Weaving by Liz Ackerman

Liz Ackermann has been weaving since 1982. She spent 5 years as a weaver and spinner at Colonial Williamsburg learning about, and demonstrating, colonial textile techniques. Since moving to the New River Valley in 1992, she has taught workshops and classes in a variety of weaving techniques to groups and individuals in Virginia and West Virginia. She currently weaves and teaches in her back yard studio in Christiansburg, VA. Liz is also a member of The Handweavers Guild of the New River Valley, which is a nonprofit organization that brings together weavers at every level of experience who share a common interest in the art and craft of hand weaving. The Guild holds monthly meetings with informative programs, offers workshops for members to learn new skills, and shares its knowledge of the craft with the community at large through demonstrations and other programs.   http://teashanty.blogspot.com

Brian Anderson

Brian Anderson is a working blacksmith with 40 plus years’ experience. He has a solid base in traditional smithing doing both historically based and contemporary forge work.  Brian has taught and demonstrated widely and his work appears regularly in both blacksmithing and fine arts shows around the country. He demonstrates frequently at historic sites, trade fairs, and hammer-ins and teaches on a small scale.

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Kate Anderson

Kate Anderson has a B.A. in studio art from Hollins University with a concentration in oil painting and printmaking.  An avid lover of nature, Anderson has always been looking for greener techniques for making art even before it became trendy.   By combining repeatable images with stencils, direct mark making and layered color,  Kate creates complex and experimental prints.  Kate’s work can  be found at her printmaking studio, Appalachian Artist Press at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts or her gallery, Anderson Gallery, located in the Station, downtown Floyd.

Jayn Avery

Jayn Avery is a self-taught potter/sculptor/writer living in Floyd County, Virginia. The direction of her life was changed by one introductory class in pottery taken at Cornell University while she was a student working on her MS in environmental education. She founded Blue Heron Pottery in 1975 and her unique functional lace-impressed slabwork has become a Floyd County exemplar. As an advocate of simple living, she bases her technique on the principles of least cost, least equipment, and maximum use of available resources. Her teaching emphasis is on personal creativity and resourcefulness. www.blueheronpotteryweb.com

Kathy Barton

Kathy Barton was born and raised in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and recently relocated to Blacksburg, VA.  She has been painting for a long time in various mediums. She became a Bob Ross Certified Instructor 3 years ago and has been teaching professionally ever since.  She simply cannot express her love for his wet-on-wet technique of oil painting.  She went to art school in New Smyrna Beach, FL. One of her favorite things about teaching is watching people gain a new confidence after taking her classes.  “If you take one of my classes it really can be life changing, especially if you never thought you could paint a painting.  I guide my students through step by step and the results have always been very positive. My classes are very casual and relaxing. We never make mistakes, only Happy Accidents”.

Barbara Baur

Barb Baur has been an artist all her life and a jeweler since 1982. As an artist she is inspired by connecting people and ideas through art jewelry. Starting as an apprentice to a 2nd generation jeweler while still in high school, Barb has had completed training both in college art metal courses and jewelry trade school. This unique combination along with her own autodidactic experiences has created an artist schooled in both traditional goldsmithing and the expansive ideas of a modern metal artist. As an instructor, Barb’s experience in casting, repairs and bench jewelry form a basis for educating others in how to create beautiful jewelry that is durable and practical as well. She works out of a home based jewelry studio in Philadelphia, PA. www.barbbaur.com

Leslye Bloom

Leslye Bloom has been working with computer graphics for over 40 years. Leslye holds a BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Art Education from Penn State and is a Certified Art Therapist. In 1990 she retired from consulting and teaching grad/ undergraduate Art Education and Art Therapy courses at VA Tech, UVA, the University of Evansville (IN) and Penn State. Much of her teaching career was spent exploring and popularizing digital media. Now, dissatisfied with mere technical solutions, she prefers to work through and beyond the computer, using it as any other art tool, both as a means of personal expression and to capture ‘the wonder , beauty and humor of our world. Her works are housed in private collections across the US, Jamaica, and Great Britain. She has chaired, curated and judged art shows in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Currently, Leslye lives in Blacksburg,VA, with her two long-haired dachshunds. http://leslyebloom.com

Gerald Boggs

Gerald Boggs lives in the village of Afton, Virginia. He opened his own shop, Wayfarer Forge, in 2004, where he does demonstrations and commissions. Working as a classical blacksmith, Gerald is not stuck in the past doing over and over designs from the 18th century. Rather, he tries to work within the framework of classical blacksmithing, while embracing design development of the last century. A member of the Old Dominion Blacksmith Association (OBDSA), Gerald is spearheading a partnership between The Jacksonville Center and OBDSA that is making blacksmithing more accessible to the public and experienced blacksmiths alike. http://wayfarerforge.com

Quilt by Susan Brittingham

Susan Brittingham has been teaching quilting and sewing in person since 1987 and online since 2000. She is an award winning quilter who has displayed her work in prestigious shows and galleries across the country and been published in numerous books and magazines. She enjoys teaching and provides individual attention and encouragement to all her students so that they can get the most out of her classes.  http://sbrittingham.freeservers.com

