The North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement invites artists of all ages to enroll in the 2008 Studio Masters Series, featuring programs for those with intermediate to advanced skills or with similar advanced interest in the arts. The Center's third Studio Masters Series will take place in March and September with courses taught by master wood craftsman Gary Rawlins, renowned marbling artist Laura Sims and widely acclaimed basketmaker Billie Ruth Sudduth. All workshops will take place at UNC Asheville's Reuter Center.

Gary Rawlins

Laura Sims

Billie Ruth Sudduth

"We are very pleased that we have been able to arrange for three artists of this caliber -- all of whom live in Western North Carolina -- to hold workshops in the Studio Masters Series," said Ann Bass, director of the N.C. Center for Creative Retirement's College for Seniors. "They are truly masters in their fields and we believe they have a great deal to offer those who wish to boost their interest in art to a higher level of proficiency."

Rawlins will teach "Furniture Design for the Woodworker" from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Friday, March 14. His work is heavily influenced by the traditions of England's greatest arts and crafts leaders of the past and by England's best contemporary furniture makers. In 1994 and 1996, he received the Excellence in Woodworking Show Award of Merit at the Sonoma County Museum in California. In 1997, he received the First Place Award at the Fine Arts, Fine Crafts Show in Marin County, Calif. His furniture can be seen in homes around the United States. Rawlins' work is currently on display at The Design Gallery in Burnsville. The cost of the workshop is $120.

Sims will conduct the second workshop, "Marbling Magic for Fabrics," from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. March 29-30. The workshop will focus on the use of marbling, a hydro-printing process, to add colors and patterns to plain fabric. Sims has operated Indigo Stone Studio in Bakersville for more than 20 years. She is a founding member of Ariel Gallery Contemporary Craft Cooperative in Asheville, as well as a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Carolina Designer Craftsmen and the Society of Marbling. Sims is widely known in the arts community for her work with textiles in which she integrates bold, organic prints with silks. The cost of the workshop is $265.

Sudduth's workshop, "Basketmaking as an Art Form," will be held from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27 and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28. After leaving a 20-year career as a school psychologist in 1989, Sudduth began spending more than 10 hours a day in her Bakersville studio making, collecting and writing about baskets. Her destination studio is known as JABOBS, an acronym for "Just a Bunch of Baskets." Sudduth's baskets, which are often derived from mathematical formulas discovered by 13th century Italian mathematician Fibonacci, are in the collections of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Asheville Art Museum, the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Art in Wisconsin, the Montgomery Museum of Fine arts in Alabama and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte. In 1997, Sudduth was designated a North Carolina Living Treasure, the state's highest honor for creative excellence in crafts. The cost of the workshop is $255, which includes materials.

Early registration is strongly recommended. To pre-register for the workshops or to be added to the program's mailing list, contact Janice Banks at 828/251-6140 or visit www.unca.edu/ncccr. For information about need-based scholarships, call Ann Bass at 828/251-6873.