Swim upstream with us to celebrate the Spotfin Chub!

This two day event, plus a morning of ecological love, is hosting writers,naturalists, crafters, and more.‍ ‍

Thursday September 24th

Pre-event Spotfin Immersion — led by Bill McLarney

Email tracy@coweeschool.org to register for this event.

Friday, September 25th

9 - 9:45 AM Orienting to Spotfin — led by Brent Martin, Ashlyn Miller, and Madison Traviss

‍10 AM - 2 PM Nature as Kin — led by Inner Woven and House of Fig

‍10 AM – 2 PM Nature Journaling — led by Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy

‍10 AM – 2 PM Cultural and Natural History of the Little Tennessee River by Boat — led by Alarka Expeditions

‍10 AM – 12 Weave an Amulet Pouch — led by Cowee Millinery and Textiles

10 AM – 1 PM Watercolor Botanical Studies — led by Carol Conti Studio

‍10 AM - 12 PM Fall Migration Bird Walk — led by Headwaters Bird Alliance

‍4 - 6 PM SPOTFIN Art Exhibit Opening Reception — hosted by Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center

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Saturday, September 26th

9AM: Introduction and Presentation — with Holly Haworth

10 AM – 1 PM Linoleum Printmaking Class — with Matt Gauck

‍10 AM – 2 PM Writing Workshop — with Holly Haworth

10 AM – 2 PM Nature and Poetry Collage — with Sydney Kale

‍10 AM - 1 PM Writing-in-Nature Workshop — with Zelda Lockhart

11 AM – 2 PM Lunch (included in $25 registration)

11 AM – 6 PM Artist Vendor Tables — support your local artists, authors, and makers

2:30 - 3:30 PM Nature is Calling Us Home from Colonial Tragedies — weekend keynote with Zelda Lockhart

3:30 – 5 PM Book Signing, Artist Panel, and Q&A — with Amanda Drozd

5 PM Closing — with Loss Glazier recording and Amanda Drozd sendoff

$25 registration includes Friday’s class or hike, evening art exhibit and light food and drink, Saturday free Class, boxed lunch and author book signings, vendors and Q&A Panel discussion. Upon payment, you will receive a confirmation from tracy@coweeschool.org requesting # of People with each participants’: Name, Phone Number, Email Address, Event Title.

At a glance:

SPOTFIN Art and Nature Gathering

keep on swimming (scrolling) for more details on workshops and registration…

Please RSVP by September 19th to guarantee your boxed lunch on Saturday. Registration will remain open until the day of September 24th, however, lunch will not be guaranteed after the 19th due to our catering deadline.

RSVP NOW

A Closer Look: Thursday

Thursday will kick off in the AM with local Spotfin lover, Bill McLarney, sharing his wisdom and history of the Spotfin and other river life. This event will take place next to our local Little Tennessee River, the one and only home of the Spotfin Chub.

We will be meeting at the Wildlife Resources Commission parking area on Needmore road, where Tellico Creek comes into the river at 9AM. More details to come later, but for now, wear clothes you are okay potentially getting wet in, a lunch, water, and a sense of humor and wonder.

$25 registration includes Friday’s class or hike, evening art exhibit and light food and drink, Saturday free Class, boxed lunch and author book signings, vendors and Q&A Panel discussion. Upon payment, you will receive a confirmation from tracy@coweeschool.org requesting # of People with each participants’: Name, Phone Number, Email Address, Event Title.

Please RSVP by September 19th to guarantee your boxed lunch on Saturday. Registration will remain open until the day of September 24th, however, lunch will not be guaranteed after the 19th due to our catering deadline.

RSVP NOW

A Closer Look: Friday

Join us Friday morning for coffee and listen to how Spotfin: Art & Nature Gathering went from an idea to a biannual event. A group of Cowee School resident artists and visiting naturalists, as tenacious as our endemic fish, will be facilitating workshops as well as outdoor ventures throughout the day. This is a Bring-Your-Own-Food event. Friday evening will end with an Art Exhibition opening, where nature lovers from all over our nation have their interpretation of Place shown throughout the halls of Cowee School. This exhibit will be available to immerse in until the end of November.

