School of CraftĪbout an hour northeast of Asheville near Burnsville, Penland School of Craft has been hosting classes in clay, textiles, glass, and other mediums since 1923. Students can stay on campus, bunking in restored 1930s bungalows or modern dorms and enjoying communal meals and frequent concerts. ![]() Campbell Folk School offers hundreds of weekend and weeklong classes. Located in a pastoral valley in Brasstown since 1925, the John C. The same cadre of philanthropic women also founded two highly respected craft schools in western North Carolina, where newbies and seasoned artists still come to take classes or shop for wares in campus galleries. The guild operates a Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where Goodrich’s shop still sells hand-carved wooden bowls, blown-glass cups, and statement necklaces in intricately worked silver. Goodrich, who created the Allanstand Craft Shop in 1895 and later launched the revered Southern Highland Craft Guild, which now has more than 900 members across nine states. By creating educational opportunities that paid skilled artisans to teach others and helping them sell their wares, these female philanthropists established a robust crafts industry that still thrives today.Īmong the pioneers was Frances L. The intricate weavings, quilts, baskets, and other home goods being created in the region were of exquisite quality and had the potential to fetch high prices among buyers in East Coast cities. Among them were a handful of well-educated women who wanted to bring prosperity to homemakers living in what was then a very rural, economically depressed area. ( Learn why the Shakers are synonymous with clean-lined crafts.)Īt the turn of the 20th century, Asheville, the region’s largest city, was drawing national attention and distinguished, wealthy visitors. But after industrialization in the United States, these cottage industries began to die out, except in rugged, isolated places like Southern Appalachia, where many residents didn’t have the means or access to purchase goods. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Ĭraft may have been born out of necessity, during times when people had either to make or barter fabrics, furnishings, cookware, and such.
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