The Southern Highland Reader

First posted June 20, 2008

CULLOWHEE–Amy Ammons Garza glows.

She’s standing before a dazzling quilt with some twenty intricately detailed blocks that seem lifted straight from the pages of a finely illustrated children’s picture book. For each block, the rich and vibrant colors are so thoughtfully chosen that the quilt has an illuminated quality like stained glass.

Each panel, in fabric relief, illustrates key episodes in the cultural history of the Southern Appalachian region.

Designed and executed as a collaborative effort by members of the organization Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, based in Sylva, the quilt helped celebrate the group’s 15-year anniversary in 2004. Now in its 19th year, the grassroots, non-profit organization founded by Garza, a storyteller, and her sister, visual artist Doreyl Ammons Cain, is as dedicated and committed as ever to honoring and preserving the cultural heritage of Southern Appalachia.

The Catch the Spirit of Appalachia anniversary quilt was just one of many on display at this year’s Patchwork Fabric Festival held at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. The festival was sponsored by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, Inc., the Jackson County Recreation and Parks Department and the Appalachian Homestead Farm and Preserve.

The annual event is a showcase of local and regional fabric crafts, among them: quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, tatting and crocheting. But more importantly the venue provides a very hands-on way of educating the public about the rich heritage of fabric artisanship in southern Appalachia. Many of the participants were willing to not only discuss their particular craft, but to offer demonstrations and lessons.

As Amy introduced me around, it was clear that the quilts attracted much of the attention and excitement from festival-goers.

A popular draw was the hourly “bed turning,” officiated by Brenda Anders of Dogwood Crafters and master quilter Larry Walther. Thirty-six vintage and modern quilts were spread across an antique bedstead, and together Brenda and Larry described each in turn. Most (of the quilts featured in the hourly “bed turning”) were traditionally patterned with such designs as Attic Window, Double Wedding Ring, Dutch Girl, Grandmothers Flower Garden, Kentucky Rose, Log Cabin, Star, Sunflower, Tulip and Trip around the World.

A few “sample” quilts were on view, a pattern that Anders says often serves as an aspiring quilter’s first attempt. Sometimes as many as twenty-four different patterns are worked into a sample quilt, allowing the quilter to practice her skill and eventually master each individual pattern.

Also on display were a collection of “crazy” quilts pieced together with varying scraps of satin and velvet, intricately embroidered and hand stitched. Crazy quilts are the most whimsical quilt design, with no intentional design at all, just an abstract mosaic of fabric scraps fitted together in a random puzzle pattern.

One of the more memorable of the selection was a stunning 1920s vintage quilt made in a grandmother’s flower garden pattern, so detailed in stitch work and design it took the quilter thirty years to complete.

One of the more memorable of the selection was a stunning 1920s vintage quilt made in a grandmother’s flower garden pattern, so detailed in stitch work and design it took the quilter thirty years to complete.

Some standard patterns were repeated in the quilts chosen for the “bed turning” to show the skill and creative idiosyncrasies of each quilter.

Walther pointed out that hundreds of patterns exist, but that there is infinite room for variation when designing and executing a quilt. The choice of fabrics, color combinations, thread color, and stitch work are the sole decision of the quilter, limited only by skill level and imagination. And indeed, many of the quilts were similarly patterned, but absolutely no two were alike–clearly a tribute to the imagination of each quilter, and an acknowledgement of individual style.

“Quilting is not for the faint of heart,” laughs Ruth Moore Pruitt. “The work required is laborious, and tedious, with many processes,” she says. “You really have to love it.”

Ruth’s enthusiasm is infectious as she describes the quilts she has on view for this year’s festival. Ruth’s first quilt, in the Sunbonnet Sue pattern with hand appliquéd dolls, was made for the birth of her granddaughter, Gracie, also an aspiring quilter. Although Ruth didn’t begin quilting until after her retirement, she always knew she wanted to be a quilter.

“My mother was a quilter,” she tells me, “it’s in my blood.”

Born in Sylva, Ruth spent most of her life living and working in Maryland, including twenty years active duty in the Air Force. Her quilts reflect a sense of place, and her desire to become a quilter was a “grassroots endeavor,” she claims; a way to reconnect to her home and to steep herself in the history of place and family.

