Considering the potential for a unique discourse, and with Penland as a willing partner, I was able to think far beyond the normal parameters of a writer’s residency in craft. One person I turned to was Lydia Matthews, who I so admired after meeting her at a program at the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. Lydia is a writer, curator, and professor at Parsons The New School for Design. Her way of thinking about critical writing made so much sense to me. A respected teacher on the subject, I truly valued Lydia’s input. Together we talked about the importance of broadening the audience for craft as well as deepening cultural insights related to contemporary craft practices. Lydia and I began to discuss writers who had written interesting works addressing a broad range of subjects: the environment, community, makers, objects, and so on. The writer selected for the 2010 residency, Ingrid Schaffner, and for 2011, Barry Lopez, are prime examples.
Ingrid, who comes from a fine arts background and works with the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, has produced excellent exhibitions and catalog essays on exhibitions using craft media that explore her areas of interest such as feminism, photography, and historic surrealism. She will bring her keen sense of exploration to craft media and expand the boundaries of curatorial concepts beyond the individual object. Her work as a curator in this vein will surely enliven the two weeks she will spend at Penland. Barry Lopez writes about subjects as diverse and connected as language, the American landscape, the environment, and community, as well as craft. We believed he could share similar insights during his residency, drawing those subjects together in a meaningful way. Because of his experience as a teacher, he will bring a bounty of gifts to the Penland community during his two weeks in 2011.
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I felt Penland School of Crafts, located in North Carolina, is an ideal host for the writers residency program. Writers interested in art, craft, environment, and culture will have an unparalleled opportunity to do something totally new. The views and experiences of the school’s residents, core students, workshop students, instructors, and administration are mixed with artists who chose to permanently live nearby. The level of personal and professional creative investment within the artists’ community that is Penland provides a depth of exposure in craft that is unattainable in most other places.