| Appalachian Center for Crafts
The Joe L. Evins Appalachian Center for Crafts is a nationally renowned facility housing an unique combination of programs. The Craft Center operates academic programs, workshops, cultural outreach programs, exhibition and sales galleries, and facilities for meetings and conferences.
Made possible by the largest federal grant ever awarded for crafts, the $5 million complex opened in December 1979. Originally developed by the Tennessee Arts Commission and funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Craft Center is now a division of Tennessee Technological University.
Spectacularly located on several hundred acres overlooking Center Hill Lake in Middle Tennessee, the Craft Center's facilities are among the finest and best equipped in the nation. The Craft Center is dedicated to promoting excellence in American craft by preserving tradition, teaching innovation, and involving the community. The total space exceeds 87,000 square feet, with studio space of approximately 50,000 square feet, a library and a conference room, two audio/visual lecture rooms, more than 4,000 square feet of exhibition and sales gallery space, student housing, administrative offices, and a cafe.
The nationally recognized full-time faculty are dedicated professionals deeply involved and committed both as teachers and craft artists. The Artist in Residence program also brings six fully trained early career artists to the Craft Center as resident assistants each year.
Academic Programs
The Appalachian Center for Crafts is unique as a state-of-the art educational facility and cultural center combining teaching, research, cultural outreach and crafts marketing, all operating in partnership. The Craft Center's primary academic focus is the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree concentrations in clay, fibers, glass, metals and wood. Non-degree concentrated study leading to a Certificate of Accomplishment is also available in these media. The Craft Center also provides required studio courses for art education, painting and design majors at Tennessee Tech, and studio electives for a variety of students. The excellence of our studio training is widely recognized, and a majority of the Craft Center's alumni have continued to develop professional studio careers.
Workshops and Outreach Programs
The Craft Center provides a rich cultural resource to the public through workshops and educational outreach programs. Our workshop programs have consistently offered weekend, evening and week-long summer workshops to hundreds of individuals annually, including hobbyists, advanced students, and professional artists and crafts people from across the United States. We also serve thousands of school children (K-12) annually through field trip experiences, which include lecture/demonstrations and hands-on projects, as well as taking artists into regional schools to work with students.
Galleries and Cultural Events
The Craft Center's three exhibition spaces bring over 25 diverse exhibitions a year to a region of the state that would otherwise have few. The Appalachian Center for Crafts Sales Gallery is committed to the exhibition and sales of the finest traditional and contemporary craft being produced in Tennessee and the Appalachian region and represents over 100 craft artists, most of them from Tennessee. Craft Center staff estimate a minimum of 30,000 tourists visit the center each year, while the Army Corps of Engineers has estimated nearly 100,000 visitors. Arts, educational, business, civic and private groups bring 3000 users to the conference facilities annually. The Craft Center also hosts visiting artists and an artist in residence program which are national and international in scope. These programs coordinate with the exhibition and workshop programs to present dozens of artist lectures and symposia to the public. The Craft Center regularly hosts visiting artists from across the U.S. and around the world.
A Partnership of Education and Cultural Development
The Craft Center provides a unique educational model combining studio crafts with cultural and economic development. The interaction of the academic program with the gallery's marketing activity, visiting artists, and the wide variety of professional craftspeople teaching workshops has created a unique climate for the preparation of working craftspeople. Our faculty and staff have nurtured a growing liaison with the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists (TACA) and other professional groups and individuals to expose students to the entrepreneurial elements of a career as a craft artist. We promote the awareness of marketing and promotion in our curriculum and have hosted marketing and craft business workshops in conjunction with TACA. At the same time, the academic program attracts a broad range of artists who enrich our public cultural programs.
This fusion of traditional crafts and creative education reaches from the grass roots to the international craft world. The Appalachian Center for Crafts is a vital expression of the rich cultural contribution of the unique cultural character of Tennessee.
Full Details may be found at: http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/ |
