Exhibition Archive
2024
Mary Lynn Bowman and Jim Bowman, Paintings and Sculpture
September 21 – October 19, 2024
This exhibit was a retrospective of the past 30 years of work by Mary Lynn and Jim Bowman. Mary Lynn’s work included paintings in oil/mixed media and wall-hung fused glass works. Jim’s work included glass and mixed-media sculpture.
About Mary Lynn Bowman
My artwork is a personal journal of my writings, paintings, and sketches. I refer to these things and my poetry when I work.
I am never bored with experimenting with glass, which always gives me fresh ideas in my artwork. I am challenged to use the materials and colors I have to express what I feel as a woman in her 70s trying to figure out my life in the present and what I have felt as a small girl child growing up in the 40s and 50s. My adolescence is still a mystery to be figured into my work at a later time. My work is narrative and reflects myself and my surroundings, my fears, and my joys. My imagery comes from my dreams, from what I observe in humanity, and from my search for the truth.
About Jim Bowman
I was born in Cameron, Texas and currently live and work in Burnsville, North Carolina. I have a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Glass, and I have a passion for the creativity and ingenuity that glass art requires. My work ranges from small table-top pieces to large-scale sculptural and architectural installations. It includes blown glass vessels, wall-mounted and free-standing sculptures, and leaded glass architectural panels.
My autonomous work is sculptural in nature. It is an ongoing experimentation with glass forming processes. In much of my work, I combine glass with other materials, such and steel, wood, concrete, and found objects.
Stanley Mace Anderson: 1978 – 2024
August 10 – September 14, 2024
Stanley Mace Andersen has been a studio potter since 1978. He works with earthenware clay and is concerned primarily with making utilitarian ware for the table and kitchen. He uses the majolica technique in decorating his pottery which is fired in an electric kiln to cone03. He wants his pottery to contribute to the enjoyment of preparing and presenting food. He paints quickly and directly on the raw glazed surface, creating liquid flowing lines, splashes of color, and overlaps of brushstrokes. This creates a feeling of exuberance and casual spontaneity. Rhythm and grace in the brushstrokes are important to both his pleasure in the process and the final result. His continued use of this technique has evolved over time. The final product is important, but “it is the process where I am most likely to find inspiration”. The exhibition showed the evolution of his work with pieces from past to present.
Robin Martindale: On and Off the Wall
August 3 – September 7, 2024
As I see it, art-making is a meditative process. When I work, I learn who I am. Visual art is a way of communicating that is as visceral as music but much more subtle, particularly when it is non-representational or abstracted. We absorb things visually and take joy in that vision without taking the time to name it.
The original idea for the exhibition was to propose a show at the old Toe River Arts Council space in Burnsville, NC. The work would include small clay sculptural pieces that would hang on the wall in a group and abstract acrylic paintings.
When the show was moved to the old library space in Burnsville, I began to build larger sculptural pieces that use recycled materials, such as plastic containers, shells, and scrap steel. Since the space is much larger than the original space I intended to use some of my larger sculptural pieces to fill in the space.
I offer these images to you and hope that they reveal a story to you that is unique to you and that their ambiguity reveals our common humanity and that we can feel the comfort of our similarities in them.
John Hartom & Jenny Lou Sherburne: Syncopated Harmony
June 22 – July 27, 2024
This was an exhibition of two area artists, working in different mediums, using both color and pattern in an assertive and dramatic manner. Their objects work together in a clear and powerful way. Each piece in this exhibition demonstrated a sophistication gained only with many years of concentrated effort.
Hartom’s work consists of original paintings and monoprints on paper. With an emphasis on color and pattern, the process utilizes paint, ink, pastels, pencil, and oil-based crayons. His work includes blank journals (both Coptic stitch and case-bound), panel-mounted paintings (often multiple pieces arranged in a group), and individual framed pieces.
Sherburne is an artist striving to imbue her life and her work with a sense of growth, energy, and joy. Her ceramic objects, both functional and nonfunctional, utilize color in a dynamic and stunning way as every surface is lavished with color and pattern. From the smallest bowl to the largest sculpture, each object is a delight to behold with its excess of richness.