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Loon by Sue Brozovsky

Sue Brozovsky started sculpting in 2003 when she took a class in the art of carving stone with Bob Lockhart of the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. She describes her work as abstract and interpretive realism. Sue enjoys sharing her love of sculpture and encouraging others to find their inner sculptore. In 2008, she achieved her dream of a studio on her property in Catawba, VA. Her work has been displayed at Miller Off Main Galleries, the New River Fine Arts Gallery, and The Gallery in Radford and Gallery 108 in Roanoke. www.sculpturebysue.com

Carly Burke

Carly Burke has more than ten years experience in metal and jewelry design. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, she produces a variety of unique wearable creations, with a focus on quality design and quality materials. A passion for metal manipulation drives her creativity—bending, chasing, and connecting wire to enhance the beauty of materials is an inspiring process.  She designs most aspects of her jewelry from ear wire to findings. Also a certified Masseuse and Hatha Yoga instructor, she enjoys a simple approach to life. Her educational combination has allowed her to focus on family, creativity, and enjoyment of her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. http://burkesmountaindesign.com

Garden pot by Pamela Cadmus

Pamela Cadmus lives in Pilot, Virginia and has over twenty-five years of gardening and landscape experience. She started Specialty Garden Design in 1997, working with clients throughout southwest Virginia.  Using horticultural and design expertise to create innovative plant combinations, Pamela strives to create sustainable landscapes that are both beautiful and functional. While the majority of her work is residential, she has designed for local restaurants, a public library and the Jacksonville Center for the Arts. Pamela regularly attends horticultural and landscape design conferences and classes in an effort to continually grow her repertoire. http://specialtygardendesign.com

Lee Chichester and her husband Jack

Lee Chichester is by trade a freelance writer and is a VDGIF – Certified Outdoors Education Instructor specializing in birds of prey and falconry, living in Floyd. As a hobby, she undertook to teach herself papermaking in 1999 and started with a backlog of “filed rejection letters” from her writing, wanting to both recycle and do justice to the various editors’ lack of vision electing not to publish her work. Among the first instructors at the center, Lee has been teaching papermaking, paper sculpture and falconry for years.

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McCabe Coolidge

McCabe Coolidge and his partner, Karen Day, have opened Wildfire Pots Studio in downtown Floyd at the Wintersun. McCabe throws functional pottery for the kitchen and dining room. He fires with his own wood kiln as well as the kilns at the Jacksonville Center. He has been an episodic potter beginning in 1977 with two years at Meredith College Raleigh, NC ceramics program. His studies continued in ceramics at UNC Asheville. He has taken classes from Ellen Shankin and Rick Hensley of Sixteen Hands and Sarah McCarthy at the Jacksonville Center. McCabe sells his pots in galleries nearby and at the beaches of NC. www.blueridgepotters.com/pix/Collidge/McCabe.html

Josh Copus with one of his pots in NC

Josh Copus was raised in Floyd County and currently lives in the Asheville, NC, area. The local Floyd traditions of crafts and agriculture, blended with the new ideas and outlook of the alternative community to form the basis of Josh’s life philosophy and instill an appreciation for art and nature that strongly influences his current work in ceramics. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina in Asheville in 2007. He is the founder of Clayspace Co-op, a ceramics cooperative and gallery, which provides an environment that promotes the artistic growth and success of its members through cooperation and education. Josh is currently in the process of establishing his own studio and has recently built a workshop and three wood-burning kilns on his land in Marshall, North Carolina. www.joshcopus.com

Jeff Dalton

Jeffery Dalton was born Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated with an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from Herron School of Art. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Ferrum College in Virginia where he teaches Ceramics, Sculpture and Photography. In addition to Teaching he continues working in his own studio. He has been an Artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Skaelskor, Denmark.

Painting by Carolyn Deck

Carolyn Deck holds a BFA from the School of Painting at Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MA from the School of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work is currently represented by The Jacksonville Center and the James Ratliffe Gallery in Sedona, Arizona. Color represents one of the more profound spiritual and emotional aspects of Carolyn’s work.

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Katherine Devine with young student

Katherine Devine is originally from Providence, RI, and received her undergraduate degree in art from East Carolina University in  Greenville, North Carolina, and her Master’s degree from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. Her work has been included in the Roanoke College Biennial exhibition, the Staunton-Augusta Regional exhibition, the Roanoke City Art Show, the Salem History Museum’s 2000 Calendar, and the Art Museum of Western Virginia’s 50th Anniversary Art Show. She received the People’s Choice-Best in Show Award in the Toys-Art-Us Exhibit in the Jefferson Center Gallery. Katherine has taught with the Roanoke County Public Schools Gifted Art Program, The Jacksonville Center’s FAR Elementary In-school program, and Hollins University”s Women’s Center.  She currently teaches with Young Audiences Virginia and  the Taubman Museum of Art.   She is the visual artist in residence with the Jefferson Center ’s  INSPIRE arts in education program.  www.katherinedevine.com

Basket by Kathy Dulaney

Kathy Dulaney is a native of Floyd County and has been weaving baskets and teaching classes for 25 years.  Weaving mostly older Appalachian style baskets, she strives to keep the tradition alive by teaching younger folks the art.  If you make a basket in one of her classes you can be sure that it will be something you can use. Each basket was designed for a specific purpose and Kathy stresses the usefulness of each in her classes.