Arrowmont

Some of you are most likely familiar with Arrowmont. For those of you who are not, Arrowmont is a wonderful craft and art learning center in Gatlinburg, Eastern Tennessee. You can find out a bit more about their programs by visiting the website: http://www.arrowmont.org/.
It seems that at this point the existence of the school is threatened by commercial developments of the land it now occupies. Please read the following message and visit the links included in that message. If you can, sign the on-line petition. I understand that nothing has been decided yet but I think it is never too early for us to show our support. I should also mention that Arrowcraft, which is one of the galleries representing artists of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and situated next to Arrowmont, is also directly concerned.

"Arrowmont Needs Saving!
Many of you may already have heard that Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts needs our support and help. The Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, specifically the seven person Grand Council, has started negotiations to sell and develop the property they have owned and used for education since 1912. It has been home to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts since 1968. The developers have a nondisclosure agreement, but it is suspected that they are planning on building some kind of amusement park.
Please sign this petition in support of Arrowmont!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savearrowmont
Since this news became public in an article in Knoxville News Sentinel on August 16th, many people have come together to organize and do what they can to help Arrowmont and share information. Many outspoken supporters of Arrowmont are Pi Phi members who only learned of this sale through the article in the paper! This blog has a lot of information, links for articles, and posts comments http://savearrowmont.wordpress.com/
The original article in Knoxville News Sentinel with many comments after the article is : http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/16/pi-beta-phi-fraternity-sell-arrowmont-land/
Please go to the blog or articles to read more. There really is too much to say here. This is a very crucial time for Arrowmont and all of its supporters need to come together. "