Marobeth Ruegg Oil Paintings: 2011-2014
June 15 – July 20, 2024
I think of my art as my part of a call-and-response song. The illimitable beauty of the earth is the call and my paintings are my response. I have chosen not to draw or depict scenes, things, objects. I aim to grapple with something less defined than anything that can be named. Forms, colors, and lines are what suggest an underlying layer to the visible identifiable everyday material world.
As a teenager, I encountered works of Wassily Kandinsky in my hometown Fine Arts Center. This and other influences crystallized my real creative focus, and after a career as a landscape designer, I have returned to painting.
Spring Studio Tour Preview Exhibition
May 11 – June 8, 2024
The Studio Tour Preview Exhibition was an exhibition of work from artists in Mitchell and Yancey Counties who are participating in the June Studio Tour. The exhibit is in conjunction with the Annual June Studio Tour which takes place annually on the first weekend of June. This year’s studio tour weekend was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 31 – June 2. It is an opportunity for visitors to get a preview of the artists that are on the tour and what they will be showing in their studios. We encourage visitors to come by the gallery and view this exhibition before they travel to the artists’ studios.
Lori Brook Johnson: A Nearly Concealed Heart
April 26 – June 1, 2024
This body of work explored labor and its effects on relationships, self-esteem, and one’s ability to grieve with a focus on the confident beauty that would have been expressed if loving care was given in place of exploitation. Born in the coal fields of West Virginia, Johnson references her personal history as well as documentation from The Farm Security Administration and the National Child Labor Committee to compose new mixed media drawings to reflect on the generational ramifications of exploitative labor. The effort of this work focused on healing and tending to things neglected or harmed in the past. This exhibit included pieces composed around child labor, the family, and our relationships with animals and the immediate environment.
17th Annual Blacksmith Exhibition
March 30 – April 27, 2024
Toe River Arts hosted its 17th Annual Blacksmith Exhibition featuring the work of blacksmiths from the southeast and beyond. Historically, the exhibition runs in conjunction with the Fire on the Mountain Blacksmith Festival in Spruce Pine. The exhibition offers blacksmiths the opportunity to show their work in a gallery setting during the festival.
Mitchell County Student Showcase
February 17 – March 16, 2024
The Mitchell County Arts In Education Showcase exhibition featured the artwork of K -12 students who live in Mitchell County. Represented is public, private, homeschooled and unschooled work. Presented each year by Toe River Arts & Penland School of Crafts and The Arts Matter group. We are thrilled to display the 2d and 3d work of our talented young community members and celebrate the importance of art in their lives.
Yancey County Student Showcase
March 2 – April 1, 2024
The Yancey County Arts In Education Showcase exhibition featured the artwork of K -12 students who live in Yancey County. Represented is public, private, homeschooled and unschooled work. Presented each year by Toe River Arts & Penland School of Crafts and The Arts Matter group. We are thrilled to display the 2d and 3d work of our talented young community members and celebrate the importance of art in their lives. The exhibition was in the Herring-Kivette Gallery at the Yancey Public Library in Burnsville.
2023
Fall Studio Tour Preview Exhibition – Work from Participating Studio Tour Artists
November 4 – December 30, 2023
The Studio Tour Preview Exhibition was an exhibition of work from artists in Mitchell and Yancey Counties who participated in the November Studio Tour, which takes place annually on the second weekend of November. It was an opportunity for visitors to get a preview of the artists that were on the tour and what they showed in their studios. Visitors were encouraged to come by the gallery and view this exhibition before they traveled to the artists’ studios.
COMPLIANT: Exhibition of Work by Melissa Cadell
September 30 – November 18, 2023
Melisa Cadell presented experimental work that explored the concept of beauty. The work was largely focused in work that utilizes plastic and its alluring pliant nature. The exhibit included sculpture, painting, ice forms, water containers, video, and other ephemeral works.
