Dates: May 11-September 18, 2024

Contact: The Folk Art Center

[email protected]

828-298-7928

Exhibition: Graduating Class of 2024: Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Program

Location: Folk Art Center, upstairs Main Gallery

The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 Blue Ridge Parkway in east Asheville, NC

Admission: Free

The Southern Highland Craft Guild Presents the Graduating Class of Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Program

Asheville, NC- The Southern Highland Craft Guild opens its Main Gallery exhibition showcasing the Graduating Class of 2024 of Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Program on May 11th at the Folk Art Center and runs until September 18. Located on the second floor, the show continues the historical relationship between the Southern Highland Craft Guild and Haywood, an educational center of the Guild. This new generation of craft is lead by instructors Amy Putansu in fiber, Brian Wurst in wood, Emily Reason in clay, and Angela Bubash in metals & jewelry.

Students of the Haywood program come from all over, with or without prior experience of craft, and sometimes pursuing it 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. 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.

Instructor Brian Wurst of the Professional Crafts Wood program says, “Our programs have thrived for nearly five decades, and our relationship with the Southern Highland Craft Guild has been a key part of that. We’re always thrilled to have work showcased at the Folk Art Center, and in turn scores of our alumni have gone on to become active Guild members. The Graduate Show is the capstone of two hard years by these students, and it’s a delight to share it in this beautiful space.”

Haywood Community College is located in Clyde, North Carolina, 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. Anyone interested in taking courses at Haywood Community College can contact the success coach, Farrah Rodriguez. [email protected] 828.627.4505.

The Haywood Community College Professional Crafts Program, Graduate Show, Class of 2024 is a free exhibition at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in East Asheville. For more information, visit www.craftguild.org/exhibitions or call 828-298-7928. For more information about the Professional Crafts Program, call 828-627-4674 or visit creativearts.haywood.edu.

The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in east Asheville. Headquarters to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Folk Art Center also houses three galleries, a library, a craft shop and a Blue Ridge Parkway information desk and bookstore. The Center is handicap accessible and open daily from 10am-5pm. Admission is free.

Contact for questions:

Nikki Josheff, curator of exhibitions at the Folk Art Center, [email protected], 828-298-7928

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The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to cultivate the crafts and makers of the Southern Highlands for the purpose 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. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north of the Highway 70 entrance in east Asheville, NC.