g Arts & Culture

Crafted by hand

WNC ARTISTIC COMMUNITY CONTINUES TO THRIVE

Using your hands to make what you need or desire is a unique trait in Southern Appalachia — the idea that if you can’t find it or afford it, you build it. That notion is soaked into the creative minds and curious spirits of Western North Carolina.

This region has a storied history of handmade crafts, ranging from weaving to woodworking, pottery to jewelry. From the passed down traditions of basket weaving and stonework of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to the arts of metalsmithing and glassblowing, there has always been a rich atmosphere of creation in these parts.

Throughout the year, Western North Carolina plays host to numerous art and craft festivals, shows and exhibits, all in an effort to provide the crafter with a platform to share their wares with locals and visitors in search for that perfect piece.

Welcome | ARTS & CULTURE The art of sitting and listening | CITIZEN VINYL

In a seismic move further propelling the Asheville and greater Western North Carolina music scene into the national spotlight, Citizen Vinyl has become a beacon of art, culture, and history for the region.

Situated in the historic Asheville Citizen-Times building on O. Henry Avenue in downtown, the property is home to an extensive artistic collaboration. At the heart of this musical project is Citizen Vinyl, a record manufacturing facility (the first ever based in the state).

The collaboration also includes Session (Citizen Vinyl’s adjacent bar/cafe), Coda: Analog Art & Sound (an immersive art gallery and retail space), and Citizen Studios (WWNC’s former broadcast station, now an in-house recording/mastering facility).

At the core of this artistic beehive is Gar Ragland of Citizen Studios. A longtime professional musician, record producer, and label head, Ragland brought WWNC’s legendary Studio A back to life. And with that, he helped a piece of American musical history currently enter its next bountiful phase.

Citizen Vinyl plays into something we love not only about Asheville, but Western North Carolina: the idea of collaboration.

Exactly. I think that this project is a great case study for that. We feel like it’s a tremendous privilege and responsibility to be doing what we’re doing in that building. Our whole team has so much reverence for it and the architecture.

Our whole approach with this project has been to be as minimally invasive to the building, to our design, and our concept, as we possibly can be. And frankly, it’s to our advantage because [the building] has so much to offer. Why would we mess this up and try to reconfigure it into something that it’s not? This [building] is beautiful art.

Obviously, our number one goal is to be a successful business. And we want to earn the reputation nationally for being the go-to for quality record manufacturing. But, as a collective under this building, we want to symbolize — and remind people of — the deep, historic, and artistic history of Asheville.

Two of the pillars of American music, Jimmie Rodgers and Bill Monroe, both got their starts in WWNC’s Studio A.

Studio A is where Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys played live on the “Mountain Music Hour.” So, that for me is a total added bonus. It was always my dream that, with a project like this, I would have an onsite room where I could continue to do the work that I love — as a producer, a mixer, and a record label guy.

Also, we ended up with a building that had a history of manufacturing. The Asheville Citizen-Times printed the newspaper in the building [for many years]. So, we’re honored to be able to bring modern-day manufacturing back to this amazing building.

And not only that, but we now have a first-class state-of-the-art analog recording studio upstairs where we’re celebrating the history of that radio station.

It’s a very intentional experience. We want people to come in and feel included, invited, welcomed, and inspired by good sound and food. It’s a multisensory celebration of life. We hope that we can be the community resource that we have built this to be.

In a very endearing way, it feels like a love letter to Asheville.

Yeah, I mean, Asheville has been really good to all of us. This is a way of celebrating and honoring that. I think all great art is created in part by a sense of gratitude and grace. And if this is it, this is the way that we are manifesting that, then that’s a wonderful thing.

If we can use this project as a way to really reaffirm our artistic identity as creative forces in Asheville, and to help those new audiences that Asheville continues to attract learn about our rich cultural history and manufacturing — if we can serve that role as kind of an inspiration to the creative community, kind of a landmark in that way — then we would love that to happen to the benefit of Asheville. n

The lobby at Citizen Vinyl. Gar Ragland.