$25 registration includes Friday’s class or hike, evening art exhibit and light food and drink, Saturday free Class, boxed lunch and author book signings, vendors and Q&A Panel discussion. Upon payment, you will receive a confirmation from tracy@coweeschool.org requesting # of People with each participants’: Name, Phone Number, Email Address, Event Title.

REGISTER HERE for your FRIDAY class choice after reviewing the descriptions above!

Grab a coffee and a treat from the Mercantile and listen to how Spotfin: Art & Nature Gathering went from an idea to a biannual event before heading out for workshops.
10 AM - 2 PM
Space is limited to 15 participants.
Hosted by Alarka Expeditions.
10 AM - 12 PM
Migratory songbirds and raptors begin heading south for winter starting in September. Headwater Bird Alliance will be hosting a fall migration walk at Gibson Bottoms as part of the Spotfin Gathering this year. This Mainspring conserved property provides forest, meadow, and riparian habitats for songbirds.
We will meet at Cowee School at 10 AM and carpool to Gibson Bottoms to search for fall migrants.
Bring binoculars, water, and sunscreen. Loaner binoculars are available if needed.
This outing is limited to 12 participants.
10 AM - 2 PM
“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Debuting as part of Bartram 250, Nature as Kin focused on our intrinsic connections to and reverence for our natural world, not as resource or commodity but something we are deeply enmeshed and in relationship with. In our second year exploring this gathering, we will be invited through the elements (earth, water, fire, air, space), to pause, remember, co-create, and continue nurturing a sense of belonging and place both within and around.
What to expect:
A slow sensory meander down a gravel path for less than a mile, intentional poetry and prose to spark curiosity and deep remembrance, space for contemplative practice, and seasonal tea and snacks to conclude our time together.
Please bring water, weather appropriate clothes and shoes, and a blanket or mat if you prefer not sitting on the ground. Expressive elements like a journal, watercolor, compact instrument, etc are also encouraged.
Space is limited to 15 participants.
Your Co-Facilitators:
Ashlyn Miller of Inner Woven is a practitioner, facilitator, and somatic therapist weaving at the confluence of mental health, holistic living, and spirituality to nurture a felt sense of dignity, belonging, and meaning. Madison Traviss is a forest bathing guide, facilitator, and founder of House of Fig where she stewards spaces of creativity, curiosity, and connection. Together, they curate sensory and seasonal common ground for their communities.
To explore more about Inner Woven:
www.innerwovenwellness.com
To peruse more about House of Fig: www.house-of-fig.com
The workshop will involve a gentle walk along Wallace Branch and journaling activities.
Materials are included.
Space is limited to 12 participants.
Hosted by Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy.
10 AM - 1 PM
Use your observational skills to draw and paint plant life.
All levels of experience levels are welcome and supplies are provided.
Limited to 14 participants.
Hosted by Carol Conti Studio.
10 AM - 12 PM
Using a tapestry loom, you will weave a small amulet pouch. The pouch is made with hemp twine, and you can add buttons and beads if you like. All materials for the class will be provided, but you are welcome to bring a small item to put inside your finished pouch.
Class size is limited to 10.
Teresa Bouchonnet is the owner of Cowee Textiles/Cowee Millinery that has been located in the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center since 2013. She has years of experience teaching many different types of weaving.
If you have any questions, please contact Teresa at coweetextiles@gmail.com.
Friday evening will end with an Art Exhibition opening, where nature lovers from all over our nation have their interpretation of Place shown throughout the halls of Cowee School.
This exhibit will be available to immerse in until the end of November, no registration required.

Please RSVP by September 19th to guarantee your boxed lunch on Saturday. Registration will remain open until the day of September 24th, however, lunch will not be guaranteed after the 19th due to our catering deadline.

Register Here

Trouble with this link email tracy@coweeschool.org for registration

A Closer Look:

Saturday

Consume more coffee with us and the words of essayist and poet Holly Haworth, to kickoff Saturday morning. Workshops will continue during the day, led by more Cowee resident artists, as well as writer and expressive art therapist, Dr. Zelda Lockhart. A light box lunch will be available for purchase. In the afternoon we’ll have a panel where participants will discuss Place, Nature, and Story. This will lead us into the evening where local writer Loss Glazier will read from his recently published, Ten Thousand Trees, a book in dedication to our fishy friend, the Spotfin.

Consume more coffee with us and the words of essayist and poet Holly Haworth, to kickoff Saturday morning.
10 AM - 2 PM
Over the course of around 3 hours, we will cover everything from beginning an image all the way to printing a final version of that image as a linoleum cut print.
No prior skill is required, and all materials - the carving tools, linoleum blocks, ink, and printing paper will be provided; just bring an open mind and a willingness to get a little ink on your hands.
You will get to keep your print(s) as well as your linoleum block if you’d like to keep printing in the future.
Space is limited to 15 participants.
10 AM - 2 PM
We will create multimedia collages to explore the dialogic nature of ecology and what it means to be a body in conversation. In a collage, the context of new relationships transforms each component. We will take time before creating collages to explore different techniques and materials and to engage in creative activities to set an intention and vision for your collage. We will work with art, photos, and writing, as well as creative adhesive techniques such as paper embroidery, to bring your collage to life. There will also be opportunities to create your own unique collage elements if you so choose.
All materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring any personal items to add to your collage.
Space is limited to 15 participants.
11 AM - 6 PM
Swing by the auditorium to support your local creators!
10 AM - 1 PM
In this writing-in-nature workshop, we will take our journals and gently stroll and sit amongst the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural environment. We will allow ourselves to think, feel, and remember the stories that can be inspired by our encounters when we reconnect to the natural environment.
No writing experience is necessary.
Dr. Lockhart will guide participants with prompts that spur imagination, reconnect to ancestral healing, and build creative community.
Dr. Zelda Lockhart will read from and introduce us to the girl spirit in Trinity who turns her family back to home, nature, and missing stories after three generations of transmuted colonial abuses.
This short reading will be followed by an interactive to return us to nature through play and story sharing.
Local poet Amanda Drozd will send us off alongside local writer Loss Glazier to read from his recently published, Ten Thousand Trees, a book in dedication to our fishy friend, the Spotfin.

REGISTER HERE for your SATURDAY class choice after reviewing the descriptions above!

Please RSVP by September 19th to guarantee your boxed lunch on Saturday. Registration will remain open until the day of September 24th, however, lunch will not be guaranteed after the 19th due to our catering deadline.

Register Here

Trouble with this link email tracy@coweeschool.org for registration

the Spotfin Chub, just like us land-loving artists, continues to live and grow with the times.

Let this weekend ask you:

where is your place in nature?

How are you a conduit for art?

And how can you be more like the Spotfin?

Spotfin art exhibit: call to artists

ARTISTS NEEDED - SPOTFIN art exhibit for Cowee School Arts and Heritage's SPOTFIN: Art and Nature Gathering
Opening reception at Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center, September 25, 4-6 PM
(Franklin, North Carolina) – The Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center (CSAHC) is announcing a call to artists for their SPOTFIN: Art and Nature Gathering. The exhibit will be on display from September 1st to November 30th at CSAHC. The exhibit is inspired by the Spotfin Chub, a small and rare fish found only in the Little Tennessee River watershed that depends upon clean water and habitat. It is open to any genre that is inspired by a connection to nature and place.
Artists are invited to submit up to three works that can be loosely inspired by the title and theme of the exhibit and the gathering, which will include nature and art-based workshops, hikes, guest lecturers, and more.
The deadline for submissions is August 14th and artists will be notified by August 21st. All artwork should be delivered to CSAHC no later than August 27th. Submissions should be submitted in a Word document that includes an artist’s statement along with images and dimensions. Submissions should be sent to callforartists@coweeschool.org.
Application requirements:
All elements should be provided on a single word document and emailed to callforartists@coweeschool.org.
·      Artist name, address, email and phone number, social media asset links and website
·      Entry title and medium
· One high resolution photo
·      Size & weight (Wall hanging pieces only, maximum size 4’ x 4’, maximum weight 30lbs.)
·      Is it for sale? (not required) Price?·Insurance value
·      Artist statement about the entry (100 -word limit)
Questions? Email callforartists@coweeschool.org