JRA Organizes August Penland Tour - Plan Now!

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

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