Danish ceramic artist Nina Hole will work with 5 faculty and 24 students, on three teams, to create a 2 story high FIRE SCULPTURE during the month of September. The site for the sculpture and residency is in front of Farthing Auditorium and Wey Hall on the campus of Appalachian State University (ASU) 733 Rivers Street, Boone North Carolina. Beginning September 9th the sculpture will be constructed over a brick firebox, and later wrapped in a heat-resistant material to form a kiln. The last three days of the residency, wood is fed into the firebox around the clock until the sculpture reaches temperature – 2000 degrees; at that point, for the exciting climax to the residency, the covering is removed. The public is invited to watch the “unveiling” of the FIRE SCULPTURE, around 8pm- if weather and firing cooperate. Free parking Saturday, September 23, will be available directly across Rivers Street from the sculpture site.

CCCD received support for this second international residency from the North Carolina Arts Council Public Art and Community Design Program, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and 3 tons of clay was donated by Highwater Clays of Asheville. Major support was also provided by Appalachian State University.

Inspired by the architectural shapes of Nina Hole’s work, and the method of firing with wood, curator Judith Duff, a Brevard woodfire potter, invited internationally recognized woodfire artists also influenced by architectural themes from the U.S. and Canada. From the large four foot high sculpture by Steve Sauer, to the quiet contemplative sculpture by Bill Griffith, each piece in the exhibit illustrates the flash of the fire on the clay. The exhibit opens September 19th and remains in the CCCD galleries, at the UNC Asheville Kellogg Center campus, 1181 Broyles Road, Hendersonville, until November 10th. Gallery hours are 1-5pm, Tuesday –Saturday. Directions on CCCD website.

Several of the artists are flying in for the 6pm reception in Hendersonville and traveling the following day to Boone, where a satellite exhibit of Architectural Echoes in Clay is on display at the ASU Catherine Smith Gallery, adjacent to the site of the Fire Sculpture. That exhibit opens September 11 until November 10. The ASU Catherine Smith Gallery will host a public reception for the artists Saturday, September 23, from 6-8pm. Many are old friends of Nina Hole, and look forward to joining her and the public for the unveiling of the Fire Sculpture that follows the reception.

CCCD received support for the exhibition in two locations, a catalog and educational CD, from the North Carolina Arts Council, Visual Arts program.

For information on the artists in the exhibition and images of their work.

In September invitations will be released to more than 50 colleges and universities across the country to nominate two students who will then complete an online application for one of ten $15,000 fellowships awarded to graduating or fifth year students. 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. Students must be nominated by one of the CCCD university partners.