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

This talk and tour accompanies our current exhibition, Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles, providing an opportunity for the community to tour The Oriole Mill, Saturday, July 12 at 1pm with Bethanne Knudson, The Oriole Mill Design Director and owner of The Jacquard Center, a residency educational program for JacqCAD software. Textile designers wanting to create boutique one-of-a-kind or limited addition textiles must travel to the few mills that cater to designers, locations like Montreal, Canada; Florence, Italy; Tilburg, Netherlands; and now Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Bethanne Knudson holds a BFA in Fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute, as well as an MFA in Textiles from the University of Kansas. Knudson taught at the university level from 1987-1995 and did training and technical support for JacqCAD MASTER software from 1997-2004. She founded The Jacquard Center in 2000, where artists are taught how to use the software and she works with The Oriole Mill, where production occurs following training on JacqCAD software.

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.

The 8th International Conference of the European Academy of Design in Aderdeen, Scotland will take place April 1-3, 2009. The European Academy of Design and Gray's School of Art, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland invite submissions of abstracts related to one or more of the conference themes (500 words maximum). To submit your abstracts go to www.designconnexity.org. After reviewing, authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit papers up to 2,500 words in length that report significant and original design related research. Accepted papers will be refereed and published in the conference proceedings. The conference offers a forum for design academics, researchers, practitioners and industry representatives to meet, exchange ideas and share new knowledge and insights across the field of design. The conference includes keynote lectures, papers, posters and an exhibition of practice-based design research.

American Craft Council's Summer in the City Salon Series "Inside Out: Current Conversations in Craft & Beyond" at the Council Library located at 72 Spring Street, 6th floor, New York, NY. Reservations required: Contact Monica Hampton at mhampton@craftcouncil.org or 212.274.0603 x272.

July 24, 2008, Connect/(Dis)Connect with Bruce Metcalf & Chanel Kennebrew. 6-7pm followed by a reception. www.craftcouncil.org

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. Currently, it is on view at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, NC through July 27, 2008. Next stop is 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.

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