I was made
to be pliant
to take form
to be useful
to be beautiful
to contain
to protect
to be forever
And so I am
Waking Dream – Paintings and Jewelry by Allison Edge and Diana Alexander
September 23 – October 21, 2023
In this dual exhibition featuring the works of Allison Edge and Diana Alexander, “Waking Dream” refers to the experience of seeing the outside world in low-lit, half-lit, or fog-obscured scenarios, evoking a dream-like quality and straddling the boundaries of familiarity and unknowns. Allison’s paintings, hung on the walls in this exhibition, set the stage and atmosphere for Diana’s neckpiece adornments, presented on pedestals and armatures within the space. Allison Edge’s body of work titled “Waking Dream” included oil paintings depicting landscapes and images of nature at night, at twilight, in fog or mist, or a combination of these factors. In Diana Alexander’s “Waking Dream” series, she endeavored to create adornments that mesh with the environment created by Allison’s paintings.
Resilience: The Heart of Ukraine — Photography by Michael Andrews
August 4 – September 9, 2023
The photo exhibition, “Resilience: The Heart of Ukraine,” featured work by American photographer Michael Andrews. As a volunteer with United States Peace Corps Ukraine in 2018–19, Andrews augmented his service as a consultant to an HIV and AIDS service agency working as a photographer for Ukraine’s Baba Yelka Cultural Expedition. The group was formed in 2018 to preserve and share the unique cultural traditions of Ukraine’s Kirovoghad region — stories, songs, recipes, and material culture, including traditional embroidery.
“Resilience” offered a unique window into remote village life before Russia’s invasion, and focuses on the lives of Ukrainian “babusyas” (grandmothers) and their cultural roots.
Entangled: Intersections of Thought & Reality by Stephanie Thomas Berry & Alena Applerose
July 29 – September 9, 2023
In conversation one day Alena and Stephanie, longtime kindred creative spirits, discovered they had embarked on a similar adventure in their studio practices. They felt that their new adventures were loosening their grip on their creative practice, allowing new energies to bloom. They were each producing a similar aesthetic of spirals and lines that curved and twisted around themselves. They recognized that something mysterious was happening that they wanted to engage with in a more intentional way.
The exhibit consisted of drawings and sculptures that were created during conversations with each other and that intersect with their inner life. In addition, they offered their audience an opportunity to join them on the journey of surrendering expectations through an interactive undertaking of their own. Participants were invited to hang their own creations, crafted within the space, with the exhibit.
Carmen Grier + Terry Gess: Together
June 17 – July 22, 2023
Carmen’s Work: “My work for this exhibit has been made this past winter — the perfect time to go inward. When the leaves are down, the stark bare branches create the most engaging shapes as they curve and bend over and under each other. I find these line drawings in nature to be an unending source of inspiration. Once I start working, the painting takes on a life of its own and I react to what’s before me, making moment-to-moment decisions.”
Terry’s Work: “I’ve long made work that fits in the hand and in the kitchen. But with the solitude provided by the Covid pandemic, I’ve been exploring pottery making on a larger scale. This exhibit at Toe River Arts has given me the challenge of making work to adorn a large room, to let the pots interplay and influence the space surrounding them.”
Floating Blue: Photography by Thomas Pickarski
June 10 – July 15, 2023
Thomas Pickarski developed a deep love for the eternal beauty of icebergs as a child by enjoying their visual portrayal through photographs and paintings. This ultimately led to his having spent the last 12 summers traveling through arctic regions seeking direct experiences with these fleeting forms. In this series of photographs, Pickarski aimed to portray both the ethereal beauty of icebergs, as well as the otherworldliness of the landscapes in which they exist.
Exhibition of Work by Mitchell County High School Students
May 16 – June 4, 2023
This show provided the opportunity for students to meet other artists during the opening/closing event. It gave them experience working on personal and narrative work to present to the community. They learned to make artists’ statements, hang a show, and design invitations.
Spring Studio Tour Preview Exhibition
May 13 – June 4, 2023
The Studio Tour Preview Exhibition is an exhibition of work from artists in Mitchell and Yancey Counties who are participating in the June Studio Tour. The exhibit is in conjunction with the Annual June Studio Tour which takes place annually on the first weekend of June. This year’s studio tour weekend was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 2-4.
