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!

Dian Magie, Executive Director

The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design is located on 50 acres, featuring The Perry N. Rudnick Nature & Public Art Trail, a 1.2 mile trail with 14 public art works. More information about the trail

The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design’s current exhibit, “Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles,” consists of both national and international leading artists of innovative textile design, including a variety of computer designed textile applications.

These artists/designer/artisans bring together both the artistic talent and a scientific frame of mind to create their work. Textile design is a specialized field that involves several sectors - fashion, interior decoration, the production of expressive works, sculptures, and hand-crafted items. It overlaps the fields of art, crafts and design, therefore bridging areas that often seek to separate themselves from one another.

This exhibit features designs and work that represent five 21st Century design growth areas of creative/innovative textiles and digital technologies.

1. SMART TEXTILES
   Joanna Berzowska, Krakow: A Woven Story of Memory and Erasure, cotton with conductive yarns, thermochromatic inks, custom control electronics. The thermochromatic ink overprinted on the figures in the weaving changes color from pink to transparent as it senses the viewer in front of the weaving.
   
   

   Also known as intelligent textiles and electronic textiles, or e-textiles, they can be designed to sense and react to environmental conditions. Passive smart textiles sense the environmental condition or stimuli; active smart textiles sense and react to the condition or stimuli; very smart textiles can sense, react, and adapt themselves accordingly; and intelligent textiles are capable of responding, or activated to perform, in a pre-programmed manner.

   *Joanna Berzowska Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
   *Rachael Wingfield College of London, UK
   *Zane Berzina Goldsmiths College, University of London

2. PERFORMANCE AND INTERACTIVE TEXTILES
   Christy Matson, Fracture, hand Jacquard woven cotton and copper. The copper wire woven continuously throughout the piece conducts the electricity that we all carry in our bodies and through the use of analog circuitry produces audible frequency fluctuations through an adjacent speaker.
   
   

   Interactive and performative textile design and research involves molecule-sized computers, sensors, and electronic devices can be directly integrated into textiles using nanotechnology. Performative textiles are extensions of works of art that may serve as materials for costume and stage design, dance and other performances where flexible circuitry is woven into the fabric, programmed to respond in real-time to stimuli.

   *Janis Jefferies Goldsmiths College, University of London
   *Christy Matson The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
   *Barbara Layne Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

3. BOUTIQUE CLOTHING
   Tim Parry-Williams, sample fabrics and fabrics used by fashion designers Aenne Cordsen, Ian Batten, and Rubecksen Yamanaka.
   
   

   In the fashion boutique, limited edition or one-of-a-kind designs are the high end of the fashion market. Some of the designers featured formed their own entrepreneurial design and production business, others design the fabric for specific fashion design houses.

   *Tim Parry-Williams Bath School of Art and Design, UK
   *Leslie Armstrong and Anke Fox Nova Scotia, Canada
   *Pauline Verbeek-Cowart Kansas City Art Institute

4. EXCLUSIVE INTERIOR TEXTILES
   Hil Driessen, Inspired by Porcelain installation. Chaos/Reef Chair, Jacquard woven fabric designed using CAD images, chair by Gricic/Driessen for Classicon. Whitewear, porcelain bowl small, crocheted, dipped in paper clay, fired as image. Erosion, Cotton shirt with digital print "Inspired by Porcelain"
   
   

   Even though much manufacturing of interior elements has moved to China, India and South America, the textile designers in this section are capitalizing on the demand for high-end unique designs. There is a growing niche market for unique and personalized fabrics for interiors.

   *Anna Zaharakos Studio Z, Grand Rapids, Michigan
   *Jennifer Robertson Canberra, Australia
   *Ismini Samanidou University College of Falmouth, UK
   *Hil Driessen Amsterdam, Netherlands
   *Catharine Ellis Haywood Community College, North Carolina

5. PUBLIC AND CORPORATE TEXTILE COMMISSIONS
   Sara Clugage, Adam Kadmon I & II, cotton Jacquard woven "Adam Kadmon" is the term that denotes the manifestation of God in material form, a central concept of Kabbalah, which Britney Spears practiced for some time, roughly 2004-05. Behind her appears the text from the first two chapters of Ezekial.
   
