Holden Arts Crew Makes Space For Art On Campus
Marshall Alvarado | Nov. 4, 2025
Stenciled art in the Holden Arts Center at Warren Wilson College (WWC) in Swannanoa, N.C. (Marshall Alvarado/Echo)
The Holden Arts Crew at Warren Wilson College (WWC) is always working behind the scenes, organizing events and keeping the art spaces on campus clean. They are known for their gallery presentations, like the most recent Ghoulery featuring Halloween-themed artworks made by students, and art studios that are open to students of any skill level or major.
The Holden Arts Crew, located in the Holden Arts Center and surrounding art studios, is a crew responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and organization of the Elizabeth Holden Gallery, art studios and art classrooms. The crew is also separated into subcrews, such as Darkroom, Screen Printing, 3D Drawing and Painting.
Callum Clements, a junior who is new on the crew, expressed their joy in being on a crew full of creative minds.
“I enjoy working on a crew full of artsy and creative people, especially when we all have different talents,” Clements said. ”We'll be planning an event or organizing ideas and we all have different skill sets we can bring.”
Trace Howard, a senior who has been on the crew for three years, explained how he came to the crew.
“I started with Dining [Crew], which was good,” Howard said. “I appreciated that time, but I wanted my crew to be aligned with my major, which was Expressive Arts at the time. I came to the Holden Arts Crew, and that's really been awesome. I've been able to do a lot more art than I would normally, and I've also been able to help others. I've done a lot of tours and workshops and gallery openings. Being able to maintain that and get that kind of skill in gallery maintenance helped me with my internship.”
Madalyn Wofford, the art department coordinator at WWC and the supervisor of the Holden Arts Crew, voiced her appreciation for the crew.
“I love the work program,” Wofford, who is a graduate of WWC and has worked on campus for eight years, said. “I love that part of Warren Wilson and how it functions and how it takes people out of the classroom environment and makes them work together and appreciate how the college functions, and learn all of the nooks and crannies of the art buildings.”
Students on the crew have recently become aware that students outside of the crew or art majors did not know about the Holden Arts building, nor the other surrounding art studios. For Howard, the Holden Arts building is a special place.
“It's its own kind of world where it's still the main campus, but it also feels kind of alien,” Howard said. “I just overheard someone saying today, ‘Holden has this weird energy to it, and I feel so weird in there,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, I don't feel that at all.’ But that's interesting to hear, because [it is] from a different perspective of someone who maybe isn't on the crew, or isn't an art major or something, where you're here all the time. I'm here every day pretty much, and I really value that.”
Howard added how he would like other students to know about the art spaces that are available to them.
“We're open to collaboration,” Howard said. “We're out here. We do a lot of these things that people see every day, but they don't necessarily know about, all the art classrooms we maintain right now. People don't always see that. We're under the radar.”
Clements shared how they think that students should ask about events hosted at the Holden Arts Center more often, as many events are shared by word of mouth on WWC.
“If you are in a place that you want to get more involved in, and you know someone or see someone who might be involved, ask them, ‘What are your events?’ because chances are there are some,” Clements said. “There are usually multiple events happening on any given day on campus, regardless of department. There's always so much going on, even if it doesn't look like it.”
The Holden Arts Crew will be hosting a Biennial Faculty Art & Craft Exhibition opening reception on November 6 from 4:30-6 p.m. The event will present artworks and crafts made by faculty, which will be displayed in the Holden Arts building in the Elizabeth Holden Gallery, open to students and faculty.
