GoodSearch is a search engine

that contributes to your favorite non-profit organization when you use it to find information on the internet. If you download the GoodSearch toolbar for Arrowmont from this site your searches automatically benefit Arrowmont, you get a direct link to Arrowmont's website, Amazon's site and Ebay's site. And when you shop at many online websites, like Amazon and Ebay, a contribution is made to Arrowmont by the site. All of these contributions are made at no cost to you when you use the internet to search out information or to make purchases you would make anyway.

Find out how GoodSearch was started, how GoodSearch and GoodShop work here, and get started giving a little gift to Arrowmont whenever you search or shop. It's easy, it's safe, it's smart giving and the question is, why wouldn't you do it?

The Mountain Press applauds the task force...

that reported to the Arrowmont Board of Governors on three possible locations for Arrowmont's permanent home in an editorial today; you can read the entire column here. I think it was gracious way to publicly thank eleven busy individuals for sharing a great deal of time and energy with Arrowmont, and I thank The Mountain Press for consistently keeping the school's current project in the news.

Local media report on Arrowmont...

whenever there's action by the Arrowmont Board of Governors and a media release http://www.arrowmont.org/MR-Arrowmont-Task-Force-Presents.pdf is presented by the Arrowmont staff. Usually the local newspapers, The Mountain Press of Gatlinburg, Sevierville and Pigeon Forge http://www.themountainpress.com/pages/home ), the Knoxville News Sentinel http://www.knoxnews.com/ , Josh Flory, business columnist for the KNS and blogger http://blogs.knoxnews.com/flory/ , The Seymour Herald http://seymourherald.com/ and the Greeneville Sun http://greenevillesun.com/ pick up the media release verbatim. Following the task force's report to the Board on its visits to the three possible locations for the Arrowmont of the future, however, the Greeneville Sun presented an article by Rich Jones, the Assistant Managing Editor, which you can read here: http://greenevillesun.com/story/309601 .

You can GoodSearch on "Scott M. Niswonger," and "Mary Jane Coleman" to read about some very interesting and caring people in East Tennessee. Wait - you don't know what GoodSearch is? Come back Tuesday for information on this search engine that donates to your favorite non-profit (like Arrowmont!) each time you search on a term.

Christa Assad will be teaching

ceramics at Arrowmont the week of June 6 - 11; her course is called "Cut and Construct Intensive." Take a look at her gallery here: http://christaassad.com/gallery/ and if clay is your medium be advised that she can squeeze a couple more students into her class. I think I'm attracted to her work because not only does it make me want to reach into my computer monitor and grab a piece, but she's a master colorist whose glazes fit her pot shapes perfectly.

The four artists in residence will be departing Arrowmont to start new adventures and the new artists will be arriving in mid-June. If you have not visited the residents' blog you should click on this link http://arrowmontresidents.blogspot.com/2010/05/changing-of-residents.html and read not only the current post about the four new arrivals but also the posts from the past year. Photographs of Arrowmont in all seasons are excellent and the artwork of Victoria, TJ, Martina and Kent is well-documented. The residents work hard and with good humor not only in their own studios but also teaching in the community and assisting in so many ways in Arrowmont's workshops, auctions and other events, and this year added outreach to, well, anyone in the world who reads the residents' blog. Keeping up with them has kept me in touch with Arrowmont and its spirit of sharing.

Spend a week with a friend at Arrowmont

Last summer my sister and I went to Arrowmont together. She took a class with Kathy Cooper http://kathycooperfloorcloths.com/ in making floorcloths and I took a course in dyeing for making quilts with Elizabeth Barton (http://ebarton.myweb.uga.edu/ and http://elizabethbarton.blogspot.com/ ). Now, my sister Kathleen and I don't see each other very frequently but we really enjoyed our vacation in the Smoky Mountains; we worked all day, enjoyed meals and the evening events together and visited all the studios each day to observe and applaud the progress of students in other media. I think that we both found that a vacation learning skills and reviewing them with criticism only sisters can share to be both fun and rewarding.

