There was a time when everything was handmade. As described in the diary of an early colonist in North Carolina:
“Men are of all trades and women the like within their spheres. Men are generally carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, coopers, butchers, tanners, shoemakers, tallow-chandlers, watermen and whatnot; women, soapmakers, starchmakers, dyers, etc. He or she who cannot do all these things will have but a bad time of it.” The model citizens of the day were farmers or artisans, perhaps both, who stood or fell based on the use of the resources around them.
“Men are of all trades and women the like within their spheres. Men are generally carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, coopers, butchers, tanners, shoemakers, tallow-chandlers, watermen and whatnot; women, soapmakers, starchmakers, dyers, etc. He or she who cannot do all these things will have but a bad time of it.” The model citizens of the day were farmers or artisans, perhaps both, who stood or fell based on the use of the resources around them.
They, like their ancestors, valued skills with their hands, not only as a means to provide for the necessities of life, but as a means of independence, self-reliance, and pride. Archeological investigations show that every civilization on earth not only created out of need, but also imbued the objects with such artistic and spiritual qualities that the objects themselves embodied their culture. Out of that cultural climate unique arts are born.
"Purple City" by Michael Sherrill, Bat Cave, North Carolina
The Asheville area has had an interesting front row seat to the development of three unique strands of art in the 20th century:
Contemporary Craft: Objects created through an artist’s disciplined manipulation of materials from nature – clay, fiber, glass, wood, and metal. Generally contemporary craft objects are those created from the early 1920’s.
Folk Art: Objects made by usually self-taught craftspersons who created and decorated needed objects to express their own sense of beauty and style. These objects of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries include paintings, sculptures, textiles, and household items.
Decorative Arts: From its origins among the European elite, decorative arts enhance domestic objects, from irons to hatpins, that are handmade or machine-made, but finished with unique artistic qualities.
Fabric Curtain by Heather Allen, Asheville, North Carolina
Contemporary Craft:
Throughout the early part of this century, it was left to craftspersons and their patrons to keep the knowledge and love of handmade objects alive. At the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933, American craft was “rediscovered” when Lucy Morgan and a group of weavers from Yancey County, North Carolina demonstrated their skills and sold hand-woven scarves and bedspreads.
At the same time, others took note of the role of crafts in rural America and the need to reclaim indigenous crafts. As a result, organizations and co-operatives were formed, the first being the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Composed of hundreds of craftspeople, the organization juries works from the nine states of the southern highlands of Appalachia into its galleries and shows. Their big shows take place in each fall and spring in downtown Asheville. Settlement schools were established to educate and train. Among the earliest, near Asheville, were John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown (1.5 hours west) and the Penland School of Crafts (one hour north). Both offer a unique range of classes for the serious artist. Both schools have first rate art galleries of their students' work.
This organizational groundwork was to give a new impetus to the “crafts movement,” giving rise to publications, organizations, and college and university degree programs. Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College is famous for its extensive decorative arts programs and Haywood Community College (thirty minutes west of Asheville) has a nationally-known program for training artists in the marketing of their work. Near the Asheville Regional Airport is The Center of Craft Creativity and Design and its programs associated with the University of North Carolina System.
Today, with the emergence of Handmade in America, a project to bring craftspeople together, and its community colleges and independent craft schools, Western North Carolina draws many craftspersons who seek careers in the handmade industry. There are hundreds of miles of craft trails, that can be located through trail guides available on the Handmade in America website, on the region's best and most unique forms of art. In fact, the region's early industrial base in paper, furniture, wood, natural and artificial fibers, and ceramics all grew from handmade efforts. The area's natural beauty and wealth of raw materials offer the setting craftspersons need to create and thrive.
"just between you and me" by Julia Burr, Black Mountain, North Carolina
Asheville is surrounded by a ring of smaller towns with craft and art centered main streets that provide an opportunity to see and acquire local artwork - Hendersonville, Waynesville, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Brevard, and many others.
Folk Art:
Folk art and craft share the stage together in the region, but not to be missed on their own merits are the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles east of Asheville, and the John C Campbell Folk School that preserves the best of regional and national folk art traditions. You will have a great adventure discovering our folk arts side by side with the best in contemporary crafts.
Decorative Arts:
At the dawn of the 20th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement expanded from its European base to influence American furniture and household object design and architecture. Through its origination in Germany in 1919, the Bauhaus was to have far-reaching importance worldwide. Bauhaus was both a creative center and an educational training ground for craftspersons and artists. Founder Walter Gropius aimed to break down the traditional barriers between artist and technically expert craftsmen by training students to be effective in both areas. In its statement of purpose in 1919, he wrote:
“Architects, sculptors, painters we must all turn to the crafts! Art is not a profession. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, moments beyond the control of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to boom into art. But proficiency in his craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies a source of creative imagination. Let us create a new guild of craftsman, without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist.”
With the rise of Hitler, the Bauhaus was dismantled and its traditions followed its faculty around the world – most notably to Chicago, with its great architectural traditions, to the Cranbrook Institute in Michigan, and to Black Mountain College, where a “new experiment in education took root through the early 1930’s.” Among the notable faculty were Buckminster Fuller and Walter Gropius. The campus of the Black Mountain College and its faculty and student, who changed modern art and architecture for generations, was located about ten miles east of Asheville on Lake Eden, the scene of the annual Lake Eden Art Festival.
Many thanks to Dan Keith Ray, Asheville resident and former President and CEO of the American Craft Council, for this insightful article, a good overview of the historical influences that have shaped the arts and crafts presence you encounter when Living in Asheville, North Carolina.
No comments:
Post a Comment