- I come in here usually about three or four days a week.

It's open studio.

It's for people that are technically students.

You come in and work on your own projects at your own pace.

You can make things happen very quickly with a lump of mud and make it into a bowl or a pot.

[peaceful music] It's relaxing, it's creative, it's fun.

- [Clay] Bruce Marino makes clay creations at the Cowee Pottery School.

It's housed at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center near Franklin.

- The mission is to promote and preserve the teachings and the culture and craft heritage of the Southern Appalachians.

- [Clay] The center was originally Cowee Elementary School, the federal government's Works Projects Administration built the school in 1943.

It closed in 2012.

- When the building was no longer in use, the community rallied to save the building and had a vision and a plan for what it could be for the community.

So it became the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center.

You can walk in and out of a room, and it's a totally different experience in each room that you go to.

- This is my personal painting studio, and I also teach painting lessons here.

This is a painting of the area around my birthplace and where I grew up, and these are fields that I've walked in, worked in, and become very, very familiar with.

- We are in a build a clock class.

And obviously, you can make a lot of things by hand with clay.

I teach surface design here at the school.

And what that is is different strategies for glazing or carving or stenciling or transferring to decorate pottery.

- I do leatherwork and also tree and woodwork.

I'm making little flip notebooks like this one in my pocket that holds little spiral binders.

This one has been pretty well used.

That's what I'm making.

- And this is a studio space but also a teaching space.

So I have looms set up for people that have never wove before so they can come weave a rug.

I am tablet weaving, and this is an ancient form of weaving, and I'm making hatbands.

You can also use them for straps or dog leashes.

- Okay, this is Down Memory Lane Toy Museum.

It's a collection of automobiles, pedal cars, toy trucks, 900 or so Studebaker toys.

The oldest toy we have in here is 1883 roller skates.

- We are in one of our ballet technique classes, and they are working on their leaps and turns.

They are from all over Macon County, ages 3 to 18.

- This is my wife's studio, Cynthia Cochran Kinard.

She loves to paint religious art.

She does everything from watercolors to oils to charcoal to ink to just a number of mediums.

- We are the Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild, and today we are hand quilting on this sweet quilt, going through three layers of the quilt.

And instead of it being machine quilt, we are hand quilting the design that's going to hold the three layers together.

- I centered the clay, and I opened it up and I wanna bring the walls up.

And we're making basically a cylinder.

I mean you see how quickly you can make something.

It's just a very friendly environment that people will welcome you here and work with you and teach you.

- [Clay] In addition to studios, classes, and galleries, the center will soon have a Cherokee museum.

The Cherokee were here in the Cowee Valley long before anyone else, so we really try to honor that history and culture that they've left for us here.

♪ Hang my head in shame ♪ [audience applauding] ♪ And I walk down ♪ - [Clay] The Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center also hosts festivals, a farmer's market, and a summer concert series.

It's a community hub but also a destination for anyone.

- [Laura] I think if you're out here to enjoy the area, the beauty of the mountains, you should definitely make a stop here and let us show you our culture, our heritage, why it's so important to us, why it's worth preserving.

- The Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center is at 51 Cowee School Drive in Franklin.

To find out more about their extensive schedule and events, visit them online at cowieschool.org.