Berea College

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BEREA, Ky. – Heart, Head and Hand: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft, an exhibit tracing the evolution of Berea College Student Craft’s 150-year history, will be on display at Ruth Davis Design Gallery of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Design and Material Culture (CDMC) beginning Oct. 18

Heart, Head, and Hand: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft&nbsp;explores what it means to make on campus—and the&nbsp;power of design and craft to inspire creativity across disciplines.&nbsp;Founded in 1893,&nbsp;<a href="https://bcstudentcraft.com/">Berea College Student Craft</a>&nbsp;has become a well-established center for student-led design production in the United States. Student Craft includes weaving, woodcraft, ceramics, broomcraft and craft education outreach programs. These areas engage not only with experiential learning but also with the cultural myths and values that are embedded in objects fashioned by hand. With a history rooted in Southern Appalachian material culture, automobile tourism and mail-order catalogs, today’s program focuses on student-centered pedagogy and the curious, speculative, inclusive and future-looking potential of craft in the making—h​eart, head and hand.

“This exhibit will display the most extensive view of Berea College’s Student Craft program and its 150-year history, beginning with the program’s Appalachian Heritage and continuing through today’s focus on student-led design and expression,” said Aaron Beale, associate vice president of Student Craft.

“In the past, we have only been able to share snippets,” said Hunter Elliott, director of apprenticeships at Berea College Student Craft, who co-curated the exhibit. “The show is about more than the products we make—it’s about the history of the people and the products as well.”

In addition to historical objects and examples of current production, contemporary works will be on display, as well as works designed with outside collaborators including contemporary designers Norman Teague and Stephen Burks.

Works by eight Berea College students are also included in the exhibit. These students, who represent different craft disciplines, will attend the opening. The students are Joshua Kells, Ellen Schley, Dawn Yoo, Layne Piatt, Taylor Nordmoe, Sean Hall, YoungSoon Takei and Merlyn Gordon.&nbsp;

Heart, Head, and Hands: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft&nbsp;is a collaboration between Berea College Student Craft and the Center for Design and Material Culture. Support for this project comes from the Anonymous Fund and the Chipstone Foundation.

For more information on the Ruth Davis Design Gallery, part of the Center for Design and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin, visit <a href="https://cdmc.wisc.edu/material-culture/ruth-davis-design-gallery/">https://cdmc.wisc.edu/material-culture/ruth-davis-design-gallery/</a>.

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Berea College Student Craft Exhibit on Display at University of Wisconsin-Madison

BEREA, Ky. – Berea College will welcome Japanese Canadian group Fubuki Daiko to campus on Nov. 9 as the third and final musical guest of the Stephenson Memorial Concert Series.

Fubuki Daiko, meaning Blizzard Drums, is a professional Japanese taiko group founded in Winnipeg, Canada in 1995. Three of their members—Hiroshi Koshiyama, Naomi Guilbert and Bruce Robertson—started their career in the San Francisco Taiko Dojo and were trained by the Grandmaster Seiichi Tanka, the founder of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo and the father of North American Taiko. With Taiko Dojo, the three members toured the United States and Japan in the early 1990s and performed at Carnegie Hall in 1994.

After leaving the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Koshimya and Guilbert formed Fubuki Daiko in Winnipeg and started teaching taiko classes for all ages. The rest of the members, Kimi Guilbert, Giselle Mak, and Lynn Lai, advanced through the ranks of these classes and became part of the ensemble. Koshiyama and Guilbert have been instructors and mentors to taiko groups in Canada and in the U.S. Guilbert also was a guest instructor at Berea College.&nbsp;

For more than 25 years, Fubuki Daiko has reinvented traditional Japanese drumming with their eclectic and energetic performances that are part martial arts athleticism, part meditation and all rhythm. The ensemble has released two albums:&nbsp;Fubuki&nbsp;and&nbsp;Zanshin. Both albums have&nbsp;

brought home awards such as the Prairie Music Award for Outstanding Instrumental Recording in 2001 and the Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Album Design in 2005.&nbsp;

The performance begins at 8 p.m. Thursday in Phelps Stokes Chapel. The event is open to the public.

Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, focuses on learning, labor and service. The College only admits academically promising students with limited financial resources, primarily from Kentucky and Appalachia, although students come from 45 states and 70 countries. Every Berea student receives a Tuition Promise Scholarship, which means no Berea student pays for tuition.&nbsp;Berea is one of nine federally recognized Work Colleges, where students work at least 10 hours a week to earn money for books, housing, and meals.&nbsp;The College’s motto, “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth,” speaks to its inclusive Christian character.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.berea.edu/">www.berea.edu</a>