Southern Highland Craft Guild
Encyclopedia
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
craft organization that has partnered with the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
for over fifty years. The Guild represents over 1000 craftspeople in 293 counties of 9 southeastern states. It operates five retail craft shops and two annual craft expositions which represents the Guild members' work. These expositions occur in July and October and has been an event in the Appalachian mountain region since 1948.
Headquarters
The headquarters for the Southern Highland Craft Guild is at the Folk Art CenterFolk Art Center
The Folk Art Center is a museum of Appalachian arts and crafts located at milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina...
at milepost 382
of the Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles , mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains...
in Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
. There is an extensive arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
research public library available for anyone to use. The Folk Art Center also houses the Guild’s century-old Allanstand Craft Shop, three galleries of exhibitions, and a large auditorium.
The Folk Art Center admission is free. It is open daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day; January - March 9am-5pm; April - December 9am- 6pm. It houses the Eastern National Bookstore and Information Center. Visitors can often observe craftspeople at work in craft demonstrations as well as a series of educational events held year-round. The Guild crafts are seen by about a quarter of a million visitors each year.
History
The Guild was actually the brain-child of Olive Dame CampbellOlive Dame Campbell
Olive Dame Campbell was an American folklorist.Born Olive Arnold Dame in West Medford, Massachusetts, she married John C. Campbell, American educator, in 1907. After his death, she co-founded and directed the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina in 1925...
, founder of the John C. Campbell Folk School
John C. Campbell Folk School
John C. Campbell Folk School, also referred to as "The Folk School" is located in Brasstown, North Carolina. The School was founded to nurture and preserve the folk arts of the Appalachian Mountains, it is an non-profit adult educational organization based on non-competitive learning...
. She and other founding members met through the Southern Mountain Workers Conference which was held in Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
beginning in 1900. At the Southern Mountain Workers Conference of 1926 Olive Campbell suggested forming an actual official crafts organization. This was followed by planning meetings in 1928 and 1929 at which founding members decided the goals and by-laws of the Guild at the Spinning Wheel in Asheville, North Carolina.
They then came up with the name of Southern Mountain Handicraft Guild. The organization was chartered
Chartered
Charter or Chartered might refer to different things:* Charter, a legal document conferring rights or privileges* Chartered , a professional credential* Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a manufacturing company...
in 1930 as the Southern Mountain Handicraft Guild and in 1933 changed its name to the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild. The name changed again in the 1990s where the word "Handicraft" was changed to just "Craft".
During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and in the 1930s the Guild cultivated commerce for craftspeople in the Appalachian region. Educational programming is another fundamental element of the organization's mission. The Guild began work with the National Park Service in 1942 when they opened a shop on the Skyline Drive
Skyline Drive
Skyline Drive is a 105-mile road that runs the entire length of the National Park Service's Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, generally along the ridge of the mountains. The scenic drive is particularly popular in the fall when the leaves are changing colors...
in Virginia. Unfortunately, World War II gasoline rationing ended that for the duration. Various other venues such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North...
, and Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park is a U.S. National Park in central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System for the ridge under which the cave has formed. The park was established...
did not work out.
In the 1940s TVA work led to the formation of the Southern Highlanders, a craft marketing organization which was government sponsored and had shops at the Norris Dam
Norris Dam
Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control structure located on the Clinch River in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, USA. Its construction in the mid-1930s was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which had been created in 1933 to bring economic...
in Tennessee and the Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
in New York City. Because of the broad over-lap in region and purpose, Southern Highlanders merged with the Craft Guild in 1951. This same year the Parkway Craft Center that is run by the Southern Mountain Craft Guild opened at the Moses Cone Manor house.
Frances L. Goodrich was a founding member of the guild organization. She came to the Asheville region in 1890 to do educational and organizational work as a volunteer for the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. The idea of being involved in the arts and crafts field was an inspiration for her in the form of an antique bedspread. She had a background in art and knew about the Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
movement from years of living in Europe. She seized the opportunity to create a crafts market, because the coverlet
Coverlet
A coverlet is a fabric covering, usually for a bed.Specifically, the term "coverlet" may refer to a:*Woven coverlet, a bed covering used in the United States from the colonial period to the mid-19th century*Quilt...
gift brought home the fact that craft work was still being done in the mountains.
The founding members also launched the library, which today is a collection of 9000 books and materials on craft, craft history, international and regional craftwork, and other art and regional materials.
Since 1980 it has operated out of the Folk Art Center
Folk Art Center
The Folk Art Center is a museum of Appalachian arts and crafts located at milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina...
in Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
on the Blue Ridge Parkway as its permanent home. The guild is the second oldest craft organization in the United States behind the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts.
Collections
The Guild holds one of the largest collections of Appalachian Craft in the world with its exhibit featuring traditional woodcarving, textiles, furniture, basketry, pottery, dolls, and other crafts.The Guild's Permanent Collection consists of over 4000 items, which date back to the original gift from Goodrich, who gave the Guild her collection of "the best in mountain handicrafts." Only 200 objects are on display in the gallery at any one time.
The Southern Highland Craft Guild Collection of the guild organization represents approximately 200 historical craft works of southern Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
dating from 1855 to objects of the modern craft movement.
