Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
manuals on such rare techniques as vegetable dyeing, and
Gift of the Hills
, a bio-
graphy of school founder Lucy Morgan by LeGette Blythe.
YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST
Here's a partial list of some of the unusual crafts that have been made at Penland:
•
The world's longest scarf:
A 3-inch by 100-foot hand-knit scarf made by
Christina Conant in 2005
•
A musical chair:
The slats of the chair made by Mark Dixon are actually
the bars of a xylophone.
•
A Rube Goldberg automatic pet feeder:
Constructed by Steve Tengelsen
and his students in a wood class in 2005, this machine had a golf ball that
flew through the air, rode an elevator, and started a fan that pushed a sail-
boat, which broke a water balloon and knocked over a can of dog food so
that Ruby, the resident dog, finally could get fed.
Penland has been around in one form or another since 1923, when Lucy Morgan, a teach-
er at the Appalachian Industrial School, got the notion to teach handweaving to the local
mountain women who desperately needed income. She provided looms, materials, and in-
struction, even securing a government grant to build a tiny cabin and then a larger hall where
the weavers could work together. In Old Ridgeway Hall, one of the first buildings on the
property, the women wove downstairs while their kids roller-skated upstairs.
Lucy bought an old Model T truck and drove from Appalachian resorts to county fairs to
church meetings displaying and selling the goods created by her weavers, by that time known
as the Penland Weavers. She even talked her way into the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, selling
her fellow weavers' wares from a homemade log cabin booth.
By 1929, Penland had added pottery to its repertoire, then pewter and other media. Today
there are ten media taught by faculty (usually working artists) from around the world. Classes
are a mix of demonstrations, lectures, individual studio work, and field trips. Stays at Pen-
land also allow visits to nearby studios, volleyball games, dances, and swimming in the Toe
River. Popular events include the annual Easter egg hunt (chickens don't lose any sleep over
this unique event—all the eggs, each unique, are created by students), the big Penland arts
auction, and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
