June 5, 2008 issue
Two Whole Days and Tons of Art
Toe River Studio Tour Is June 14 and 15
Story by Anna Oakes
If the monthly Downtown Boone Art Crawls aren’t enough for you, get ready for one heck of a gallery crawl on Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15, when the Toe River Studio Tour features more than 145 studios and galleries in Yancey and Mitchell counties.
The semiannual event is a free, self-guided tour sponsored by the Toe River Arts Council, allowing visitors to meet local artists, admire their works and shop for fashionable and functional pieces of art. Artists invite the public into their studios, and some locations provide refreshments.
The studios will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. To take the tour, all you need is a map and a vehicle.
On the tour, art lovers will find glass studios, potters, sculptors, basketmakers, woodworkers, painters, textile makers and more. At the glass studios are ornaments, sculptures and containers of every sort, including goblets and mezuzahs. The potters have a wealth of pieces to choose from, such as trays, jugs, mugs, tiles, baking pans, fountains, birdhouses, sculptured forms, ceremonial pieces, sets of dishes and even bathroom sinks in stoneware, raku, wood-fired, earthenware, Majolica and porcelain.
The basketmakers work with traditional gathered materials or with modern Asian reeds. Woodworkers offer carvings, furniture, turned wood combined with blown glass and art made with materials gathered from the woods.
Two-dimensional works include photographs, watercolors, oil, acrylics, silkscreen and paintings on handmade paper. Textiles such as handspun yarns, hand-woven flat goods, art quilts, sculptured dolls, knitwear and garments are available.
In addition, look for ironwork, handmade books, jewelry, soaps and scents, beeswax candles, Native American arts, stationery and tree ornaments.
An interactive map and a list of participating artists, galleries and sponsors are available online at www.toeriverarts.org/studiotour.htm. For a printed map, stop by the Toe River Arts Council offices in Spruce Pine or Burnsville, any of the participating studios or galleries, local businesses or the Yancey/Burnsville or Mitchell chambers of commerce. Also, look for signs along the tour route to help guide you along the way.
On Friday, June 13, the arts council will hold an artists’ reception from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Spruce Pine Toe River Arts Council Gallery.
The Spruce Pine Arts Council Gallery is located at 269 Oak Avenue in downtown Spruce Pine. The Burnsville gallery is located at 102 West Main Street in downtown Burnsville. During the tour, the gallery office hours at both locations will be from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.
For more info, call 828-682-7215 or 828-765-0520, email trac@toeriverarts.org or click to www.toeriverarts.org.
Want To Go?
Date: Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days
Location: Mitchell and Yancey counties
Cost: Free
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