   

   Fine art textiles, as a growth area for entrepreneurial textile artists, extends beyond dealers catering to an international collectors' market and craft trade fairs like EXPO Chicago, EXPO New York, and COLLECT in London. Corporate commissions favor large textiles for corporate and financial centers. Public art commissions are arguably the largest source of commissions for artists in the United States

   *Sara Clugage Oakland, California
   *Kari Merete Paulsen Bergen, Norway
   *Patricia Mink East Tennessee State University
   *Bethanne Knudson Jacquard Center, Hendersonville, North Carolina

*Names with asterisks are speakers at the January 7-10, 2009 Conference in Hendersonville, North Carolina presented by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design and held at the Bo Thomas Auditorium, Blue Ridge Community College.

Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles Conference will feature speakers from around the world who are leaders in the field. The conference will take place in Hendersonville, North Carolina with an opening reception Wednesday January 7, 2009 followed by the conference Thursday, Friday, and ending at 1pm on Saturday, January 10, 2009. The Conference, limited to 250 attendees, will be held on the Blue Ridge Community College Campus.

The opening of the conference will begin with a reception and exhibition of work of textile designers speaking at the conference, at the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, in Hendersonville, the conference host. The conference is divided into a half-day focus on each of five textile design growth areas. Three to four speakers in each of the five areas will give presentations as a panel, followed by break-out sessions featuring each individual speaker.

Thursday and Friday conference days will end with limited optional tours of The Oriole Mill or downtown Asheville. Registration for the Conference prior to October 1, 2008 is $250 for professional artists and $50 for registered college students; after October 1, the registration increases to $300 and $75. Ten percent of the conference was filled by June 1st.

The conference schedule with keynote speakers, in addition to the speakers asterisked above, can be found with a registration form at www.craftcreativitydesign.org/education/textiledesign or contact CCCD at 828-890-2050 to have a registration form mailed to you.

This exhibition presents the works of textile artist Edwina Bringle and potter Cynthia Bringle. These sisters have dedicated much of their lives to teaching, influencing innumerable students. This exhibition celebrates their contributions by exhibiting select works from throughout their lives. Both artists will give a talk at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 9th and will be followed by an opening reception.

The Mission of the Craft Research Fund Project & Graduate Research Grants is to encourage, expand and support research in United States Craft (contemporary and decorative arts) for professional scholars and graduate students.

This is the fourth year of the national grant program with the selection process moved from spring to fall to help administrators who also work with panel selection of the Windgate Fellowships in the spring. A description of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 Graduate Research Grants can be found on the CCCD website.

These SPOTLIGHTS highlight the accomplishments of Craft Research Fund grant recipients.

"In 2005 the Racine Art Museum received a grant from the CCCD to start the research that would lead to a scholarly exhibition providing the first critical appraisal of the career and work of the California artist Viola Frey (1933-2004). This grant led to extensive review of hitherto unopened archives, prompting RAM and the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, to co-organize a major exhibition that will present startling new perspectives on this artist's career. This show will open at RAM in Racine, Wisconsin, in April 2009 and then travel to the Gardiner and two other American museums.

Although much has been written about many of the San Francisco Bay Area artists, Frey's relationship with these artists and her contribution to the late twentieth-century dialogue about clay as a mode of contemporary expression has never before been fully evaluated. The show will also demonstrate Viola Frey's concern with the autobiographical, situating her within the larger, global concern with identity and self-revelation that pervades much of the art of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, especially that of women.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 144-page book published in conjunction with Hudson Hills Press. It features essays by Patterson Sims, Davira S. Taragin, and Susan Jefferies based upon new archival information from the Artists' Legacy Foundation, Oakland, California; the Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York; and the Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco; personal recollections; and interviews with Frey's family, early associates, and colleagues. CCCD funding was particularly helpful in the development of the manuscript because it allowed the authors to prepare and share information with one another and catalogue manager/editor, Terry Ann R. Neff of t.a.neff associates, inc. This ongoing dialogue led to fresh interpretations and discoveries that have never appeared in print before.