She considers quilting and other handcrafts as a way to be self sufficient; pointing out that at one time these skills were a necessity for survival, not simply a decorative art. But regardless, Ruth’s quilts are an artistic achievement. While she employs many traditional patterns, her color combinations show a refined sense of style. She is drawn to traditional Navajo imagery and uses the color turquoise to reflect her love of these designs.

Also exhibited at this year’s Patchwork Fabric Festival were several vintage and modern quilts that expressed a more avant-garde approach to quilt making.

Designed as a fabric replica of a tile floor found in an English cathedral, Larry Walther’s cathedral quilt with some 2,000 pieces pushes the envelope of traditional quilt making. Larry finds his inspiration in antique quilts, claiming them to be the earliest examples of modern, abstract art. “These women were doing abstract things with fabric as early as the earliest quilts,” he says. “Great thought and skill was put into these quilts. They were as planned and finely executed as any piece of modern art. Quilts were abstract art before abstract art had a name.” This sentiment is shared by many scholars, historians, and collectors of quilts.

Local quilter Nancy Friedrich, known for her super imaginative style, a style she describes as “creatively out-of-the-box,” was on-hand to discuss some of her ideas about quilts and quilt making.

Friedrich attributes her evolution as a quilt maker to world-renowned quilter, Jinny Beyer, who is known for her uninhibited and non-conventional use of color. Nancy, too, is noted for her use of bright, contrasting colors. “My quilts”, she smiles, “have more energy because of all the different colors used.” She describes her quilts as works in progress from beginning to end, which seems the result of her less traditional method of improvising patterns by taking groups of fabric and piecing them together as she goes, stopping when fabric runs out.

Interest in quilts has waxed and waned over the years, but the current quilt “fervor,” as local quilter Mary Ann Budahl calls it, began sweeping the country following the American Bicentennial; an event which cultivated in many a nostalgic interest in folk art and traditional crafts.

However, many quilt historians attribute the “fervor” to a single event; in 1971 the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York launched an exhibition of historic quilts entitled, “Abstract Design in American Quilts,” thus elevating quilts to the level of high art.

According to Peter Koch of the Mountain Heritage Center, at Western Carolina University, the center’s quilt collection began around that time. Since the 70s, the Center has collected around 80 quilts, including individual quilts, and, “quilts that represent a collection of work from a specific quilter.”

Many of the Center’s original quilts were donated as parts of larger collections of family items.

“A good example,” he says, “are the Henry G. Hall quilts, three quilts from the Leicester Community of Buncombe County that came as part of a collection of close to 300 household, music, craft, and military items.”

More than 40 quilts from the Center’s collection are now on display for a worldwide audience following the launch of the Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org), an online resource catalog.

The WCU museum’s quilts that are shown on the Quilt Index Web site are representative of those produced by families who lived in Western North Carolina from the 1830s through 1975, said Suzanne McDowell, Mountain Heritage Center curator.

“Quilts from our collection now have a World Wide Web audience and are available to researchers to further the knowledge base of women’s work and women’s lives,” McDowell said.

The last thirty years or so has seen a continually cresting wave of interest in quilts, as well as a tremendous body of scholarly work dedicated not only to the study of quilts as forms of abstract art, but also, as significant artifacts important to the understanding of women’s roles in the early domestic history of America.

But more work remains to be accomplished, especially in regional studies. When asked if there are any regional distinctions in the quilts of Southern Appalachia, Peter Koch says, “to tell you the truth, there is not much to be found in the Center’s quilts that show any distinctive Southern Appalachian trend to quilting. One might say instead these quilts are representative of southeastern United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are possibly more regional patterns afoot here, but we are not there yet, and I think quilt historians in general aren’t there either.”

Hopefully, locally sponsored events like the Patchwork Fabric Festival will inspire others to take an interest in quilting and to further the understanding of there rightful place in the cultural history of Southern Appalachia.

For Amy Ammons Garza it’s about honoring ones roots. “The significance of quilts and all the handcrafts on display today,” Garza says, “is what they tell us about the heart and soul of this region.”

“Woven into each quilt is the spirit of someone who has gone before us, and they whisper the history of a people deeply rooted in these gentle mountains.”

More on quilting

“Coverlets and Quilts” from DigitalHeritage.org

CULLOWHEE – L. Douglas Wilder, the first African-American elected governor in the United States, told a group of Western Carolina University students, faculty and staff that there is still progress to be made in terms of race relations, despite the historic election of Barack Obama as president in 2008.

Recent controversy over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments that a light-skinned, articulate black was more palatable to white American voters provides evidence that America has not advanced as far as many may think, Wilder said Wednesday, Jan. 20.

In a talk titled “The Movement: Past, Present and Future” that was part of WCU’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration week activities, he spoke about the irony of Reid’s comments coming 20 years after Wilder’s own election as governor of Virginia – a state that once was the seat of the Confederate South.

“That election in 1989 seemed to signify that voters were ready to judge candidates not by the color of the skin, but by the content of their character,” Wilder said, borrowing a phrase from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. “Here today, Reid is saying that, 20 years later, we really haven’t crossed that threshold.”

Although Reid has since apologized to Obama for private remarks that were made public in the new book “Game Change” about the 2008 presidential election, he still needs to apologize to the rest of the country, Wilder said, calling the embattled politician’s statements among “the most dreadful comments in American political history” and “a slap in the face of the American people.”

Wilder reminded the audience that, throughout American history, progress typically has not been made through big, permanent changes. “It’s about small, consistent steps forward achieving that dream,” he said.

Wilder urged attendees to become aware of the false hopes and false steps that can derail efforts to strive for the American dream. “Don’t ignore your problems, hoping they’ll just go away,” he said. “Don’t think that if you just be patient and wait your turn, you’ll eventually get your time at the front of the line. And don’t think that only insiders know what’s best.”

He also warned against the impact of an increase in selfishness, violence and acceptance of mediocrity on the ability of today’s young people to continue to make progress. “What we need to do next is to not stop dreaming,” he said. “Barack Obama’s election has elicited the need for new dreams.”

Too many people today are quick to blame their problems on others, he said, telling the crowd that his mother constantly reminded him that he could do anything he set his mind to, and that his teachers never complained about a lack of resources.

The WCU event was sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Martin Luther King Jr. planning committee.

MURPHY–An elementary and middle school in the Murphy area could be the first in the region to implement an extensive solar power array if the Cherokee County school board gives the green light.

The 4,300 panel array would cut power costs at St. Martins Elementary and Middle School by 85% over 20 years, with a total cost avoidance of over $1 million, according to school superintendent Stephen Lane.

The system would be paid for by green energy tax credits issued by Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corp.

Read a story about the project from Lizz Harold at Murphy’s Cherokee Scout here.

STATEWIDE–North Carolina’s charter school law is weak, according to the Center for Education Reform, a national organization based in Maryland that promotes charter schools.

Lynn Bonner at the Raleigh News and Observer blogs that the organization criticizes North Carolina for limiting the state’s number of charter schools to 100, and for failing to help existing schools with facilities costs. The Center ranks North Carolina 29th of 40 states that have charter school laws.

View state-by-state rankings here.

Jean Van’t Hul at Asheville’s Artful Parent interviews children’s author and poet Susan Marie Swanson.

An excerpt:

JEAN: Why do you feel poetry is important for children?

SUSAN MARIE: Poetry is part of our cultural legacy. Like visual art, storytelling, music, dance, theater, and other arts, poetry belongs to everyone. Poetry welcomes and challenges us with its rhythms, sounds, and patterns. Reading poems, we can imagine and explore different ways of thinking, feeling, and experiencing the world. Poetry maps the territory of the human heart.

JEAN: Do you have any tips you can share with those of us who are interested in encouraging our children to explore poetry as an art form?

SUSAN MARIE: Invite young children to tell you things and to play with words. Write stuff down for them, without worrying about whether it is a story or a poem or a report or something else. But be open to the thought that their words could be poems.

Read the entire interview here.

Baseball

2009-12-09 – Baseball early signees.

2009-12-06 – The College Baseball Blog on Catamount team visit to Elida Home.

2009-07-10 – Asheville Reynolds standout picks Western.

2009-07-07 – Nice feature on pitcher Corey Martin (drafted by the Cubs) from the Yadkin Ripple.

2009-07-07 – Complete rundown of Catamounts in the minors from Catamountsports.com.

2009-07-07 – Former Catamount and recent Arizona Diamondbacks draftee Brent Greer jackin’ em in Yakima.