Many of the pieces date from the 19th century and were collected by Goodrich. Goodrich was 74 when the Guild was actually founded and so while she was involved, her main contribution was in deeding her Allanstand Cottage Industries sales outlets to the new Guild.
Membership
Membership in the organization is strictly of those that represent John C. Campbell's definition of AppalachiaAppalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
. The active members come from a nine-state region that includes counties within the Appalachian mountain area of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Alabama. Membership in the organization is restricted to the counties identified as "The Southern Highland Region" by John C. Campbell
John C. Campbell
John C. Campbell was born in La Porte, Indiana, on 14 September 1867 to Gavin and Anna Barbara Campbell, and grew up in Steven's Point, Wisconsin...
.
These craftspeople produce both traditional and contemporary objects. It is also regarded as an achievement in one's chosen craft because of the strict standard requirements. To become a member of the Southern Highland Guild craftspeople must pass a rigorous jury process. Craftspeople may apply to become a member in a specified media category of; clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, fiber
Fiber
Fiber is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread.They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together....
, glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
, leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
, manmade materials, metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
, mixed media
Mixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
, natural materials, paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
and jewelry. The initial phase of standards jury procedure includes a written application and the preliminary screening of the applicant’s work through the presentation of five slides. Part two is the object jury when members of the Standards Committee together with a panel of media specialists evaluate each applicants work. Only about 10% of applicants are accepted.
The Craft Fair
The Craft Fair produced by the Southern Highland Craft Guild started in 1948 and six decades later is a tradition. More than two hundred craftspeople fill two floors of the Civic Center twice each year. Local musicians play live on the arena stage; craft educators share their knowledge with adults and children alike through demonstrations and hands-on projects. Eleven thousand visitors from all over the country participate in festivities during the four days of the show. Over the course of the event, nearly a million dollars are invested in the purchase of crafts.The shops
Allanstand Crafts was started by Presbyterian missionary Frances Goodrich in 1895. Ms. Goodrich bestowed ownership of the shop to the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild in 1931, the year after the Guild was formed, for the purpose of allowing the fledgling organization to have a strong financial base from which to carry out its mission. Located in downtown Asheville, North CarolinaAsheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
, from 1917 until it moved to the Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles , mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains...
's Folk Art Center in 1980 Allanstand Crafts has been recognized as one of the nation’s top craft shops with arts and crafts made by members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The shop continues to offer for sale an array of work from traditional mountain crafts and folk art to the latest in contemporary American craft.
Guild Crafts
Guild Crafts is located at 930 Tunnel Rd. in Asheville, North Carolina. They are a pair of stone houses built in the 1940s by Ralph Morris Senior for Stuart Nye and the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Guild Crafts continues as a craft shop offering handmade crafts of jewelry, pottery, baskets, ironwork, glass, and fiber. Seasonal live craft demonstrations and daily tours of the Stuart Nye workshop are available free of charge to the public.Guild Crafts was originally the Guilds Headquarters in Asheville as well as a shop to supplement Allanstand. It began operations in 1955 and expanded as Guild offices moved out.
Arrowcraft Shop
Arrowcraft Shop, located on the campus of the Arrowmont School of Arts and CraftsArrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is an arts and crafts center in the U.S. city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The oldest craft school in Tennessee, Arrowmont offers workshops in arts and crafts such as painting, woodworking, glassblowing, photography, basket weaving, and metalworking, and...
, was founded in 1926 by Pi Beta Phi
Pi Beta Phi
Pi Beta Phi is an international fraternity for women founded as I.C. Sorosis on April 28, 1867, at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Its headquarters are located in Town and Country, Missouri, and there are 134 active chapters and over 330 alumnae organizations across the United States and...
, the nation's oldest college women's fraternity. Pi Beta Pi started the Arrowmont school and the Arrowcraft shop. The Guild, Arrowmont School, and Arrowcraft Shop have a joint history, which goes back to 1930, when Arrowmont joined with several other craft cooperatives to form the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The Arrowcraft Shop helped mountain families in this remote region gain independence by providing them with a source of income from the sale of their handiwork. Today, known simply as Arrowcraft, it is the oldest gift shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Gatlinburg is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Gatlinburg had a population of 3,828. The city is a popular vacation resort, as it rests on the border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along U.S...
. The shop has gradually become independent of the school and is now managed as a Guild shop.
Cumberland Crafts
Cumberland Crafts is the newest shop of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, located at the crossroads of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia in Middlesboro, Kentucky at the Cumberland Gap National Historical ParkCumberland Gap National Historical Park
Established on June 11, 1940, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located at the border between Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Cumberland Gap is a sizable natural break in the Appalachian Mountains....
Visitor's Center.
Parkway Craft Center
The Parkway Craft Center, which is operated by the Southern Highland Craft Guild, opened at Moses Cone Manor in Blowing Rock, North CarolinaBlowing Rock, North Carolina
Blowing Rock is a town in North Carolina, USA, situated in both Caldwell and Watauga counties. The population was 1,418 at the 2000 census. However, during the summer the town's population increases to about 10,000.]]\\...
in 1951.