Penland School of Craft

★★★★★Jill * Weaver

A wonderful place for adults of all levels who are looking to learn a craft or advance their skills. The gallery is open to the public and features nationally known artists. The campus is beautiful and well worth a visit.

★★★★★Marilyn Hartness

This should be a destination of every artist. The variety of mastered crafts makes it a very educational place to study: jewelry making, pottery, woodworking, weaving, glass making, foundry for iron working. It’s an hour 20 minutes East of Asheville.

★CHE

I had a white teacher sending me black thumb emojis in texts. I reported it and was expected to do a mediation, which I refused because I already had a conversation with the teacher demanding that she stopped. I learned that that teacher went to a on campus counselor and shared her fears for being held accountable and again, the situation was not dealt with. Why would a teacher who violated Penlands Inclusivity rules go to a on campus counselor out of guilt and share what that felt like for her to be held accountable. The counselor did not reach out to me nor was it dealt with. I complained to a staff member in the office and she redirected me to that very same counselor who admitted that (Andrea) the teacher sought sympathy from her. I filed a report and waited two weeks to hear what corrective action would be taken to respect the students. I heard no response. I reached out asking to hear what steps would be taken and Mia Hall claimed corrective action had been taken already. I dropped out of the course immediately after the incident and demanded a full refund. A week after, another student dropped out of the class while the same teacher, Andrea, who insisted in sending black thumb emojis stayed throughout the whole course and still sent black thumb emojis to other students. The school made no effort to remove this staff named Andrea who found humor in humiliating her students. In the whole school of over 100 students, during my brief time, there was only three African American students and one African American teacher. There is a serious lack of diversity and education about inclusivity in the school with surrounding support of confederate flags in the community. Students travel and spend over $5,000-$10,000 dollars on rent, food, and resources to attend this Institute, not to mention travel fees. The Institute had fabricated on their website that they are inclusive and provide safety to their students. This was not my circumstance nor other students who dropped out. I emailed the board of trustees as well. They also did not respond to my email. In case you plan on attending, just know that racial injustice can happen to anyone and know that if you have a conflict here is proof that steps are not taken to provide an inclusive environment. But instead a traumatizing one.

★★★★★Shawn jones

Being here at penland has been such a magical experience I mean just to be able to do what I love for 2 weeks straight and just be in such a beautiful place has really been a jaw-dropping experience and honestly I can't wait to come back again sometime

★★★★★M.-A. Hasan

Best place to visit and enjoy live-art in-the-making within 150 miles! Enjoy great coffee/tea/sandwich/soup in the Pine Hall Cafeteria and wander around between buildings to see glasswork, woodwork, ceramic, printing, paper making, knitting, ironwork, etc. Meet the artists and students making the art. A must visit! A hidden gem in the mountains. Don't forget to discover the galleries of artists living nearby. This is a central area between Asheville and Boone (one hour to each city), so staying in this area gives you a lot to discover the nearby attractions such as Linville Falls, Crabtree Falls, Mitchell Mountain, Roan Mountain, Grandfather Mountain, Sugar mountain and the Blue Ridge parkway.