2009-07-07 – Ross Heffley, rising sophomore, recorded an odd stat line for the Orleans Firebirds in the prestigious Cape Cod League during a recent 9-3 win over Bourne. Heffley registered just one official at-bat, going 0-for-1. But he had three sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly with two RBI.

2009-07-07 – Western’s 24-23 win over Eastern Kentucky last season brought back memories of a 32-16 loss to Ohio State in Cullowhee almost three decades ago. I watched that one as a junior high kid, then about a decade later saw the Cats rally from about ten runs down with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat App.

Ron Rash

CULLOWHEE – Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the 2009 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his fourth novel, “Serena.”

The award is presented annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in recognition of works of fiction that exhibit “creative and imaginative quality, excellence of style, universality of appeal, and relevance to North Carolina and her people.”

Rash will pick up his award at a February meeting of the association in Greensboro. He also won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award in 2006 – that one for his third novel, “The World Made Straight.”

Published in October 2008, “Serena” tells the story of timber baron George Pemberton and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. The book drew widespread praise from critics across the nation after its release. A New York Times reviewer complimented Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice” and listed the book as one of her 10 favorites of 2008, and “Serena” made the “best of 2008” lists of Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The book also was No. 7 in online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of 2008.

A native of Boiling Springs, Rash teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU. His next book, a compilation of short stories titled “Burning Bright,” will be released in March.

Railsback

CULLOWHEE–Brian Railsback, dean of the honors college at Western Carolina, is a finalist for the newly-created position of Vice President for Student Affairs at Missouri Western State University, according to the school’s student newspaper.

Railsback was founding dean of WCU’s Honors College in 1997, resigned to be Department Head of English in 2000, and was called back to The Honors College as dean in 2004.

Missouri Western’s President is Robert Vartabedian, who served as Dean of Western Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences between 1999 and 2005.

UPDATE: Railsback stays in Cullowhee; Esther Peralez, former vice president for student affairs at the City College of New York, is hired at Missouri Western.

Track and Field

2009-11-30 - WCU track and field releases 2010 schedule. From Catamountsports.com

2009-07-14 - Former Catamount sprinter Manteo Mitchell performs well at US National Club Championships, has decision to make. From Catamountsports.com

2009-06-03 – Senior Manteo Mitchell has received an at-large bid to the NCAA track and field championships.

2009-05-19 – Signee Brandon Hairston of Carver High in Greensboro wins two state championships. Read more here

Coach Danny Williamson’s track and field teams are fresh off another phenomenal year. The men won first at the SoCon Track and Field Championships, the women finished second.

REGIONAL–The Artful Parent posts here about a new exhibit on display at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville: Building Small: American Folk Art Houses and Structures.

An excerpt from the Artful Parent:

These folk art houses are from the collection of Steven Burke and Randy Campbell, the largest such collection in the country. According to the exhibit attendant this is the first (and probably only) time this collection will be exhibited.

Here’s a promo at the Arboretum website.

Building Small: American Folk Art Houses and Structures

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University‘s soaring pool of applicants is described as a “success story in outreach and marketing” by Smoky Mountain News reporter Giles Morris in this piece for the November 18 issue. News editor Becky Johnson adds, in a sidebar, that the quality of students could rise with the number of applications, and that the university’s student retention rate — often a problem in Cullowhee — has risen past the national average.

Here’s a clip from Morris’s story:

“What our staff is hearing — whether during an Open House, a campus tour or one of our regional recruitment events across the state — is that people are attracted by the affordability WCU offers and the dynamic, unique blend of academic majors available at WCU,” [WCU employee Mark] Anderson said. “Prospective students and their parents are very aware of all the new buildings and construction on campus, what a beautiful place Cullowhee is, and that the total student experience is possible at WCU.”

Here’s an excerpt from Johnson’s sidebar:

Despite a rise in applications –– tripling over three years –– enrollment at WCU has not risen significantly. The bigger pool has allowed the school to seek a higher caliber student, said Chancellor John Bardo.

The school has raised its academic standards, as measured by the average GPA and SAT scores of new students. The SAT went from 1023 to 1033 between 2003 and 2009. In 2003, the GPA was 3.25, compared to 3.48 this year.

“That’s a really, really big change in the nature of students,” Bardo said.

