// SoLA Travels //
LAR 553: "Crafting Appalachia" Instructor(s): Faye Nixon and Chad Manley.
Design Studio III, held in the fall of the second year, is a regional-focused class. This year's subject is craft and Appalachia; the cohort recently completed its field trip through the Appalachian region, stopping in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Kentucky, to visit various cultural centers, study landscapes of extraction and regeneration, and work to understand the phenomena, traditions, and histories of craft and of Appalachia.
All photos by Chad Manley.
PHOTOS + ITINERARY
9.16-17
The “Crafting Appalachia” studio spent the first two days of its trek through Appalachia in the hills and hollers of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Stops: Newfoundland Gap on the Appalachian Trail, The Museum of the Cherokee Indian, The Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Blue Ridge Music Center.
9.18-19
Days three and four of the Appalachia trip brought the group through landscapes of violence and remembrance as we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.
Stops: Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg and Gettysburg Battlefield, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Bethlehem Steel. (Virginia and Pennsylvania)
9.20-21
The regional studio spent the northernmost days of its journey at sites of dispersal where iron ore, steel beams, and iron weed made visible the ties between landscapes of art, industry, and horticulture.
Stops: Storm King Art Center, Manitoga at the Russel Wright Design Center, Catskills Native Nursery, Scranton Iron Furnaces. (New York and Pennsylvania)
Stops: Storm King Art Center, Manitoga at the Russel Wright Design Center, Catskills Native Nursery, Scranton Iron Furnaces. (New York and Pennsylvania)
9.22-24
The Appalachian studio ended its nine day trek exploring the landscapes of West Virginia and Kentucky scarred by mining industries and meeting the actors working to restore the ecological, economic, and social health of the Appalachian region.
Stops: Tour with Owen Mulkeen of Friends of the Cheat River, Morganton, WV with Dr. Jeff Skousen of WVU Social Sciences, cliff-top permaculture farm established by Kaleb Hanshaw of Coalfield Development, Berea College, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. (West Virginia and Kentucky)
PODCASTS
As a part of this trip, students created podcasts on differing topics related to Appalachia. Listen to one below by Elijah Hale: