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Arrowmont's heart 'still beating'

All workshops and conference are on schedule at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg. 

Three months after fire threatened the Gatlinburg landmark, the heart of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts beats as strong as ever.

Arrowmont Executive Director Bill May shot video on his cell phone that night.

"The fire was coming down the hillside behind us," May said. 

Fire raced toward the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. May watched the flames devour two dormitory buildings and a maintenance building.

When dawn came, he realized with relief that the core of the campus was fine.

"Our studios are completely intact, our permanent collection, our art collection, our library that we are in now, our gallery, our wood studio. We were very fortunate," May said. 

And so is the community. History was preserved. That included the Red Barn across from the dorms that was built back in the 1920s.

"It was a settlement school here before Gatlinburg was a town. So we have a long history of education and now we are an arts and crafts center. I like to think that Arrowmont is the cultural center of Gatlinburg, if not Sevier County," he said.

Everyone can still enjoy the beautiful galleries that showcase the work of acclaimed artists featured in museums, as well as the work of local artists.

"We have all of these programs for the local community and the public school system that we cooperate with and, of course, we have national workshops where people are coming in from all over the world to take classes here," he said.

Artists in residence like Austin Riddle continue their projects and look forward to showing their work at exhibits there.

"All of our workshops, all of our conferences, everything that we had planned is going on just as scheduled," Riddle said.

May said the fire gave Arrowmont an opportunity to give back to Gatlinburg by providing art kits for kids and offering lunch in its dining hall.

"The people pulling together. It's been incredible," he said.

The charred buildings are gone, replaced by smooth earth and a clean palette for rebuilding. The goal is to open new dorms in the summer of 2018.

"We like to think that we are one of the hearts of this community, and we are still beating. Everything is still alive. The heart is beating and the town is recovering," May said.

While two dorms burned down, three survived. When the dorms reach maximum capacity, workshop participants stay in hotels close to the campus.

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