The Bascom in Highlands.

Along with innumerable artisan galleries in every downtown and home studios dotting the mountainous landscape, there’s also a handful of renowned academic institutions promoting and teaching the specific skills to the next generation of crafters.

From the acclaimed Penland School of Crafts in Bakersville to the professional crafts program at Haywood Community College in Clyde, the future of handmade items is not only in safe hands, it’s revitalizing what it means to make something and be able to find a market for it. “The professional crafts program at HCC is very unique. It promotes not only creativity and craft, but also how to market yourself as an artist,” said Amy Putansu, fiber instructor at HCC. “The students here are learning to make things, and make things well, with the emphasis around their ethics very positive, very minded in the local sustainability movement. I love it because they’re creating a whole new future, a different shape of manufacturing in America, a new design in conjunction with manufacturing.”

With textile crafting a large part of the heritage in Western North Carolina, the students are not only preserving traditional skills, they’re perpetuating them.

“It’s about staying in touch with history,” Putansu said. “It’s maintaining that thread through generations, time, and history. It’s about what we do, the objects we make, and it’s really important that history doesn’t get lost.”

Hailing from Rock Hill, South Carolina, woodworker Ben Grant has made Western North Carolina his home for the better part of the last seven years. Originally a construction worker, he became enthralled with the idea of building something from nothing.

“I fell in love with the hands-on aspect of woodworking

immediately, but my craftsmanship was terrible. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I stuck with it and the results became very fulfilling,” Grant said. “I didn’t know where woodworking would take me exactly, but, at that point, I knew it was what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life.” From 2009 to 2012, Grant found himself enrolled in workshops at Penland. In 2016, he graduated from HCC with a degree in “Professional Crafts-Wood.” “The HCC woodworking program was extremely beneficial. Students are given the freedom to explore design ideas and techniques while being skillfully guided,” Grant said. Situated in the River Arts District (RAD) of Asheville, the gallery and studio of painter Mark Bettis is a living, breathing studio, MORE AT where Bettis is constantly at work, turning a large blank canvas BEVERLY-HANKS.COM into something completely his own. Can you imagine a local community's identity based “There’s traditional painters that follow the rules — I don’t follow the rules. I’m always thinking, always getting lost in the zone of on its arts scene? Explore the creativity,” Bettis said. “Here, it’s a working art studio. People come ways art galleries make a in, look at the paintings, watch me paint, ask me questions, maybe difference in the community purchase something.” at beverly-hanks.com/blog/ impact-local-art-galleries-wnc. Originally from Chicago, Bettis spent most of his formative years in Florida, bouncing between marketing, advertising, and design gigs for large firms. Although Bettis had visited Asheville in the 1980s on a road trip, it wasn’t until about 12 years ago when he put down roots in Western North Carolina. “The love the creative aspect of Asheville. This place has always been a beehive of creativity,” Bettis said. “I like the freedom here to do whatever I want. This city is so welcoming to artists and supportive of whatever it is they want to create.” Bettis’ studio is surrounded by dozens of other studios, which is the signature of what makes the River Arts District so rare of place to wander and explore. “What makes the RAD so special is that we’re working art studios, instead of going to a gallery, where you don’t know who the artist is and you just see a name on the painting,” Bettis said. “Here, you meet the artist, talk to them, and see what they do in real time. One thing I like about this town is that there’s a lot of entrepreneurs — artists or small businesses — who take charge and make their dreams a reality — anything goes here.” n

AGENT’S CHOICE:

“The River Arts District in Asheville, home to many studio artists of the mountains, is definitely a favorite place to explore! The Folk Art Center in Asheville is a ‘must stop’ along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Asheville Art Museum showcases Western North Carolina’s cultural heritage including Studio Craft, Black Mountain College, and Cherokee artists.”

— Michelle McElroy, Waynesville office