How the Kenilworth Tour Emphasizes History and Community
The Kenilworth Studio Tour is a twenty-year odyssey, and Diana Gillispie has been there since the beginning.
Portrait by Ricardo Tejeda
The Kenilworth Artists Association Studio Tour — featuring 26 artists in 14 home-studio locations — returns the weekend of October 5 and 6 to showcase metal garden sculpture, ceramics, mixed-media collage, jewelry, glass, woodworking, fiber art, and paintings in oil, watercolor, and acrylics.
But the event is much more than the sum of its many vibrant genres.
Angela Maddix, a lampwork-glass-bead artist who creates exquisitely whimsical jewelry, has helped organize the annual autumn event since its inception. As she explains, “The tour has been ongoing for more than two decades, and has been around longer than most of Asheville’s neighborhood events.” Maddix also notes that over the year, the studio tour “has inspired and assisted the Beaverdam community and Biltmore Lake to hold their own events.”
Another familiar artist on the tour is ceramicist Diana Gillispie, who began participating in 2006, the second year of the tour, and who served on the steering committee for nearly a decade. “Now what I enjoy most,” she says, “is connecting with the other artists and makers in the neighborhood around this event and inviting people into my studio.” Three artists show there: Gillispie, her husband Michael Robinson (who has a separate studio where he does landscape painting and drawing), and ceramic artist Rhona Polonsky.
Photo by Ricardo Tejeda
Unusual for an urban neighborhood, “We are tucked in the woods on an acre-plus, with gardens and space to talk to other visitors between the studios,” says Gillispie. “Sometimes people sit in our chairs outside, get into conversation, and don’t leave. People love to find us up here on the hill.”
Indeed, the historic centralized district, locally famous for its idiosyncratic winding streets and lovely architecture, is an ideal setting for a studio tour. The event is expected to attract 1,000 or more visitors, which means that each exhibitor will greet approximately 100 people per day.
Participating artists donate five percent of their net sales to Loving Food Resources through a more than 20-year partnership between the Kenilworth Artists Association and the nonprofit — “which provides food, health, and personal-care items to people in 18 WNC counties who are living with HIV/AIDS or are in home hospice care with any diagnosis,” according to the group’s mission statement.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to begin their year-end holiday shopping,” Maddix adds, “and to help give back to the community in an impactful and meaningful way.”
The Kenilworth Artists Association Studio Tour happens Saturday, Oct. 5 and Sunday, Oct. 6, 10am-5pm, kenilworthartists.org.