Arrowmont announces anonymous gift providing stipends to 2020 instructors

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, an unprecedented gift totaling nearly $1,000,000 has been made to five of the nation’s leading craft schools—Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (ME), Penland School of Craft (NC), Peters Valley School of Craft (NJ), Pilchuck Glass School (WA).

The anonymous gift was made to provide stipends to teaching artists whose workshops were cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 550 artists across the country and internationally will benefit from this support.

The stipends recognize the time these artists spent preparing and planning their workshops.

Since 2012, Arrowmont, Haystack, Penland, Peters Valley and Pilchuck have worked together as a consortium to promote craft education at a national level. In recent months, the Schools have supported each other in new ways, by thinking through the implications of a global health pandemic on their respective organizations, and learning from each other as we move through these difficult times.

Our partnership and on-going collaboration allows us the opportunity to advocate for the artists who are central to our mission and operations.

We are profoundly grateful for the remarkable support we have received on their behalf.

Of the gift, Jim Scarsella, Arrowmont Executive Director said, “This gift is truly an act of transformational philanthropy providing direct support to artists who have experienced a loss of income as a result of the need to suspend our summer programming. We are truly grateful to be able to offer some assistance to those who have been so supportive of Arrowmont and who are critical to our success.”