Sue Slick, Collection Information Specialist
Our blog posts tend to be information-filled and fun celebrations of the art on display and in our collection; it’s not often we write about tragedy. Sadly, Hurricane Helene struck the family of an artist close to us, one of thousands of families still suffering from the terrible destruction. In addition to affecting numerous citizens of the region, Helene also severely impacted the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. We can help the many artists and crafts people, and their communities, via avenues listed at the end of this post.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend area as a Category 4 storm on the evening of September 26, 2024. The strongest hurricane on record to strike the bend where the Florida Panhandle and Florida Peninsula meet, the extreme storm surges, tornadoes, heavy rain, and wind far inland caused multi-state devastation and life-changing destruction for thousands of Americans. Helene tragically resulted in at least 233 deaths and upwards of $90 billion in damages across Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina. According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there were 102 storm-related deaths in North Carolina alone. The vast majority were in Buncombe County at 43; just north, in Yancey County, 10 perished.
The tragedy that touched us via our family of artists occurred in Yancey County where the South Toe River rose over 25 feet above normal and destroyed the center of the Celo Community where artists William and Katherine Bernstein lived, created, and sold their beautiful glassware. Thankfully, they survived; however, their home and studio were severely damaged by the catastrophic volume and force of the floodwaters, mud, and debris that also washed away the food co-op, mountain crafts store, and local inn. Their son, Alex, is a world-renowned studio glass artist and important member of FWMoA’s own studio glass family. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Jessica, and son, Max. His family, home, and studio were not affected, and his parents found refuge with their son while they work to restore their home and studios.
The Celo Community, of which the Bernsteins are integral members, is a unique, roughly 1,000-acre land trust established in the late 1930s. Its intentional community model is based on cooperation and consensus of its residents and care of the land. Resourcefulness, compassion, and generosity are deeply rooted in this place – essential attributes as Celo rebuilds and recovers.
Alex’s parents, William and Katherine, made North Carolina their home in 1968. They moved to their log cabin in the Celo Community in 1971. The two met in art school at the Philadelphia College of Art where both were deeply immersed in ceramics. Billy was introduced to glass in his last semester when a small glassblowing shop was added to the ceramics department. At graduation, he was about to move to Wisconsin, where he was accepted into Harvey Littleton’s glass program at the University of Wisconsin. Instead, he was recruited by the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina as an artist-in-residence. The two young artists married in the summer of 1968 and left the northeast for their new life together in North Carolina.
Billy, who was born in 1945 and grew up in the New Jersey suburbs, quickly settled into his new role as a Penland glass artist, befriending other like-minded artists like Fritz Dreisbach and Mark Peiser. Dreisbach, a student of Harvey Littleton’s at the University of Wisconsin, moved to Penland to teach glassblowing after earning his M.F.A. Peiser left the Chicago corporate design world for the pine woods of North Carolina, enticed by the mysteries of glassmaking. After completing a 5-week course at Penland, he became its first resident craftsman in glass. Together, the three developed and launched the Glass Arts Society in 1971. The mission of GAS is to connect, inspire, and empower all facets of the global glass community with the long-term goal of creating one unified glass community.
While Billy was exploring blown glass, Katie continued her own exploration of sculptural ceramics. Harvey Littleton greatly impacted her work. Also a trained ceramicist, who had first cast one of his own ceramic figural pieces in glass in 1946, Littleton was drawn to Katie’s clay figures and took a few back to his studio to cast in crystal. The wonderful results compelled Katie to shift from clay to glass; and, in time, both Bernsteins were established as respected glass artists. Billy’s painterly approach to glass resulted in expressive blown glass pieces with faces and figures drawn with applied molten glass canes of brilliant color. Katie’s figural work, based on her life drawings, retained the feel of hand-modeled clay or wax but became vehicles for the play of light when transformed into masses of cast crystal.
Littleton, glass master and founder of the Toledo Glass Workshops, juried the exhibition, North Carolina Glass ’76; during this visit, Littleton and his wife, Bess, fell in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains. They bought a house near Penland, built a large glass studio, and moved to North Carolina in December of 1976. At a point in his career where he wanted to step back from full-time teaching to concentrate on his own work, Penland, and its surrounding community of artists and crafts people, was a great fit for Littleton. It gave him the opportunity to mentor the younger generation of studio glass artists emerging in the southeast, like Peiser, Dreisbach, and the Bernsteins, while working full-time to build his own expanded body of work.
While the Bernstein’s pursued their individual art paths, reared their two sons, and enjoyed raising chickens and growing their own food, they also combined their glass talents to generate more income. Bernstein Glass was established in the 1980s as a source for wonderful goblets and tableware meant to be both admired and used. These artworks, beautiful and functional, generated many years of successful sales. Bernstein Glass and its building, materials, tools, equipment, and assorted finished goods were decimated by the floodwaters of the South Toe River and the subsequent encroachment of debris and mud. Alex’s words best describe the loss, and a way to contribute to the recovery of his parents’ business by purchasing a piece that survived the storm:
Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina on September 26, 2024, and as the waters of the South Toe River rose to unimaginable levels – they carried away homes, cars, trees, bridges and businesses. This included the glass studio that my parents have worked in together for over 50 years. I literally grew up in this studio and learned about glass and craft from a very early age watching my parents work together. Most everything in the building either was carried away in the flood waters or was destroyed by layers of mud and debris. Remarkably there was a good amount of artwork that we were able to salvage and since they no longer have their actual studio to receive visitors in or be on the various regional studio tours maps, for now I am happy to be able to help them participate with a “virtual studio” via this website with works for sale.
Where to Donate
Craft Futures Fund, Western North Carolina (WNC): https://www.centerforcraft.org/craftfuturesfund
Rebuild the South Toe River Valley After Hurricane Helene: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-the-south-toe-river-valley-after-hurricane-helene?lid=8hnqd9tteh7d&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MKTG_donor_share&utm_content=internal&fbclid=IwY2xjawGooXBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUIGT3hStE2fIOdfKxKEkKing2BdAKJoGXvQR7ay1mE7ras87Csg9meASg_aem_ILGcfUEfJfQCdr85_CXHKw
Penland: HURRICANE HELENE RELIEF, RECOVERY, AND SUPPORT https://penland.org/support-penland/helene-relief-recovery-support/
REFERENCES
The Bernsteins
Bernstein Glass: https://www.bernsteinglass.com/about/
Schantz Galleries: STUDIO FOCUS | ALEX BERNSTEIN: https://www.schantzgalleries.com/notes-from-the-directors/studio-focus-alex-bernstein
Southern Studio Glass: New Directions (exhibition catalogue), Kingsport Fine Arts Center, Kingsport Tennessee, 1985.
Harvey Littleton
Glassblowing: A Search for Form, Harvey K. Littleton, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1971.
Harvey K. Littleton: A Retrospective Exhibition (exhibition catalogue), High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1984.
GAS: Glass Art Society about https://www.glassart.org/about/history/
Hurricane Helene
Habatat Glass Galleries: Hurricane Helene 2024 Updates:
NCDHHS, Hurricane Helene Storm Related Fatalities: https://www.ncdhhs.gov/assistance/hurricane-helene-recovery-resources/hurricane-helene-storm-related-fatalities
Sierra: This North Carolina Hamlet Faced Hurricane Helene With Intent: Could intentional communities like Celo offer a blueprint for new climate harbors?: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/north-carolina-hamlet-faced-hurricane-helene-intent