The Folk Art Center opened in 1980 at its present site with galleries, a library, Guild archives, the Allanstand Craft Shop, and a bookstore. It became the foundation of an excellent collection now on display at the Folk Art Center, located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 382. Before her death, Goodrich donated her craft collection to the Guild. These groups united in 1930 as the Southern Highland Craft Guild, which became a nationally recognized craft organization to preserve and promote its members and educate the public about the cultural value of craft arts. and the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, N.C. Other schools in the Southern Appalachian region began with similar ideals-Berea College and the Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Goodrich’s entrepreneurship blossomed as part of a national movement known as the Craft Revival, which promoted hand-crafted items as a way to bolster education, community life and local economies-an upbeat, homespun contrast to what critics saw as oppressive conditions of the Industrial Age. In 1897, she began a modest enterprise out of a log cabin building and named it Allanstand Cottage Industries. One of the women Goodrich had been working with gave her a beautiful coverlet as a gift, and Goodrich was so impressed with the quality and craftsmanship of the weaving, that she began to organize local women to produce such pieces that could be sold regionally and nationally. While teaching and counseling families in rural communities, she found a potential industry that could provide an economic boost to the region and give its women a connection to the wider world. Goodrich came to the Asheville, N.C., area as a volunteer with the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. If you take the time, you will get a glimpse into the very soul of mountain culture through its rich arts and crafts traditions.īack in the late 1890s, social workers and teachers came to communities in the Appalachians as part of various charity missions. The Blue Ridge Parkway not only provides panoramic views of nature.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |