About Pocosin Arts

Now in its tenth year, Pocosin Arts' Cabin Fever Reliever brings nationally-recognized teaching artists and craftspeople to Columbia Feb. 18–21 to conduct workshops in clay, jewelry, wood and mixed media.

The creative gathering, held in partnership with the Rocky Mount Arts Center, takes place at the Eastern 4-H Environmental Education Conference Center on Albemarle Sound. It typically draws 35 to 40 students, 10 of whom receive scholarship aid in return for acting as program assistants. Between four and six instructors come from across North Carolina and as far away as California.

"This event is tremendously important to artists from this part of the state," says Feather Phillips, executive director, Pocosin Arts. "But it's also important to artists who come and discover eastern North Carolina for the first time. Many of them have driven through Tyrell County and never had any curiosity of what might be off the highway. We hear over and over again how pleased they are and how beautiful a place it is."

Phillips says Cabin Fever Reliever is significant not only for its workshops but also for fellowship and relationship building. "Our attendees love it—they are in total retreat, out there in the wild," she says. "There are all kinds of opportunities for interactions among the different studios between classes or in the dining hall. It's a huge opportunity for community building and networking—Where do you show your work? Who's there? Should I try this gallery or not?"

Sculptor Holly Fischer, adjunct instructor at Meredith College, will conduct a clay workshop entitled Opposition as Inspiration, and Gay Smith, a studio potter living near Penland, will offer a class in Making Lively Pots. Jeweler, enamellist and metalsmith Kathryn Osgood, a studio artist and assistant professor at the College of the Albemarle in Manteo, will teach Enameling: Botanical Forms in Metals. A mixed media class on Crafting Personal Shrines will be taught by Pittsboro studio artist Carol Owen. Raleigh painter and woodworker Anthony Ulinski will conduct a workshop on Painting with Oil, Wax and Palette Knives, and caricature woodcarver Tom Wolfe of Spruce Pine will teach Caricature Carving: Walking Sticks and Bottle Stoppers.

Virginia studio artist Marlene True, who creates jewelry made with recycled tin cans, steel wire and other found and repurposed objects, recently completed a stint at Pocosin Arts as a resident artist. She taught a workshop at last year's Cabin Fever Reliever and will be a student at this year's retreat. She says she is energized by both roles.

"I work mainly with tin cans and take extra cans that haven't caught my eye for one reason or another to workshops," she says. "I'm always amazed to see how students will take something that I've tossed aside and find a use for it. They're able to see something in the material that I can't, so that is inspiring—it helps me see things in a new way. It's exciting, and I always go away from an experience like that with more ideas." This year she'll be a student in Carol Owen's Crafting Personal Shrines class.

True says she recommends Cabin Fever Reliever to artist friends as well as her students.

"It's such a unique opportunity to get away, leave normal life behind and get totally immersed in what you're doing. You're surrounded by people who are interested in some of the same things. It's a great place to learn, have good conversations and make new friends."

Located one block from the Columbia waterfront, Pocosin Arts offers year-round classes, workshops and residencies in pottery, metalsmithing and jewelry-making, carving, book-making, weaving, spinning, quilting, embellishing, soap making, glass slumping and fusing, blacksmithing, pit firing, story telling, dancing and roots music, along with after-school programs in dance, pottery, drawing and guitar. Its main street gallery displays and sells fine art and folk craft made by students and teachers. The Pocosin Arts Community Arts Connection Committee hosts arts enrichment programs in Tyrell County schools. In addition to its annual Cabin Fever Reliever, Pocosin Arts hosts an annual benefit, Steamed Blue to Red-Hot Lively, in September featuring a hard crab dinner and buffet followed by a live auction of artful items.

To learn more about Cabin Fever Reliever or to register, visit www.pocosinarts.org, call (252) 796-2787 or email info@pocosinarts.org.