The funding was also critical in the finalization of the exhibition's checklist. Frey was a very prolific artist; the archives helped the curators identify not only which pieces were seminal to her development but also which ones she herself considered pivotal to her career. The book and the exhibition bring together research and new insights into the seminal role and the astonishing work of this artist."

"In 2005, I was awarded a Graduate Research Grant to study the woven work of artist Anni Albers (1899-1994), the influential Bauhaus weaver and professor at Black Mountain College whose name is synonymous with weaving and art. The grant enabled me to spend two weeks at the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, CT, where I was welcomed as a guest researcher. Within two hours of my arrival, I was set up with a work station, boxes of samples to catalog and document, and access to Anni's original works - it was a researcher's dream-come-true. There followed visits to the NC Archives in Raleigh, a sojourn at the actual site of Black Mountain College, and two weaving sessions at Penland School of Craft which greatly expanded my knowledge of weave structures and use of color.

While searching through the Black Mountain archives, I came across Anni's seminal article for Weaver Magazine (Jan/Feb 1941), "Handweaving Today: Textile Work at Black Mountain College." It was in this article that she outlined her academic philosophy towards weaving. In an equally seminal rebuttal (July/Aug 1941), Mary Meigs Atwater's, "It's Pretty -- But Is It Art?" addresses Anni's assertions point by point with her own, more traditional philosophy. Taken together, these two opposing views provide a glimpse of the beginning of our modern weaving experience - where innovation and tradition share equal space in galleries and classrooms.

Anni's insightful design philosophy and approach to woven textiles is incorporated into my weaving classes at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC. My students also learn about the craft movement in America and create a sample book featuring traditional weaving patterns. Teaching the next generation carries on the work of generations. That is the nature of craft to me.

Time spent researching, writing and lecturing about Anni's work has provided personal benefits, which far outweigh the initial research questions posed. It has nourished my need to explore a variety of materials yet, has enhanced my respect for and devotion to traditional weaving methods. The knowledge, experience, connections, and inspiration made possible by the Graduate Research Grant have become part of the fabric of my life and the lives of people I come in contact with."

"Since graduation from the College of Design at NC State, I've been getting a different sort of education. My classroom has been Mexico and the North Carolina mountains and Raleigh's gallery scene. Receiving the Windgate Fellowship has allowed me an intense exploration of my direction in the medium of fibers.

My work is fiber sculpture: hand woven and hand dyed fibers combine with factory made cloth in stiffened three-dimensional forms that seem to defy the laws of gravity. I began working in this way during my last semester of school, and with the help of the Fellowship I was able to fully explore this concept by creating a series of six female forms based on my own body. The Lady Series hung in a group show in Raleigh, and then in a solo show. The focus on concept and metaphor in that series led me to technical questions regarding my materials, and in July of 2007 I headed off to a village in Oaxaca, Mexico to learn about natural dyes. I lived in Teotitlan del Valle, a weaver's village, for a month learning to dye with cochineal and indigo from a local master. There I walked cobblestone streets to and from my teacher's house, bought fresh bread and fruit from the market, visited a cochineal farm, and wove with wool I dyed myself. I returned home with the knowledge and experience to carry out my own tests and experiments, dreaming of ways to incorporate natural dyes into my work.

