May 2013

Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville, NC, Features Works by Students of Haywood Community College

The Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville, NC, is presenting the Haywood Community College Graduate Show, on view at the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Folk Art Center, through June 23, 2013.

Graduates of Haywood’s Professional Crafts Program will showcase their talents in wood, clay, fiber, metal and jewelry. This exhibition continues the historical relationship between the Folk Art Center and Haywood, an Educational Center Member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

Haywood Community College is located in Clyde, NC, just west of Asheville. The college’s Professional Crafts Program began in recognition of the region’s strong craft heritage. It was envisioned that students would learn the basics of craft media and how to transform that craft into a business. The clay studio was the first to open in 1974. With the addition of jewelry, wood and fiber studios, a comprehensive curriculum was in place by 1977.

The program’s total enrollment is about 60 students; classes are, therefore, small which allows for one-on-one student to teacher attention. Students come from the area, the nation and abroad. They may or may not have prior experience of their craft and many are pursuing crafts as a second or third career. The course of study is challenging, combining craft concentrations with supplemental classes in design, drawing, craft history, business, marketing and photography. Students spend the majority of their time in the studio making their work. At the end of the two-year program, graduates are awarded either a diploma or an Associate of Applied Science degree.

Haywood Community College and the Southern Highland Craft Guild share a history that documents the role of craft education in preserving traditional culture, creating economic opportunity and fostering professional practice. All of the artists represent the vitality and creativity of craft practice today, which is the ultimate purpose of both institutions.

Many Haywood graduates have become individual members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and have served the Guild in various capacities.

The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 828/298-7928 or visit (www.southernhighlandguild.org).

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