16th Annual Blacksmith Exhibition
March 25 – April 29, 2023
Featuring the work of blacksmiths from the southeast and beyond, this exhibition offered craftspeople the opportunity to show their work in a place known for its blacksmithing community. Historically, the exhibition runs in conjunction with the Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival. Every year, the Fire on the Mountain Festival asks a renowned metalworker to join the festival as its Featured Artist Blacksmith. This year’s featured blacksmith was Rick Smith.
Mitchell County Student Showcase
February 11 – March 11, 2023
The Arts in Education Showcase features the artwork of kindergarten through 12th-grade students from public, private, and home schools in Mitchell County. The showcase celebrates the creative achievements of our students and honors the dedication shown by the art educators who nurture creativity and artistic growth.
2022
Fall 2022 Studio Tour Exhibition
October 29 – December 31, 2022
For more than a quarter century, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour has intrigued those who make the journey to visit places of inspiration and creation. Situated between Roan Mountain which boasts the world’s largest rhododendron garden and Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour is a free, self-guided journey of the arts. This arts adventure through Mitchell and Yancey Counties will take visitors along the meandering Toe River, across its many bridges, around barns, acres of fields, and miles of forests all while visiting the 83 talented studio artists who often take inspiration from the mountains they call home and 8 galleries featuring local and international art.
Re-think Big Ink
August 12 – December 31, 2022
This exhibition, a fundraiser for Toe River Arts education programming, features large format woodblock prints made by local artists and printed on the Big Tuna, a specialized large press made for traveling, during previous Big Ink workshops.
LIFE ART LIFE | William Bernstein 50 Year Retrospective
August 6 – October 9, 2022
This exhibition was a retrospective of the blown glass work and paintings of William Bernstein, an artist who has been at the forefront of the North Carolina studio glass movement for over 50 years. The exhibition also coincided with the United Nations’ declaration of the Year 2022 as the Year of Glass and the 60th Anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement. As a retrospective exhibition, it created a visual summary of the separate elements of Bernstein’s art over time – his motives, goals, and achievements. It showed and captured his ability to work simultaneously in diverse mediums. A life well lived surrounded by art.
Works + Wonders of the High Country
June 25 – July 30, 2022
Works + Wonders of High Country was a showcase of High Country Ceramic Arts’ artist members. Each artist has their own unique approach to ceramics, including; pottery, sculpture, and mixed media. A showing like this was the perfect opportunity to highlight their talents. High Country Ceramic Arts is owned and operated by clay artist Linda Powell. High Country is a community-based studio working with established and aspiring clay artists to build and refine their skills. They offer beginners and quarterly membership packages, private lessons, workshops, and parties.
Contain Your Fear
June 18 – July 23, 2022
Everyone who has ever lived was afraid of something. Creative people use fear as an incentive for examining reality through their work and exorcising it. Contain Your Fear offered new looks at what we fear in our own lives. Each of the fifty-four participants created one piece of work focusing on a personal fear they want to contain, and maybe, even conquer. Each piece embedded or incorporated a “container” to diminish the power of their fear through the artists’ own interpretation. This exhibit featured artists from around the U.S., of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and talents ranging from painting, sculpture, essayists, videographers, designers, textile artists, and more. With such a vast array of styles, personalities, and fears, this exhibit helped people understand that it’s okay to be afraid. And, that a fear, once contained, loses its power.
A Time and Place | Luther and Victoria Stroup
May 14 – June 11, 2022
A Time and Place highlighted four consecutive generations of handcrafted woodwork inspired by the rich Appalachian region. The exhibition showcased how tradition and innovation blend with local natural resources to create one timeless body of work. The primary focus was handmade Grandfather clocks from the Stroup Hobby Shop, including the first Grandfather clock crafted by founder H.M. Stroup in the late 1940s, which features extensive inlays and a hand-painted dial. Additionally on display were four Grandfather Clock models still in production at the Stroup Hobby Shop in Spruce Pine. The exhibit also featured mantle clocks, wall clocks, desk clocks, cabinetry, home decor, wood turnings, and jewelry designed by all four generations. All works are made from a variety of mindfully selected local hardwoods such as maple, walnut, cherry, and oak.
