Ceramicist Robert Milnes: Three Issues Facing Contemporary Asheville Artists

In the ‘70s, ceramicist Robert Milnes and his first wife taught a set of summer classes at the famed Penland School of Crafts in Western North Carolina. Driving cross country from Seattle, where Robert headed the Cornish School of Allied Arts ceramics program, the two arrived at Penland during the summer of ‘72 to teach three-week courses on the foundations of ceramics: casting, molding, glazing, and hand-building techniques.

“When the people at Penland invited me out, I thought, ‘God, that's a national school. I must know something,” says Robert with a good-natured laugh. The couple would return to Penland seven years later to teach another session of ceramics classes, this time incorporating salt-glazing into their lessons. “When we got invited back the second time, it meant I hadn't screwed up too bad the first time.”

While Robert left his temporary position at Penland and later took academic positions in Pennsylvania and Texas, he would eventually find his way back to Western North Carolina after leaving his position as dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of Texas in 2014. “[My wife and I] knew we needed a place to go when we retired,” says Robert. “[Asheville] climbed to the top of the list pretty quickly.” About an hour outside Penland, the vibrant craft community of Asheville was a different place when Robert taught at Penland in the ‘70s. “At that time, there wasn’t much in Asheville,” he says. “It was still pretty boarded up—the city was going to level the central part of town and make it an urban mall, which would have been disastrous. People in the city who lived there formed a human barrier with bedsheets to try and show their support for preserving the area.”

While Asheville has blossomed into a multifaceted city with a bustling downtown and robust cultural ecosystem since the ‘70s, it presents unique challenges to working artists eager to make a living within its walls. In a new series of features, ArtsvilleUSA investigates the major issues facing Asheville-area artists through first-person interviews with regional leaders in the craft field. Our first guest is ceramicist Robert Milnes, who owns and operates a studio from his home in the Appalachian Mountains of Asheville.

Owning or Renting a Studio Space

“Everybody's circumstance is different,” says Robert when asked about the main issues facing contemporary Asheville artists. “But I’d say there are three principle issues. One is having a place to work. A second is having a place to show and sell. And a third is a way to make a living.”

The first issue, access to affordable studio space, hinges on the housing market. According to The Asheville Citizen Times, the city’s median home prices have increased by 53 percent since 2019, outpacing the national average of 48 percent. Market rates for a one-bedroom apartment in Asheville have increased by 78 percent in the same five-year period. Many artists, including Robert, avoid the extra cost of studio rental by building makeshift spaces on their already-owned properties. But Asheville’s surging housing prices bar younger, less financially stable artists from home ownership and, in turn, a home studio.

“Asheville has become a very expensive place to be,” says Robert, who attributes the housing price surge to pandemic-era restlessness. “When people started realizing they could work remotely, places like Asheville just went over the moon because it's the sort of place where you've always wanted to live, but you couldn't live there until you retired.” Robert estimates that 30 percent of the population in Asheville is over 65, saying, “They are here, but Asheville does not have a large young population.” This demographic typically resorts to a third option for studio space: apprenticeships with established Asheville artists.

Finding a Place to Sell or Show Your Work

After locating studio space, artists must find venues to show or sell their work. According to Robert, many wealthy arts patrons who wind up in Asheville also gravitate toward the natural beauty of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. “What attracts them is the natural landscape, the beauty of the area, and being outside,” he says, “and the arts will tend to reflect that more often than not.”

That means lots of tourist dollars for artists whose work epitomizes Asheville's culture and aesthetic. Folk art, plein-air paintings of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and traditional clay and wood handicrafts remain popular with the 12 million tourists who visit Asheville annually. In some ways, Robert says, this creates an insulating effect that bolsters Asheville’s economy and cultural capital while barring certain artists from participating. Although Asheville sees more artists and collectors from major urban centers as the years pass, Robert isn’t sure how much this has changed the art market. “I suspect Asheville has the same problem that lots of cities I've lived in have—if somebody was going to buy cutting-edge contemporary art, they went to New York. So it's harder to produce that sort of art in this area.”

The price point of artwork in Asheville also differs dramatically from New York’s. In NYC, an artist could sell one piece for a cool two million; in Asheville, it caps around fifty thousand. “You either adapt or try to get your work somewhere else as fast as possible,” Robert says. “It's a lovely place to live, but you just might need to show your work elsewhere.”

Making a Living Wage

As a ceramicist with ties to the Penland School of Craft, Robert and his work rest comfortably within Asheville’s craft tradition. He shows and sells his work mainly through galleries in North Carolina but also has ties to organizations in Dallas and San Francisco and has sold in New York. He also sells work through his online shop, a viable option for artists with or without gallery representation. “I’ve got a lot of options now that I’m retired,” he says. “Selling has never been the majority of my income. It’s been a good part of it, but it’s never been the things that kept me alive.”

Until retirement in 2014, Robert supported himself with academic positions that offered stability and creative support. A decade later, with a home studio and time to make, market, and sell, Robert admits that his circumstances are “very different” than many young artists who find themselves in Asheville: “For a young person without financial backing, making a living here can be a struggle.”

Yet Robert knows of Asheville artists who subsist solely from their artwork sales. Most are over 50, he thinks, and many now own shops and studios in the bustling River Arts District. This dynamic, an artist-owned downtown, creates more opportunities for artists to show and sell their work. “These artist-owned shops are diversifying into selling other peoples’ work,” says Robert. “If they can make enough money selling their own work, they can help other artists sell, maybe hire someone, and get back into the studio more often.”

While this type of community support is welcome, Robert wants Asheville to invest in its permanent residents—not tourists—with sound arts infrastructure and programming: “I think the challenge will be figuring out how to grow in a way that recognizes people who live in Asheville are probably ultimately more important than those who visit.”

Robert Milnes: Website | Instagram

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All photos published with permission of Robert Milnes.