Bill May, Arrowmont Executive Director said, “We are pleased and grateful to be a client of the East Tennessee Community Design Center for this project. As a result of being on this campus continuously for nearly 105 years, we have historic structures, including six buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places, that must be appropriately maintained. We want to preserve the character and ambiance that people from across the world come to Arrowmont to experience while modernizing and making the most effective and efficient use of our grounds and facilities. This master planning process will help us move into the future while preserving that which makes us distinctive.”
Representatives of the ETCDC and Arrowmont stakeholders will meet May 3 at 4:00 pm in the Turner Building Auditorium at Arrowmont to discuss the process for creating the plan. ETCDC participants will include: Wayne Blasius, Executive Director; Leslie Fawaz, studio design director; project volunteers, Brandon Pace, AIA principal, Sanders Pace Architecture; Bill Bruce, principal and Steven Davis, ASLA, senior associate CRJA‐IBI Group, landscape architecture and planning. Arrowmont will be represented by a broad group of stakeholders including members of the Board of Governors, staff, instructors, and community leaders and volunteers.
Wayne Blasius, Executive Director of ETCDC said, “Arrowmont is an international treasure hidden in these mountains. The Design Center is incredibly honored to be the trusted leader of this important design process.”
Blasius said, “The memorandum of understanding calls for the Design Center to analyze traffic flow; new landscape architecture to include buffering, meditation gardens and social gathering areas; possible locations and sizes for new structures; proposed way‐finding locations; suggestions for implementation of sustainable design for proposed and existing buildings and site and a cost estimate. The quest is to achieve a natural walkable campus—Arrowmont is an oasis and is a different world from the everyday.”
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts enriches lives through art by developing aesthetic appreciation and fostering self‐expression with hands‐on experiences in a variety of media, classes, conferences and seminars. On the leading edge of arts education, Arrowmont utilizes contemporary and fine arts techniques to build upon a foundation of traditional arts and crafts. Founded as a settlement school in 1912, Arrowmont has grown into a contemporary craft school with national and regional scope, supporting educational opportunities for individuals of all skill levels and ages. The School offers weekend, one and two‐week immersive workshops taught by national and international practicing studio artists and university faculty. Conferences, forums and symposia bring together artists, art educators, collectors and others to work in studios, engage in dialogue and discuss issues and trends in the field. The campus is open to the public year‐ round to view exhibitions by local, national and international artists, attend evening presentations, and tour studios to view demonstrations of works in progress.
The Artists‐in‐Residence Program provides a supportive, stimulating work environment for early career artists during a year‐long residency. Annually, ArtReach, a collaboration with Sevier County Schools, along with the community and Saturday children’s classes, provides over 1,700 students with an in‐depth creative workshop experience. Arrowmont welcomes about 15,000 visitors and students each year. Scholarships offer opportunity to those of limited means.
ETCDC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to make East Tennessee a better place to live and work by bringing professional design and planning assistance to community groups and nonprofit organizations. East Tennessee Community Design Center receives pro bono design assistance from area architects, landscape architects, planners and other professionals.