Left for future issues, maybe, is another number that is rising at Western: the student-to-teacher ratio. Traditionally one of Western’s calling cards, that ratio is rising quickly because of budget cuts, and those cuts are likely to worsen in the next couple of years. How will the school meet the challenge of teaching this growing pool of smart students?

Read the Smoky Mountain News story here.
Read the Smoky Mountain News sidebar here.

REGIONAL–Western Carolina University associate professor Anna Fariello takes an in-depth look at the extraordinary world of Cherokee basketry in her new book “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders”, just out from the History Press of Charleston, South Carolina.

Fariello heads up the Craft Revival Project at WCU.

Here’s an excerpt from a story by Jill Ingram for The Reporter:

An author, editor and former research fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Fariello most recently turned her attention to Cherokee basketry, a thousands-year-old tradition, passed from mother to daughter, that she believes is integral to Cherokee culture. Fariello’s new book, titled “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders,” studies Cherokee baskets and basket-makers who lived during the first half of the 20th century.

The project reinforced Fariello’s understanding that for Cherokee people, “the making of things is significant to their culture and their identity,” a concept foreign to many people in contemporary, mainstream culture, she said. The Cherokees’ use of natural resources as basket materials gave Fariello an appreciation of the environmental sustainability and ecological balance also inherent in the culture.

Read the entire story and view photos here.

REGIONAL–Asheville Citizen-Times editorial page editor and columnist Jim Buchanan (a Sylva native) notes in a Sunday column that North Carolina was recently named number one in the nation in terms of its business climate by Site Selection, an economic development magazine.

It’s the eighth time in nine years that the tarheel state has been so named.

Buchanan points out that the warm-hearth economic climate is limited to certain parts of the state.

An excerpt:

North Carolina’s business climate, it seems, is a lot like its … well, climate. Different parts of the state have markedly different weather. And looking at the Site report, it seems the same applies to business weather.

In the Charlotte/Raleigh corridor and the Research Triangle area, the business climate is blindingly beautiful. Business partnerships with universities and colleges are humming along, and the area has transitioned well from the tobacco/textiles/furniture economy to finance, medical and energy concerns.

<snip>

No silver bullet solution to the economic downturn or economic unevenness came out of our board conversation. Instead, many familiar issues and questions resurfaced, like the geographical and transportation challenges that are unique to the mountains. And frankly, blue-skying about economic development is fine, but that’s down the road. The task at hand for our leaders in a time of rolling credit crisis, high unemployment and an era of want most of us have never witnessed in our lifetimes is to simply make sure the social fabric doesn’t rip clean apart.

Read the whole piece here.

CULLOWHEE – Native American artist and activist Shan Goshorn will visit Western North Carolina in November for a talk at Western Carolina University and a demonstration at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts.

“Pieced Treaty,” wood pulp splints and commercial dye, 20 by 20 by 26 inches, by Shan Goshorn, 2007.

An artist working in a variety of media, including paint, photography and mixed-media, Goshorn will speak about the progression of her work and her art as an expression of her activism during an artist’s talk at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Room 130 of the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the WCU campus. The event is free and open to the public.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, Goshorn will lead a workshop demonstrate her process of hand-tinting black-and-white photography at OICA, 70 Bingo Loop in Cherokee. The workshop is limited to 25 people and includes lunch and supplies, although participants may bring their own black-and-white prints, in a matte finish. No artistic background is required.

Goshorn is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and lives in Tulsa, Okla. An artist for more than 25 years, she has exhibited work across the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Africa. Her work addresses contemporary American Indian and human rights issues, including Indian stereotypes and treaty violations. For example, Goshorn wove “Pieced Treaty,” a basket in the traditional Cherokee “spider’s web” pattern, from paper printed with tobacco agreements between the state of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation.

“‘Pieced Treaty” refers to the continual breaking of agreements,” Goshorn said. “I deliberately left the basket unfinished because the negotiations appear to be ongoing.”

The piece won first place in the basketry division of the 2009 Red Earth Festival’s artist competition and has been purchased by the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Goshorn’s work is featured in numerous other collections, including the Institute of American Indian Art; in Cherokee, her work is in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual.

The WCU School of Art and Design and the Oconaluftee Institute are co-hosts of Goshorn’s visit. The visit is funded by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, an initiative operated through Western Carolina University’s Cherokee studies program.