Toe River Arts Spring Studio Tour
May 14 – June 5, 2022
Since 1992, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour has showcased the talent and studios of North Carolina’s Yancey and Mitchell County artists. These world-renowned, well-traveled, and skilled artists bring beauty to the world by sharing their craft. All of the artists featured have a fascinating story, interesting background, and their own “Journey of the Arts.” The Studio Tour is a showcase for local artists to feature their work, processes, and studio spaces. Along with the Studio Tour held June 3 – 5, participating artists and galleries exhibited their work in the Kokol Gallery from May 14 – June 5.
15th Annual Blacksmith Exhibition
April 2 – April 30, 2022
Featuring the work of blacksmiths from the southeast and beyond, this exhibition offers craftspeople the opportunity to show their work in a place known for its blacksmithing community. Historically, the exhibition runs in conjunction with the Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival. Spruce Pine Main Street, in collaboration with Penland School of Craft and Toe River Arts, hosts the festival every year on the last weekend in April. The public can explore vendor tents for goods for sale, observe live demonstrations, or try their hand at blacksmithing at scheduled hands-on workshops. Every year, the Fire on the Mountain Festival asks a renowned metalworker to join the festival as its Featured Artist Blacksmith. This is an opportunity to bring big names from around the country to Spruce Pine to share their talent and skills. This year’s Featured Artist Blacksmith was Jim Cooper.
Arts in Education Showcase
Mitchell County Showcase
February 12 – March 13, 2022
Yancey County Showcase
February 19 – March 19, 2022
The Arts in Education Showcase features the artwork of kindergarten through 12th-grade students from public, private & home schools in Mitchell and Yancey Counties. The showcase celebrates the creative achievements of our students and honors the dedication shown by the art educators who nurture creativity and artistic growth.
2021
2021 Studio Tour Exhibition
November 12 – December 31, 2021
Since 1992, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour has showcased the talent and studios of North Carolina’s Yancey and Mitchell County artists. These world-renowned, well-traveled, and skilled artists bring beauty to the world by sharing their craft. All of the artists featured have a fascinating story, interesting background, and their own “Journey of the Arts.” The Studio Tour is a showcase for local artists to feature their work, processes, and studio spaces. Along with the Studio Tour held November 12-14, participating artists exhibited their work in the Spruce Pine Gallery.
Here and There, Contemporary Sculptural Ironwork
September 25 – October 30, 2021
Every year, Toe River Arts hosts a Blacksmith Exhibition in conjunction with the annual Fire on the Mountain Festival which takes place in April. Due to the pandemic, the festival was canceled in 2020. Because of the cancellation, Toe River Arts recognized the need to adapt and hosted a virtual exhibition of blacksmith work. Elizabeth Brim was featured as the master blacksmith in both 2020 and 2021 and curated the 2021 Blacksmith Exhibition, an exciting departure from the usual exhibition format. The sculptors represented in this exhibit are some of those currently pushing the art and craft of fine ironwork to the next level of excellence. The artists, both local and from around the country, showcase vast advancements of techniques and sophistication and are producing remarkable work using the ancient techniques of forging.
Orbits and Fields | Artists Connected to Appalachian State University and Penland School of Craft
August 7 – September 11, 2021
The artists in this show move in a wide variety of orbits around and through both Appalachian State University and Penland School of Craft. Their paths cross one another as fellow students and teachers, as co-workers, co-residents, and fellow community members. They have not all met, but they know one another, in the way that they share common chapters and parallel experiences. This show presented 20-odd artists with connections to two vastly different institutions: a small intentional craft school and a big public university. Their fields trace the scope of work being fostered in both communities. Their work reveals both the richness that can come from time spent in these contexts and the unique visions that they bring to both places.
Fresh Produce | Work by Penland School of Craft Studio Coordinators
July 10 – August 21, 2021
This exhibition highlighted current work made by the studio coordinator team from Penland School of Craft. This group of ten individual artists approaches the field of contemporary craft from the broad perspectives of functional objects, sculptures, and two-dimensional works, representing a material range of paper, photography, printmaking, metal, textile, ceramic, wood, and glass. Unique to Fresh Produce | Work by Penland School of Craft Studio Coordinators, these artists are not full-time studio artists. Each balances their studio practices with active roles in craft communities locally and beyond Western North Carolina. Through showcasing the studio work of these multifaceted artists, this exhibition showed the broadness of what it means to live, work, and make as an artist today.
