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Planning ahead? Click on the details button to see the 2008 schedule of events at the Folk Art Center.
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Fiber Weekend
Saturday, May 10th, 2008 - Sunday, May 11th, 2008
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| Throughout Mother’s Day weekend the Folk Art Center will be blooming with fine crafts and demonstrations. On May 10th and 11th, the Southern Highland Craft Guild will celebrate textile arts through their annual Fiber Weekend. On Saturday, Guild members will share their expertise in a variety of fiber arts including quilting, spinning, weaving and surface design. There will be hands-on activities for children including weaving a bookmark and building collages. |
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| Folk Art Center Main Gallery |
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Pressing Matters in Printmaking
Saturday, January 19th, 2008 - Sunday, May 18th, 2008
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| Beginning January 19th, the Folk Art Center main gallery will host Pressing Matters in Printmaking, an international, invitational exhibition representing the work of nearly 50 artists using various printmaking techniques. |
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2008 Main Gallery Schedule
Saturday, January 19th, 2008 - Sunday, January 11th, 2009
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| Planning ahead? Click details to see the 2008 schedule of exhibitions in the Main Gallery at the Folk Art Center. |
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| Folk Art Center Focus Gallery |
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Bernie Rowell and James Cornell
Friday, April 25th, 2008 - Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
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| On display now through June 17 in the Folk Art Center’s Focus Gallery are the painted quilts of Bernie Rowell and ceramics of James Cornell. The show is a celebration of beauty combined with form and function. Fitting the Spring season, the work of both artists blooms with light, color and texture. Rowell’s quilts depicting nature complement Cornell’s clay vessels which also appear to be inspired by the outside world. |
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2008 Focus Gallery Schedule
Saturday, January 5th, 2008 - Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
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| Planning ahead? Click details to see the 2008 schedule of exhibitions in the Focus Gallery at the Folk Art Center. |
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Craft Traditions:
The Southern Highland Craft Guild Collection
An ongoing exhibition
This exhibit of approximately 200 works features the best of traditional woodcarving, textiles, furniture, basketry, pottery, dolls, and other crafts of Southern Appalachia, dating from 1855 to the late 20th century.
The Southern Highland Craft Guild Collection represents the historical crafts of southern Appalachia. Many pieces date from the 19th century and were collected in the Asheville area by Frances L. Goodrich, a founding member of the Guild. Goodrich came to the region in 1890 to do educational and organizational work as a volunteer for the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. She had not planned to work in the crafts field, but rather, the idea was thrust upon her in the form of an antique bedspread. |
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THE ROBERT W. GRAY LIBRARY COLLECTION
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The mission of the Robert W. Gray Library is to collect, preserve, and make available for research materials concerning the appreciation and knowledge about traditional and contemporary crafts - particularly the craft heritage of the Southern Appalachian region.
Library materials relate to craft work from around the world and in all media with historical background as well as "how-to" information. There are also materials on regional history and development.
The collection contains over 7,000 books and exhibition catalogs, 45 current periodical titles as well as many that have been donated and are no longer available. A recent addition is an audio-visual area where visitors may choose from over 100 craft-related videos.
While the resources do not circulate, the materials are available for use on site. There is a Xerox machine for photocopying materials for personal use.
The Library is open whenever the Folk Art Center is open- every day from 9-6 (5pm in winter). It is housed on the second floor, to the left of the receptionist desk. The collection catalog is available on the library's computer at all times and a librarian is present four day's a week( T-W-Th-F) to assist users. The staff is happy to work with you on research questions. |
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| The Craft Revival website, headquartered at Western Carolina University, has attracted hundreds of hits after just 18 months in operation, and the number of hits is expected to climb as more information is added to the growing, online collection at http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/ . Anna Fariello, leader of the state-funded project, says visitors to the site are finding the beginnings of a robust digital archive of materials from the Craft Revival of the late 1800s and early 1900s. “This was an important period for our region of the Southern Appalachians,” she says. “Without the Craft Revival, much of the work of the mountain crafts people would have been lost and their handcrafting skills might have died out. That means there would have been only a very limited foundation for today’s continuing craft activities.” Instead, the revival triggered the growth of handcraft guilds, weaving centers and folk schools, attracted tourists, scholars and artisans to the region; helped to promote the sale of traditional mountain crafts; and shaped the development of new craft forms as mountain tourism flourished. |
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| In this section you'll find web links to organizations affiliated with the Southern Highland Craft Guild - as well as a retrospective gallery of Guild Logos. |
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| I grew up sleeping under quilts made by my grandmother and filled with cotton grown by my grandfather. That comfort stays with me always. |
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