The Oconaluftee Institute partners with Southwestern Community College and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to offer an associate’s degree in fine arts. An agreement with WCU allows graduates to enter the university as juniors pursuing the bachelor of fine arts degree.

STATEWIDE–The Raleigh News and Observer‘s Mark Johnson writes today that North Carolina’s community college system is seeing a huge jump in enrollment.

We posted here, earlier, about increases in enrollment at Southwestern Community College in Sylva, and also noted a substantial increase at Western Carolina University. The WCU jump bucks a trend of more-or-less steady enrollment at four year schools statewide.

Here’s an excerpt from the N&O story:

College enrollment nationally hit an all-time high last October of 11.5 million, or 40 percent of young adults from age 18 to 24, according to a Pew Center study released Thursday. Enrollment has been rising for years, but the recent spike was entirely at community colleges, according to the report.

While enrollment at four-year institutions was flat from 2007 to 2008, community college student ranks jumped from 3.1 million to 3.4 million young adults. The schools have seen that uptick continue this year.

“That’s the community college story,” said Scott Ralls, president of the state system. “The worse the economy is, the more likely we are to grow.”

Read the entire N&O piece here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University political science professors Gibbs Knotts and Christopher Cooper took a close look at the state of political awareness and participation on NC campuses in this Saturday column for the Charlotte Observer.

Here’s the lead:

It is well-established that young people vote at lower levels than others in the electorate. For example, approximately 40 percent of 20-year-olds voted in the 2004 presidential election, compared to a turnout rate of more than 70 percent for those in their 70s.

Fortunately, there are some indications that the times may be changing. Youth turnout during the 2008 primaries was significantly higher than it has been in the past. Young people also are getting involved with campaigns at higher rates than ever before, and early voting data provides some indication that youth turnout in 2008 will be at its highest level in recent memory.

Read the whole piece here.

CULLOWHEE–A WCU professor is one of three authors of a study published in Services Marketing Quarterly and reported on in Daily Finance that shows that consumers suffer from various levels of “stage fright” when they use self-checkout machines at grocery stores.

An excerpt from the Daily Finance story:

” … if there was just one other person waiting in line behind them, (consumers) felt more pressured and less confident and were less likely to use the machine again or recommend it to others.

“It’s almost like stage fright,” said Michael Capella, assistant professor of marketing at Villanova University, one of the study’s authors.

Another:

A recent study from London-based consultants Retail Banking Research estimated the number of self-checkout machines in the U.S. will grow to nearly 192,000 in 2011, more than tripling the 59,000 that were in use in 2007, when the recession started.

Read the Daily Finance story here.
Download the report here.

HIGHLANDS, N.C. – The Bascom is taking its community youth art classes up a notch with a new Saturday program for elementary through middle school age children.

Saturday Art School at The Bascom begins next Saturday, Oct. 24, for kindergartners through eighth graders. Fun, hands-on, age-appropriate art classes are held every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Classes are held for two different age groups: grades K-3 and grades 4-8.

A student in a Bascom youth art class works on a project. A new program called Saturday Art School at The Bascom begins next Saturday, Oct. 24, for kindergartners through eighth graders. Registration is going on now.

The K-3rd Grade class will introduce children to all sorts of materials and methods of art making, with an emphasis on self-expression and immersion into the joy of creating.

The 4th-8th Grade class will cover the fundamentals of art while exploring a variety of media. While having fun with new materials and concepts, students will be gaining an understanding of the basic elements of art that form the foundation for future art study.

“Bring your child to art school for the morning,” said Norma Smith Hendrix, Bascom education director. “Parents can come and have coffee in The Bascom library while their child is in class, or they can drop off their child and enjoy a walk either on our nature trail or downtown Highlands.”

Cost is $64 for an eight-week session, with all materials included. Pre-registration is required and now open.

For more information or to register, visit www.thebascom.org or call (828) 526-4949 ext. 100.

CHEROKEE-“We stand on the edge of becoming a truly unique voice in the world for indigenous art and culture,” said Joel Queen, new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee.

Queen, whose art is displayed in such places as the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum in London, says that art is the same language wherever you go. “The language of our Cherokee art is so storied with paintings, weaving, wood crafts, stonework and ceramics and I’ve spent my life creating in the Cherokee mediums,” said this enrolled member of the Eastern Band. “I’ve been able to make a successful living at it but now it’s time for me to give back and that’s why I chose to work with OICA.”

