Bringle: A Tale of Two Makers, a documentary full feature film produced by Toe River Arts and directed by Vincent Martinez, was recently accepted into the Tryon International Film Festival, and will be shown the weekend of October 6 – 8 in Tryon, North Carolina. The film features the renowned area artists, Cynthia Bringle and Edwina Bringle. Over the last year, filmmaker Vincent Martinez recorded extensive interviews, creating a documentary film to showcase the lives of these two remarkable women. As part of the film festival, an exhibition of Cynthia and Edwina’s work will be hosted at the Tryon Arts & Crafts School in Tryon NC. The exhibit Bringle: A Tale of Two Makers, Foothills of Tryon will run from September 16 – November 1. https://tryonartsandcrafts.org
Community showings of the documentary in Mitchell and Yancey County are currently being planned. Tickets to the film festival can be purchased online: https://tryoninternationalfilmfestival.com/. For more information, visit www.toeriverarts.org.
Born in Memphis TN in 1939, Cynthia and Edwina Bringle have led storied lives as craftspeople in the South, producing remarkable works of art, mentoring a vast community of makers, and sharing what they know with students, visitors and collectors at every turn. They have been anchors in the studio craft movement from the 1960s to the present and enabled thousands of others to carry those traditions forward. The Bringle’s established themselves as part of Penland School of Craft in 1964 and have built their homes and studios on and around the campus. Cynthia and Edwina have not only made significant creative contributions to the craft world but have given so many other inspired, searching, and eager souls the permission to explore, and be transformed by the artistic process. These two women, whose embodiment of their craft is broadcast through the lives and stories of other artists, friends, and colleagues, are integral fibers woven into the fabric of our Western North Carolina community. In a time when we all long for human connection, the Bringle sisters continue to provide safe spaces to learn, to fall, to fail, and to grow.
