Blackberry Mountain Art Studio team members lend their skills to current Clayton Center exhibit
Sept. 14, 2022
For Polly Ann Martin, this month’s exhibit by the Blackberry Mountain Art Studio team at the Clayton Center for the Arts is filled with serendipitous moments.
For starters, the collection — titled “A Collective Celebration of the Creative Spirit at Blackberry Mountain” — wraps up with a closing reception scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, at the Clayton Center — the day before a gala takes place in the same facility for Plein Air in the Smokies, an event that will bring nationally acclaimed artists from across the nation to paint scenes from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Given the kinship between those hills and Blackberry Mountain — a Relais & Châteaux-designated resort located in Walland, Tennessee, that’s part of the Blackberry Farm hospitality consortium owned by the Beall family — those back-to-back events, while coincidental, provide a lovely showcase of what makes the Blackberry brand, and in particular the Blackberry Mountain Art Studio, so special.
“We welcome guests from all over the United States and internationally, so in thinking about the exhibition, I wanted to celebrate all the different artists who have come through and had their feet walk through these different hills and mountains,” said Martin, who serves as manager of the Blackberry Mountain Art Studio. “Blackberry has made a commitment to always learning and growing, and whether we’re inviting artists to come and work and stay for an extended period or for several days to do workshops, we’re committed to our staff and their growth patterns through these artists.
“Whether they’re on the Blackberry Mountain Art Studio team or a guest artist, those members are part of the exhibition. It encompasses all of them, and there’s a range of mediums, everything from clay to baskets to textiles to a floral arrangement.”
“We love showcasing the talents of our team members,” added Blackberry President Matt Alexander. “When Polly Ann came up with this idea, I was excited to share the creative work of Blackberry team members with our community. What a fantastic way to celebrate our team and the artist community they have cultivated.”
That the exhibit and the closing reception take place in the Clayton Center’s Blackberry Farm Gallery is another one of those serendipitous turn of events, Martin said, that makes the pairing between Blackberry Mountain and Maryville College ideal. Located in the Clayton Center’s Building B, the gallery was christened with the Blackberry name after the Beall family contributed to funding for the facility, which opened in 2010.
“It’s both exciting and lovely, to work collaboratively not only with Maryville College once again, but to work with other teams here at Blackberry that I’ve not worked with before,” Martin said.
Blackberry Mountain opened in 2019, but the genesis of the resort dates back to 1976, when the Beall family opened Blackberry Farm as a country inn that grew, over the ensuing years, into an internationally acclaimed food, beverage and lodging destination. Spanning 5,200 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains, with 2,800 acres dedicated to land conservation, Blackberry Mountain continues the legacy of Blackberry Farm and the Beall family’s world-renowned hospitality as well as unwavering dedication and appreciation for the land.
“Several years back, I started doing freelance art classes at Blackberry Farm,” said Martin, whose master’s degree in clay from the Cranbrook Academy of Art has made her an in-demand artist and educator for years. “Once there was an established vision of Blackberry Mountain, the Beall family wanted to establish its footprint even before the Art Studio building was constructed, and they asked me if I would be interested in managing it. From the beginning, there was a genuine interest in establishing different activities that guests could truly enjoy at each of the properties, and one of those was an investment in an art studio at Blackberry Mountain.”
Although the hub of operations is the 360-square-foot studio, the mountain itself is, in effect, the studio: satellite locations scattered throughout the property offer opportunities for everything from acrylic and watercolor painting classes to art meditation to a textile program that encompasses cross-stitch and embroidery to basket-making out of natural vines, flat reeds and round reeds.
“We have standing easels for field painting as well, and we do it at different locations — from the top of the mountain to mid-mountain to pastures to secluded, quieter spots throughout the property,” Martin said.
It’s a much broader scope and range of responsibilities than her previous role as an adjunct art professor at Maryville College, where she taught for 13 years. And that, she added, is the final serendipitous touch to this month’s exhibit: For Martin, it’s something of a homecoming.
“There are a lot of elliptical full circles hovering above those constellations and connections you make with both old friends and new acquaintances,” she said. “It’s been really lovely, and I’m extraordinarily excited this will be a collective celebration for everyone to come together. In addition to my old friends Carl Gombert and Adrienne Schwarte (both current MC professors), there are only a couple of the artists in the exhibition who won’t be able to attend the reception. And because of the role they’ve played in giving us all this opportunity, I’m looking forward to toasting the Beall family and Blackberry that evening.”
“Perennial Ties: A Collective Celebration of the Creative Spirit at Blackberry Mountain” is on display through Sept. 30 in the Blackberry Farm and William “Ed” Harmon galleries at the Clayton Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Sept. 30 reception, which takes place from 6-8 p.m., is free and open to the public.