When I got back to Georgia with new skills and dyeing confidence as well as fifteen yards of freshly colored fabric I found myself emailing a couple of my classmates, Bonnie from Indiana and Elaine from nearby Knoxville. We send each other pictures, fabric, websites, our newest handmade pieces. We commiserate with each other over life's potholes and rejoice over life's rewards. We share the latest tidbits of information about Arrowmont's future because we will all keep returning to the school for teaching, learning and volunteering. Last summer we were acquaintances and now we are friends.

In March of this year I signed up for a workshop with Cynthia Toops http://www.cdbeads.biz/ in working with polymer clay. Eternally frugal, I made certain that I got that early application discount; I'll spend the money I saved (and more) in the Artist Outfitters supply and book store. Last week I found out that Bonnie and her husband will be at Arrowmont at the same time; Bonnie will be learning to make glass beads from Cynthia's husband Dan Adams and her husband, an accomplished woodworker, will be studying with Dixie Biggs ( http://dixiebiggs.com/gallery ). I bet Elaine will drive to Gatlinburg sometime during the week to join us for dinner and, since the class is the first full week in September, to celebrate the announcement of the location of Arrowmont's home.

I'm ecstatic that I'll be seeing my long-distance friends at the same time that I'm learning new techniques in a favorite medium with one of the best polymer clay artists ever. And probably adding new Arrowmont friends to our little circle!

Great news...

A May 18 update to the Arrowmont website (http://www.arrowmont.org/) says that events and workshops will be scheduled through 2012, and that the school's Board of Governors will announce the location of the campus of Arrowmont in August, 2010. Stan Voit of "The Mountain Press" reports on the two-day meeting of the Board in this article: http://www.themountainpress.com/view/full_story/7470488/article--Arrowmont-board-gets-status-update-from-task-force-?instance=latest_articles

Any guesses on where we'll be taking and teaching workshops five years from now?

Arrowmont's history is heartwarming...

and well documented from its beginning in 1912 as the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School established by the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity. You can see a brief synopsis on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrowmont_School_of_Arts_and_Crafts but the photographs, essays and document images on the Arrowmont website (http://www.lib.utk.edu/arrowmont/history.htm) tell a fascinating story of the school and the southern mountain community. Fiber artists will find Philis Alvic's Weavers of the Southern Highlands particularly interesting, filled with information about the importance of weaving to the income of local families, and visitors to Arrowmont can pick up a copy of Adrienne Mitchell's booklet, "50 Years of Education at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts."

No matter where the school is located five years from now its roots are firmly in the rocky soil of Gatlinburg and Sevier County, Tennessee and there will always be a warm connection to the families and students it has served.

Take a workshop this year...

and next year too, to experience the historic campus of Arrowmont as it has evolved slowly over nearly ten decades. Because no matter where Arrowmont finds its home - even if the campus remains right where it is in Gatlinburg just above the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - the school will be changing more quickly. More people will know about its programs and events and more populations will be served: youthful art students, meeting participants, shoppers seeking art supplies and finished examples of clay, wood, glass, metal and fiber and oh, gosh, more!

Visit the Arrowmont website: http://www.arrowmont.org/ and find a one-week or two-week course and enroll. Bring your supplies and bring your camera and video camera, too. Make stuff and make friends. Document your visit up close and over the rooftops and take home photographs and email addresses of classmates, because a week at Arrowmont creates skills and inspiration for months of work and memories to enjoy for a lifetime.

At the age of ninety-eight...

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, stands at the edge of change. After decades of leasing its campus and most of its buildings, the school is about to embark on the process of land ownership. This blog is presented to document this change, to help support the school, staff and board of governors verbally, visually and financially as they take the first steps in this project and to provide a forum for Arrowmont students, instructors, and any other interested individuals to share and celebrate their experiences at the school in the mountains.