The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (CCCD) has launched ENEWS to keep you current with all our programs, exhibits and events. ENEWS will be sent out monthly with most news linking to more lengthy information found on our website www.craftcreativitydesign.org. Announcements cards will still be mailed for upcoming exhibits and talks. If you are on our mailing list to receive an announcement card for exhibits and would prefer to receive the information through ENEWS, please let us know and it will save us a stamp!

One explanation for the vibrant professional craft community in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the opportunity for young artists to explore their medium in a residency at one of the well-established craft schools. Many of these young artists complete their residency, and become permanent residents, opening studios and further advancing their work in a part of the country so many professional craft artists call home.

The Blue Ridge Residencies Exhibit introduces ten artists who are completing, or have recently completed, a residency at one of four residency programs, three in Western North Carolina: Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts (Asheville); EnergyXchange (Burnsville); Penland School of Crafts (Penland); and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Eastern Tennessee (Gatlinburg). The work in sculpture, clay, glass, furniture and mixed media, by the resident artists, represent artistic experimentation and development during their residency, as well as excellence in craftsmanship, concept and execution. Read the entire press release.

Presented by artists in a slide/talk about their work and their residency experience, talks take place at the Kellogg Center, adjacent to the Craft, Creativity and Design exhibit gallery, 1181 Broyles Road, Hendersonville.

Resident clay artist Lori Theriault will talk about her residency at Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, an educational program of Highwater Clays in Asheville. Lori is drawn to art and functional ware that makes the viewer want to touch, either through surface texture or a firing effect on a finished pot. Odyssey Center provides residents with valuable studio space and firing of work in a variety of kilns.

Trillium, dogtooth violets, and other early spring wildflowers will be blooming along the Rudnick Public Art and Nature Trail - bring a picnic lunch, hear the talk, enjoy the reception that follows, and hike the trail to see the wildflowers.

"The 2006 Windgate Fellowship award opened many doors for me over the past couple of years. I was able to purchase a huge kiln and a slab roller which allowed me to explore working with much larger pieces. I have been working on large pieces approximately 25 inches tall and 25 inches in diameter using local clay. These pieces incorporate modern shapes with traditional Cherokee designs and techniques.

I have been very busy competing in Native American art shows across the country with my latest work. In 2006, I won first place in wood sculpting and second place in traditional pottery (other tribes) at the Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, NM. This is the largest Native American art competition in the world. I also took first place in traditional pottery at the Cherokee Art Market in Tulsa, OK. I won Best of Show and first place in traditional and contemporary pottery, and first place in stone sculpture at the Cherokee Indian Fair in Cherokee, NC. I received the Outstanding EBCI/TERO Representative Award from Cherokee TERO.

In 2007, I took Best of Show at Red Earth in Oklahoma City, OK and Best of Show at the Unity Indian Conference in Raleigh, NC. I also took Best of Show at the Trail of Tears Art Show in Tahlequah, OK, Best of Division in contemporary pottery at the Cherokee Art Market in Tulsa, OK, first place in traditional and contemporary pottery, and first place in stone sculpture at the Cherokee Indian Fair in Cherokee. I took second place in traditional pottery, using modern techniques, at the Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, NM.

I am still very active in my community and with the Cherokee Potter's Guild, where I serve as Vice- President, Secretary, Manager, and Booking Agent. I am an advisor for the cultural committee for the Cherokee Central School system and the cultural committee for Harrah's casino expansion. I also serve on the Southwestern Community College art committee as an advisor.

I plan to complete my MFA at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC the beginning of August. I am considering teaching positions at Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College.

This prestigious award has really been a vital asset in allowing me to pursue and promote Cherokee artwork. Without this opportunity, I would not have been able to explore all the new avenues in which I am pursuing. I am very grateful for this opportunity and wish to thank everyone involved."

The Windgate Fellowship Award program was established to help encourage and advance the development of serious, innovative artists in the United States whose work is in some way related to, or informed by, the process, material, or idea of craft. The 64+ partner institutions across the country develop a careful selection process to identify two graduating seniors who best meet the following criteria:

Their work must demonstrate a balance of content and design and a mastery of materials
Their work must in some way be informed by craft process, materials, traditions and/or sensibilities
Successful applicants will demonstrate innovation and curiosity, be committed to growth of their own work, and show evidence of how their work might stimulate creative thinking or dialogue among other artists.