Master Cherokee potter Joel Queen, the new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee, demonstrates a unique technique of using a cloth diaper to allow movement and expansion of clay. Luzene Hill, OICA program outreach coordinator, watches as Queen molds the strip of clay inside as he begins creating a piece of pottery.

His students, like Mike Taylor of Cherokee, respect the artistic heritage Queen brings to the institute. Members of Queen’s family have been potters for nine generations. “A lot of potters will keep their family secrets but I believe in sharing and in keeping the traditions alive so they don’t get lost,” said this grandson of potter Ethel Bigmeat. “One of the reasons to create art is so people can see their past and their future.”

“Part of our strength at OICA comes from our generational teachers like Joel and John Grant, who teaches wood and stone carving,” said Luzene Hill, program outreach coordinator for the institute.

“We give students a foundation in traditional methods, but we also give them the freedom to create contemporary art,” said Hill, an artist whose work is exhibited in private and corporate collections across the country.

Students of all skill levels are welcome at the institute, a joint endeavor of the Eastern Band, Southwestern Community College and Western Carolina University.

Students can earn an associate of fine arts degree from Southwestern. If they want to continue their education they can transfer to Western Carolina University, or any other college in the state university system, as a junior to pursue a bachelor of fine arts degree.

“Not all of our students want to go for a higher degree and we help them find their place in the market,” said Queen. “That’s important- they can be a great artist but if they don’t know how to market their work, they won’t be able to make a living from it.”

“Joel has his own business and gallery so he is the perfect person to help our students with marketing,” said Hill.

At present the classes are small enough that instructors can individualize a program around the student’s skill level.

Queen said part of his job is “taking students’ love of creating and helping them through the steps to achieve the vision they think their piece should look like. My job is to challenge them, to help them push their boundaries and see just how far they can go.”

But before they push the envelope and break all the rules, Queen teaches his students just what the rules are –rules he has learned from a personal mastery of clay and from knowledge and talent passed down from eight generations before him who sifted and kneaded hand-dug clay, stamped it with hand-carved wooden paddles and fired it in traditional pit fires.

“Here at the institute we respect and honor the traditions of our Cherokee ancestors. But after students master technique, we encourage them to show innovation and creativity,” said Queen. “For our Cherokee culture to evolve, our art must evolve first…and art is the same language, no matter where you go.”

While the institute is a mix of traditional and contemporary, the students are also a mix. About half are Cherokee and the others represent a mix of cultures, according to Hill, an EBCI enrolled member.

“The more students we get, the more programs we can offer,” she said. For more information, call 497-3945 or stop by the new location at 70 Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee.

HIGHLANDS–California actor Lee Stetson will take on the likeness of John Muir in a performance Friday at the Highlands Playhouse. The show, called “An Evening With John Muir”, is sponsored by the WNC Alliance and the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance.

Tuckasegee writer Thomas Crowe previewed the performance in the most recent issue of the Cashiers Crossroads Chronicle; here’s an excerpt:

While the Sierras were [Muir's] preferred stomping grounds, he did travel, throughout his lifetime to many areas of the country, including the western N.C., mountains.

As if by some kind of time-warp or reincarnation intervention, Muir will be returning to the mountains of western N.C., for the first time since his visit in 1867 as part of his now-famous 1,000-Mile Walk.

As a walk (in to the body of California-based actor Lee Stetson) Muir will be giving talks in Asheville and Highlands that relate some of his most remarkable adventures in the wild, including a remarkable “tree ride” in a windstorm, a “sleigh ride” on a snow avalanche, his “interview” with a bear, and a face-to-fang encounter with a rattlesnake. Muir’s true wilderness tales are liberally salted with his wilderness philosophy–all around the theme of the health and invigoration one acquires when one fully and joyfully engages wildness.

But even more important to us, here in the Smoky Mountains, he will be talking about his time spent here in the western Carolina mountains.

Read the entirety of Crowe’s piece here.

The performance in Highlands on Friday, October 9 at 7 p.m., will also include a “Meet Lee Stetson /Patron’s Party” from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., which will include wine and hors d’oeuvres. For ticket info, visit the Jackson Macon Conservation Alliance website, here.