Two Generations | Ken and Galen Sedberry
June 19 – July 24, 2021
Two Generations showcases the unique art created by artists Ken and Galen Sedberry. The work of this father and son duo involves the detailed craft of wood firing. Galen and Ken have shared physical spaces of studio, kiln, booth space, as well as shared aesthetic space where ideas are translated into pots. This father and son team aspires to highlight how these shared spaces deliver work that is both parallel and divergent.
Pressing Forward
May 8 – June 5, 2021
Pressing Forward is an exhibition of works by Asheville Printmakers, an independent alliance of artists who express themselves through the medium of print. Their membership encompasses both experienced and emerging artists, as well as those new to printmaking. Learn more about Asheville Printmakers at ashevilleprintmakers.org.
What a Relief!
May 8 – June 5, 2021
What a Relief! is an exhibition of the large-scale woodblock prints made by the 18 participants in our October 2020 workshop with BIG INK. After countless hours of carving, participants printed their blocks on BIG INK’s traveling press. The smallest of these large-scale prints is two by three feet, with the largest being four by eight feet.
BIG INK, founded in 2012 by Lyell Castonguay and Carand Burnet and based in Newmarket, New Hampshire, provides opportunities for large-scale woodblock printing workshops in host institutions. BIG INK’s mission is to inspire a greater public appreciation of large-scale woodblock printmaking and to extend its practice as an artistic discipline. Learn more about BIG INK at bigink.org.
Essential Work
March 20 – April 24, 2021
When the world shut down a year ago, many of us put our lives on pause. People were ordered to stay home, and only work deemed essential carried on. Artists felt an added loss of revenue as exhibitions and festivals were cancelled, sales plummeted, and opportunities vanished. The artists in this exhibition all received grant funding that became available as the need for financial assistance in the arts became apparent. Through the efforts of the North Carolina Arts Council, the Madison County Arts Council, ArtsNC, the federal government, and Toe River Arts, these artists received the help they needed to keep carrying on in hard times. This exhibition is a testament to the resiliency and significance of the arts in our community.
Arts in Education Showcase | Mitchell County
February 6 – March 6, 2021
More than 200 works of student art are on display at the Toe River Arts Gallery in Spruce Pine for the annual Mitchell County Arts in Education Showcase. Kindergarten through 12th grade students from public and private schools in Mitchell County participate annually in this event that celebrates the creative achievements of our students. This showcase is not just a celebration of students, but also a testament to the hard work each art educator dedicates to the job of nurturing creativity and artistic growth.
2020
Studio Tour Preview Exhibition
November 24 – December 30, 2020
The Toe River Arts Studio Tour is a free, self-guided tour of artists’ studios typically held on the first weekends of June and December in North Carolina’s scenic Mitchell and Yancey counties. In response to the pandemic, this popular event went virtual from Monday, November 23 through Sunday, December 27, 2020. The Studio Tour is a showcase for local artists to feature their work, processes, and studio spaces.
Full Spectrum: Expressions in Color, Form and Texture
September 26 – October 31, 2020
The Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild creates a visually engaging experience using color, form and texture. The full spectrum of color spans the gallery so that visitors standing within it are encompassed by a colorful flow. The artists explore the themes of exuberance, radiance, introspection and tranquility as a reflection of the ever-flowing spectrum of life.
Works in a variety of media—oil, watercolor, acrylic, cold wax, pastel, photography, printmaking and clay—will be accompanied by artist statements relating the work to the theme of the exhibition, and giving compelling insight into the artists’ inspiration, creative processes and techniques.
Think BIG Prints
September 11 – October 24, 2020
Owen Gallery
This exhibition, curated by Community Outreach Coordinator Melanie Finlayson and Exhibition Manager Kathryn Andree, features work from artists that have participated in past BIG INK printmaking workshops. This exhibition features 37 artists from around the United States, including ten artists from North Carolina. The prints range in size from 2 x 3 ft., up to 4 x 8 ft.
