Critz Campbell (Photo by Blake McCollum)
A Mississippi State art faculty member is positioned to officially join the policy making body of an international institution specializing in craft education.
Critz Campbell, an associate professor at the university, recently was elected to an eight-year term as a board trustee at North Carolina’s Penland School of Crafts. A West Point resident and Clay County native, he is a Penland alumnus.
Founded in 1929 and annually enrolling more than 1,400, the school located in the Blue Ridge Mountains northeast of Asheville, North Carolina, is dedicated to “helping people live creative lives.” In addition to training in such artistic media as clay, glass, iron, metals and wood, it features artist residencies and community collaboration programs, among other offerings. For more, see .
An Ҵýapp faculty member since 2005, Campbell coordinates the art department’s sculpture emphasis program. He currently teaches introductory and advanced sculpture and earlier led courses in furniture design and metal fabrication, among others.
He attended Penland after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Parnham College in England. Other studies were completed at the Arco Centro de Communicao in Portugal.
“I am excited to serve the school that nurtured me for 20-plus years and has such an impact on craft education,” Campbell said of the trustee role that begins in November.
“The opportunity to represent Ҵýapp at an institution as important to craft education as Penland School of Crafts is a great honor, especially when I am representing the Ҵýapp, where our mission includes engaging students in the highest level of craft,” he said.
Trustee duties will help him grow as an educator and leader by “gaining a deeper relationship with the American craft community and greater understanding and ability in the pedagogy of craft,” Campbell said, adding that Penland “has a very active board and I expect my role to evolve as I gain experience in the group.
“What excites me most about the opportunity is the relationships I can build with renowned craft educators and advocates,” he said.
Campbell’s artistic creations have been featured at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and International Contemporary Furniture Fair, both in New York, deCordova Museum in Massachusetts and LIMN Gallery in California, among other prominent national venues.
His professional career also has been honored with awards and grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.