2008 Windgate Fellowships will be announced in the May ENEWS

The May ENEWS will announce students receiving 2008 Windgate Museum Internships. Two students will intern at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; one at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; one at the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts, and one working with Glenn Adamson at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The goal of the program is to expand the number of future curators with experience and expertise on studio craft artists and their work, through $5,000 internships at museums with craft/decorative arts collections.

Guidelines and applications are now available online at www.craftcreativitydesign.org for the 2008 Craft Research Fund, awarding PROJECT GRANTS of up to $15,000 for research in United States craft by academics, independent scholars, and curators and GRADUATE RESEARCH GRANTS of up to $10,000 to graduate students currently enrolled in a graduate program in an accredited college or university for research related to a thesis or dissertation on United States craft. This is a national award program in its fourth year, administered by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design.

Deadline for the 2008 grants in both categories is July 1, 2008, with announcement of awards by mid-September 2008 for research beginning October 1, 2008 to be completed within 18 months.

Save the dates - September 10-13, 2008, Utilitarian Clay V: Celebrate the Object is an intimate, four-day clay symposium sponsored by Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Seventeen nationally and internationally known potters have been selected to demonstrate and lead thought-provoking discussion about current technical and aesthetic considerations of contemporary, functional pottery. Limited to 200 attendees, registration opens April 16. For more information see www.arrowmont.org.

TEXTILE CONFERENCE STUDENT OPPORTUNITY
Ten students will be selected to receive free registration and four nights free lodging to assist with January 2009 conference registration and logistics of the INSPIRED DESIGN: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles conference - outline and speakers below. Students interested should email or mail a letter of interest by MAY 1, 2008 to: Dian Magie (dmagie@craftcreativitydesign.org) PO Box 1127, Hendersonville, NC 28793.

Keynote Speakers
     Joan Morris, Textile design, "The Lion King"
     Grace Bonney, founder, Design*Sponge
     Michele Frick, Kansas City Art Institute

Session Speakers
Exploring five entrepreneurial textile design growth areas

Makers: 20th Century American Studio Craft (working title) At the first "Think-Tank" convened by CCCD in 2002, of craft faculty, museum director and curators, scholars and critics, the initiative ranked as most important to the advancement of the field was a history of American Craft in the twentieth Century. The journey toward making this a reality can be tracked on www.craftcreativitydesign.org/research/history.php. 20th Century American Studio Craft by Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf is with the publisher, the University of North Carolina Press. Long awaited, the book, researched and written under the auspices of CCCD, will include 500+ images and also serve as an undergraduate text. It will be released in late 2008. The University of North Carolina Press is making craft history and criticism a focus of the Press.

Cahiers m�tiers d'art* Craft Journal, is a nonprofit organization that encourages and publishes critical, historical and technical research on local and international craft. Membership includes a subscription to the Cahiers m�tiers d'art* Craft Journal published twice a year. Each issue presents essays from international researchers in both French and English; book and exhibition reviews; and profiles of craftspeople from around the world. (www.craftjournal.ca) Denis Longchamps, publisher and managing editor, is interested in critical, technical and historical research on craft from all regions of the world.

It is out! The first issue of The Journal of Modern Craft, edited by Glenn Adamson, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK; Edward S. Cooke, Jr. Yale University, USA; Tanya Harrod, Royal College of Art, UK, is the first peer-reviewed academic journal to provide an interdisciplinary and international forum in its subject area. It address all forms of making that self-consciously set themselves apart from mass production - whether in the making of designed objects, artworks, buildings or other artefacts. Published three times a year in March, July and November. To place an order/subscription visit www.bergpublishers.com and download order forms or email custerserv@turpin-distribution.com.

The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design is an inter-institutional Center of the University of North Carolina.

The mission of the regional UNC Center is to support and advance craft, creativity and design in education and research, and, through community collaborations, to demonstrate ways that craft and design provide creative solutions to community issues. The mission of the nonprofit CCCD is to support the mission of the UNC center through funding, programs, and outreach to artists, craft organizations, schools in the community, region and nation.