BIG INK, founded in 2012 by Lyell Castonguay and Carand Burnet, and based in Newmarket, New Hampshire, provides opportunities for large-scale woodblock printing workshops in host institutions. BIG INK’s mission is to inspire a greater public appreciation of large-scale woodblock printmaking and to extend its practice as an artistic discipline.
Pictured: Brian Kreydalus
Zac Trainor | Between Psyche and Matter
August 5 – September 2, 2020
Owen Gallery
Zac Trainor presents a confrontation with the unconscious in an effort to capture or access a glimpse beyond the veil and into the realm of the soul. “The processes taking place in our conscious and unconscious, the conflict of desire versus necessity, the struggle to obtain a sense of place, and the impermanence of our existence are just some of the underlying philosophies and inspiration in the works,” describes Trainor.
Emotional States | Beyond Prison Artist Alliance
August 5 – September 12, 2020
The Beyond Prison Artist Alliance is a community of artists incarcerated at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution (AMCI) and artists affiliated with the Penland School of Craft and Appalachian State University networks, who joined to facilitate short and long form workshops within the prison.
Beyond Prison’s mission is to build artistic community through collaborative education efforts within the prison and the pursuit of exhibition opportunities that amplify the voices of incarcerated artists to the outside world. Beyond Prison aspires to be a human and empowering presence that relies on all participants and a broader creative community to imagine art as an essential tool of liberation.
Pictured: Robert G. Reid
Mitchell High School Student Exhibition
Online exhibition
“This marks the third year Toe River Arts has sponsored the Mitchell High School art students with an exhibition in the upstairs Owen gallery in Spruce Pine. This has always been an opportunity to showcase the young talent and hard work of our young people. At this point it is needless to say that things are anything but normal. That being said, normal is not what we should be aiming for, and that is evident as young people are leading the way in so many needed changes in this moment in history. A few of these pieces reflect on students’ experience navigating the post-COVID-19 world.” – Melisa Cadell
Pictured: Lillian Kline
14th Annual Blacksmith Exhibition
March 28 – May 30, 2020
This spring Toe River Arts hosts its 14th Annual Blacksmith Exhibit at its Spruce Pine gallery, opening online March 28. Featuring the work of blacksmiths from the southeast and beyond, this exhibition offers craftspeople the opportunity to show their work in a place known for its blacksmithing community.
Historically the exhibition runs in conjunction with the Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival. Spruce Pine Main Street, in collaboration with Penland School of Craft and Toe River Arts, hosts the festival every year on the last weekend in April. The public can explore vendor tents for goods for sale, observe live demonstrations, or try their hand at blacksmithing at scheduled workshops.
Journey at Home | #journeyathome
April – May, 2020
From the day we closed our doors in March 2020, we were trying to come up with creative solutions to continue to support our artists and our communities. We moved our exhibitions and our gift shops online.
We took our Journey of the Arts home with #journeyathome. We wanted to know how our artist members and members of our community were getting creative at home. Submission was free, and the only rule to participate was that work submitted needed to be made after March 15, the date we closed our doors because of the spread of the pandemic.
Pictured: Lynne Hobaica and Rickie Barnett’s Eternal Blooms.
Arts in Education Showcase | Mitchell County
February 25 – March 14, 2020
More than 200 works of student art are on display at the Toe River Arts Gallery in Spruce Pine for the annual Mitchell County Arts in Education Showcase. Kindergarten through 12th grade students from public and private schools in Mitchell County participate annually in this event that celebrates the creative achievements of our students. This showcase is not just a celebration of students, but also a testament to the hard work each art educator dedicates to the job of nurturing creativity and artistic growth.
Arts in Education Showcase | Yancey County
February 22 – March 16, 2020
Burnsville Gallery
Works of student art were on display at the Toe River Arts Gallery in Burnsville for the annual Yancey County Arts in Education Showcase. Kindergarten through 12th grade students from public and private schools in Yancey County participate annually in this event that celebrates the creative achievements of our students. This showcase is not just a celebration of students, but also a testament to the hard work each art educator dedicates to the job of nurturing creativity and artistic growth.