Our Mission & Fact Sheet
Serving the Public Since 1985 | The Bascom, P. O. Box 766, Highlands, North Carolina 28741
828.526.4949 / www.thebascom.org | New Campus | In May 2009, the organization occupied a newly constructed, architect-designed, six-building, six-acre campus at 323 Franklin Road in Highlands (near Oak Street). | Mission | As a center for the visual arts on a mountain plateau, The Bascom provides a dynamic experience that inspires and attracts residents and visitors through interaction with all forms of visual arts. | Vision | Inspire. Create. Escape. At The Bascom, children and adults explore and learn about art, both indoors and outdoors.
The Bascom provides stimulating experiences in the visual arts through high quality changing exhibitions and educational opportunities. It strives for increasing excellence in:
• Stimulating, diverse art and craft exhibitions with broad appeal
• Comprehensive art and craft educational programs and experiences
• Functional studio instruction available for all levels of art ability, and
• Visible support for regional artists.
The Bascom is committed to fiscally responsible management of its assets and resources and aspires to be a premier destination for residents and visitors. | Campus | The Bascom campus comprises the former Crane horse farm property in Highlands, NC. Here in a welcoming, park-like setting, audiences of all ages and backgrounds will share art experiences and enjoy the synergy of art and nature.
Architects: Dewolf Architecture of Highlands and Lord Aeck and Sargent Architecture of Atlanta. The team includes Ross Landscape Architecture of Highlands; Ferry, Hayes & Allen Designers (interiors); and Trehel Corporation (construction). Wayne Yonce and Arnold Graton were consultants for the reconstruction of historic buildings.
Physical features include:
• Entrance: Will Henry Stevens Covered Bridge, 87 x 14 feet, dating from the early 1800s and transplanted from Warner, New Hampshire. This 53-ton structure features Ithiel Towns’ lattice style.
• Main Building, a Dewolf and Lord, Aeck & Sargent design: 27,500 sq. ft. of museum-quality space combining the large 1838 hand-hewn post-and-beam Ester barn with modern materials including stone and glass. The barn is mostly white oak. Visitor and educational amenities include galleries, studio classrooms, café, shop, reception and meeting spaces, and ample terraces.
• Studio Barn: a rebuilt rough-hewn barn complete with studio spaces for pottery and three-dimensional arts instruction, state-of-the-art equipment and outdoor terraces.
• Ecological Features: meadows, gardens, forest, water elements, walking trails, sculpture installations and unblemished mountain views.
| Community Support | Over 1,000 sources, corporations, foundations and individuals have contributed almost $9 million to date for the $15 million construction campaign. Fundraising continues for the new campus and a separate educational and exhibitions program endowment. | Wood Floors
| David Grant Howard, Historic Lumber, Inc., Greeneville, TN, purchased wood for The Bascom's main building floors from several historic barns. The wood is old growth white pine. Some of the boards are the original “threshing floor.” Those constituted the area of the barn where the wheat, after drying, was scattered and struck with a stick and leather beater. That long-ago process gave the art center's wood its irregular nicks and warm patina.
The Bascom wood was machine-planed on the back only so the planks are uniform in thickness. Only a small hand-held orbital sander was used with the boards, to buff irregular top surfaces. All work was done by hand to protect the original patina on the boards. After the floors were laid in place, a team hand-sanded to get the floor boards ready for the finish, which consisted of three or four coats of a heavy-bodied urethane. No stain was used anywhere. The pine floors were hand-sanded between each coat of urethane to give the gorgeous finish you see now.
| Volunteers | Over 300 volunteers help the professional staff and volunteer Board of Directors get their work done. These are year-round and seasonal residents who bring a variety of talents to the organization and serve in many essential capacities. | Upcoming Exhibitions | Over 20 first-rate rotating exhibitions are slated for the 2010 season. Internationally acclaimed artist Patrick Dougherty, who makes massive outdoor site-specific sculptures out of saplings, comes to The Bascom in June to create a giant installation. Other major exhibitions include a vintage motorcycle collection and a show of large-format black and white photographs that pay homage to heritage landscape settings in the U.S. All exhibitions are free to the public. | Classes and Workshops | Nearly 400 educational offerings are slated for 2010 in The Bascom's indoor and outdoor classrooms, including workshops, adult and children's classes, a lecture series, intergenerational classes, artist demonstrations, docent training and more. Sixteen artists-in-residence and many other dynamic artist instructors will teach this season, including Pat Dews, Jane Filer, Judy Richardson, Bill Van Gilder and Hongnian Zhang.
| Benefit Events | In 2010, benefit events include: Collective Spirits wine festival, May 21-22 (www.collectivespirits.com); Mountains in Bloom garden festival, July 8-11 (www.mountainsinbloom.com); and Autumn Leaves festival, October 2010 (www.thebascom.org). | | History | The Bascom owes its existence to artist Watson Barratt, who had a vision to establish a permanent gallery in Highlands for the display of works created by regional artists. His bequest made possible an exhibition space in the Hudson Library beginning in 1983. Watson and Louise Bascom Barratt, his wife, lived part-time in Highlands. He was a longtime supporter of the Hudson Library, and his bequest to found a gallery within the new library was visionary at the time. Creating an exhibition space and permanent collection in a village of just a few hundred residents distinguished Highlands as a progressive community committed to nurturing its local talent and to celebrating its natural assets.
Even though Barratt died in 1962, his dream lived on. The plans for building the modern Hudson Library building incorporated proceeds from the estate. The Bascom-Louise Gallery within the new library was a solid volunteer endeavor that evolved over time.
In 1999, the Hudson Library and the Bascom-Louise Gallery amicably decided to separate their operations. The art center received its own not-for-profit 501(c)3 status, formed its own Board of Directors, wrote its own bylaws and hired its own staff. As an independent non-profit, the art center grew even more rapidly. It quadrupled its exhibit schedule over a six-year period, bringing in exceptional two- and three-dimensional work from all over the Southeast.
With a new name – The Bascom – the art center has today become a beloved creative resource for art lovers and artists at all ability levels, as well as the community as a whole. Its enormous success reflects the region’s passion for the arts.
| 501(c)3 | The Bascom is a not-for-profit charitable entity focused on education. | Governance | The Bascom is managed by a 24-member Board of Directors chaired by businessman Willis Willey and a professional staff led by Linda Steigleder. | The Bascom
P.O. Box 766, 323 Franklin Road, Highlands, NC 28741
828.526.4949 / www.thebascom.org
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