My next big adventure came from a need to push myself beyond the boundaries that my current materials imposed. My work to this point was confined in its lack of solid structure: it could only reach so far before it collapsed from its own weight. My desire was to find a way to extend a gesture, capture the drape of a cloth, keep the weightlessness but provide stability beneath the surface. My solution was metal. I have long been fascinated by the material: I imagine the pencil line drawings that populate my sketchbook might be made from long and gracefully curving steel rods. I wanted to juxtapose the cold and unforgiving metal against the sensuality of fabric. I wanted to make steel appear soft. But first I had to learn about it. In March 2008 I travelled to Penland School of Crafts for a two-month metal sculpture studio. Under the guidance of Lee Ann Mitchell I learned to manipulate and fabricate steel. I learned blacksmithing and welding, and I stayed very dirty. Though I entered the class never having gone near any metals studio I left Penland enamored with the material, confident and comfortable in the medium and incredibly excited to tackle the issue of combining it with fibers.

Somewhere along the whirlwind that has been this past year and a half I decided that I wanted to continue the education I began with the Windgate in graduate school, where I could devote myself fully to the exciting possibilities I had found in metal and natural dyes in relation to my fiber work. So here I am today, writing this piece from my new home in Richmond, VA, where in a few weeks I will begin a new chapter of exploration in the fibers department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Thanks to everyone involved with this amazing Fellowship!"

SOFA Chicago 2008, November 7 - 9, 2009
The 15th annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair returns to Navy Pier's Festival Hall, presenting work from 100 international galleries and dealers. There will be a lecture series Nov. 7 and 8th, with presentations by renowned artists, collectors, and arts professionals. Admission to the lectures is included with a SOFA ticket. For more information visit www.sofaexpo.com

Cherokee Pottery: People of One Fire exhibition features a collection of visually stunning and culturally significant pottery made by the Cherokee people spanning centuries of dramatic culture change. From its utilitarian, ceremonial, and decorative uses in prehistoric times to its contemporary appeal as fine art, the pottery of the Cherokees has continued as a vibrant and distinct part of their culture. This traveling exhibition is sponsored by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation of North Carolina and features over 80 pieces. www.cherokeeheritage.org. On view at the Mountain Heritage Center in Cullowhee, NC, August 4 - Nov. 16, 2008.

CONFERENCE SOLD-OUT- 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.

A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression by Howard Risatti. Published by Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

What is craft? How is it different from fine art or design? Risatti examines these issues by comparing handmade ceramics, glass, metalwork, weaving, and furniture to painting, sculpture, photography, and machine-made design from Bauhaus to the Memphis Group. He describes craft's unique qualities as functionality combined with an ability to express human values that transcend temporal, spatial, and social boundaries. Craft must articulate a role for itself in contemporary society, says Risatti; otherwise it will be absorbed by fine art or design and its singular approach to understanding the world will be lost.

Thinking Through Craft is co-published in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Written by Glenn Adamson, Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, "this book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today's visual arts, when high 'production values' are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft's centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians. Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be 'inferior' to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analyzing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves." Source: www.amazon.com

Ornament as art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection This richly illustrated 528-page catalogue, available at amazon.com, features an introduction and essay by Cindi Strauss, an essay by Helen Williams Drutt English, an interview of Drutt by Strauss, a chronology of major events in contemporary jewelry, a complete illustrated checklist of the Drutt collection and artist biographies. This catalogue accompanies a landmark exhibition that explores contemporary jewelry from a global perspective. The exhibition traces the development of artist-made jewelry and honors its craft roots while also placing the work within a larger framework of seminal movements in 20th century art. Ornament as Art showcases a broad array of national and international works made between 1963 and 2006. The exhibition includes 300 objects, including 275 pieces of jewelry and drawings, watercolors, sketchbooks and sculptural constructions by the artists. Cindi Strauss, curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, organized the exhibition; Robyn Kennedy, chief of the Renwick Gallery, is coordinating curator for the exhibition in Washington.

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 métiers 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 métiers 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.

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.

email: info@craftcreativitydesign.org
phone: 828.890.2050
web: http://www.craftcreativitydesign.org