Thursday, November 21st @ 2 pm US Eastern Time
How does a school help to facilitate the dreams of a student and help them identify and reach their goals? – or even the dreams and goals of an instructor?
Haywood Community College’s Weaving/Fiber Program, which was started in 1977, has done just that for dozens of weavers over the years. The program began because of a perceived need and the vision of two school administrators who were both natives of Haywood County in the Appalachian region of North Carolina. They knew the local tradition of craft and its history in the region and were perceptive enough to create a brand-new craft program that was designed to help craftspeople learn skills and to continue those traditions in the late 20th century, and now, well into the 21st century.
Join Catharine Ellis, Haywood Community College’s Fiber Arts Instructor from 1977-2008, along with Amy Putansu, who took over the program and is currently teaching, and Olivia Goldstein, a recent graduate, as they talk about what the Professional Crafts Program has meant to them as individuals and to the textile community.
This program is free & open to all.
Panelists:
Catharine Ellis came to Haywood Community College in 1977, when the Professional Crafts Program first began. After two years of teaching color, dye, and design classes, she became head of the Fiber Program, where she taught for 30 years. During those years Catharine worked with students of all ages and skill levels, and always with the goal of finding each students’ unique focus. Catharine is the author of Woven Shibori (Interweave Press, 2005, 2015) and, with co-author Joy Boutrup, The Art and Science of Natural Dyes (Schiffer Press, 2019)
Amy Putansu began teaching at Haywood in 2008. She is a graduate of RISD in textile design and was a studio artist in Maine before coming to North Carolina. During her tenure at Haywood Amy has graduated over 65 Professional Crafts Fiber students. She has managed the transition into a new crafts facility on campus (in 2011) and updated some curriculum course descriptions to broaden the scope of textile techniques offered in the program. Currently Amy’s contemporary textile art is represented by Blue Spiral 1 Gallery (Asheville, NC) and Penland Gallery (NC).
Olivia Goldstein originally from New Jersey has lived in Asheville NC for nearly a decade. She graduated from Haywood Community College (2018) with a degree in professional Craft Weaving. She has since returned to school to pursue a degree in Mass Communication with a focus on videography in order to obtain the necessary skills to follow her passion of documenting textiles, specifically weaving around the world. She is currently a full-time student at UNC Asheville, and in the final stages of editing a documentary titled “Weaving Resistance,” shot in Guatemala during the summer of 2023 in conjunction with undergraduate research from UNCA.
