Penland School of Crafts: Securing a Visual Legacy

FAIN: PW-264204-19

Penland School of Crafts, Inc. (Penland, NC 28765-0037)
Carey Hedlund (Project Director: July 2018 to April 2020)
Leila Hamdan (Project Director: April 2020 to August 2023)

The digital reformatting of at-risk 16mm film and magnetic audiovisual tape in the Jane Kessler Memorial Archives at Penland School of Crafts. Films to be digitized include raw footage documenting the school and students in 1930, 1950, 1969, and 1979 and over 200 interviews, demonstrations, and workshops with notable artists and writers.

Founded in 1929, Penland School of Crafts is an international center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Penland is at the forefront of the contemporary craft world while maintaining a strong link to its origins in traditional Appalachian culture. Penland’s history offers a complex array of values for the humanities that extend far beyond the making of things to include issues of culture, identity, place, collective work, creative process, lifelong learning, risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit, and self-discovery. This history also relates to American history and government policies, educational and economic reform movements, and the creative economy. Penland’s archives collects and preserves unique materials that capture the rich history of the school. This proposal focuses on the digital reformatting of at-risk 16mm film and magnetic media in the Penland archives and the creation of a digital repository at Penland.

Associated Products

Penland School of Craft Digital Archives (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Penland School of Craft Digital Archives
Author: Leila Hamdan and Mark Boyd
Abstract: A DAMS was created for the digital reformatting of the audiovisual collection at Penland School of Craft. A Content Management System (CMS) was created to provide open access for a broad audience to stream a portion of the digitized audiovisual collection.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://penland-archives.org/s/digital-repository/page/digital_collections
Primary URL Description: Audiovisual Collection and Photographs of Historic Buildings The film, video, and audio materials contain unique documentation of the history of craft in the Appalachian region from the 1930s through the early 2000s, documenting cultural attitudes about Appalachia as well as the genesis of specific crafts and early studio craft practitioners. The collection also includes historic photographs of campus of the campus, comprising a collection of buildings from the middle and late nineteenth century to the middle twentieth century either built for the Penland School or acquired and used by the school.
Access Model: Open Access

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