"I had a white teacher sending me black thumb emojis in texts. I reported it and was expected to do a mediation, which I refused because I already had a conversation with the teacher demanding that she stopped. I learned that that teacher went to a on campus counselor and shared her fears for being held accountable and again, the situation was not dealt with. Why would a teacher who violated Penlands Inclusivity rules go to a on campus counselor out of guilt and share what that felt like for her to be held accountable. The counselor did not reach out to me nor was it dealt with. I complained to a staff member in the office and she redirected me to that very same counselor who admitted that (Andrea) the teacher sought sympathy from her. I filed a report and waited two weeks to hear what corrective action would be taken to respect the students. I heard no response. I reached out asking to hear what steps would be taken and Mia Hall claimed corrective action had been taken already. I dropped out of the course immediately after the incident and demanded a full refund. A week after, another student dropped out of the class while the same teacher, Andrea, who insisted in sending black thumb emojis stayed throughout the whole course and still sent black thumb emojis to other students. The school made no effort to remove this staff named Andrea who found humor in humiliating her students. In the whole school of over 100 students, during my brief time, there was only three African American students and one African American teacher. There is a serious lack of diversity and education about inclusivity in the school with surrounding support of confederate flags in the community. Students travel and spend over $5,000-$10,000 dollars on rent, food, and resources to attend this Institute, not to mention travel fees. The Institute had fabricated on their website that they are inclusive and provide safety to their students. This was not my circumstance nor other students who dropped out.
I emailed the board of trustees as well. They also did not respond to my email.

In case you plan on attending, just know that racial injustice can happen to anyone and know that if you have a conflict here is proof that steps are not taken to provide an inclusive environment. But instead a traumatizing one."

Chanel Hassan Elmi

"It was easy to spot this marker on the highway at the intersection of Penland Road. It is about as close to the actual subject so that it can be seen by passersby.

The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Penland School. Founded 1929 by Lucy Morgan (1889-1981) to promote traditional crafts including pottery, metalworking and weaving. Campus 1 mile southwest."

There is more information online. The school originated from Morgan's efforts to revive traditional weaving in western North Carolina, using a cabin at the Episcopal Appalachian School to train locals and sell their work to tourists. In collaboration with other regional craft leaders, Morgan helped establish the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild and expanded Penland's curriculum to include pottery, metalwork, and silversmithing. After her retirement, Bill Brown introduced woodworking and glassblowing, and today the school spans 400 acres, hosting over 1,200 artists annually.

This is marker number N-46 as it was erected by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History in 2007."

Bruce InCharlotte

"Best place to visit and enjoy live-art in-the-making within 150 miles! Enjoy great coffee/tea/sandwich/soup in the Pine Hall Cafeteria and wander around between buildings to see glasswork, woodwork, ceramic, printing, paper making, knitting, ironwork, etc. Meet the artists and students making the art. A must visit! A hidden gem in the mountains.
Don't forget to discover the galleries of artists living nearby. This is a central area between Asheville and Boone (one hour to each city), so staying in this area gives you a lot to discover the nearby attractions such as Linville Falls, Crabtree Falls, Mitchell Mountain, Roan Mountain, Grandfather Mountain, Sugar mountain and the Blue Ridge parkway."

M.-A. Hasan