Kathryn Hall Asaro is a curator and writer of contem­po­rary craft and mate­r­ial culture. She is Fundrais­ing Manager of In-Park Recog­ni­tion Programs at Central Park Conser­vancy. She served as Curator at Houston Center for Contem­po­rary Craft (HCCC) in Houston, Texas from 2015 to 2022 and the Windgate Cura­to­r­ial Fellow from 2012 to 2015. She has contributed to The JRA Craft Quar­terly, Metal­smith, Studio Potter, and the Surface Design Journal. She is currently the Pres­i­dent of The Furni­ture Society board and she previ­ously was on the Clay­Hous­ton board from 2016 to 2020. Kathryn received an MA in Art History from the Univer­sity of Georgia and a BA in Art History from Wofford College.

https://​kathrynfhall​.com/

Abby Mechanic is a passion­ate leader, admin­is­tra­tor, educa­tor + maker within the craft field. Mechanic received her BFA from the Maine College of Art with a concen­tra­tion in Wood­work­ing and Furni­ture Design. After grad­u­at­ing, she worked in various design studios, such as Luur Design, Nate Berkus, and Matter Prac­tice. Mechanic then spent seven years working at Parsons School of Design, where she began as a Part-Time Tech­ni­cian and later became the Asso­ciate Direc­tor of the Making Center. She now works at Peters Valley School of Craft as the Educa­tion Direc­tor, over­see­ing the school’s program­ming, studio spaces, and artis­tic team. Mechanic manages a wide range of shops, includ­ing Black­smithing, Ceram­ics, Fibers, Fine Metals, Glass, Print­mak­ing, Photog­ra­phy, and Wood­work­ing. She curates, plans, and executes 160+ work­shops a year with the help of a seasonal team that she recruits, hires, and manages on a yearly basis. In her down­time, she travels around the country teach­ing spoon carving and expand­ing the field of wood­work­ing at orga­ni­za­tions like North Bennet Street School, Arrow­mont School of Craft, Charleston School of Wood­work­ing, and more!

https://​www​.abbyme​chanic​.com/

@abbymechanic

Sophie Glenn is a metal­worker and furni­ture maker currently based in Reading, PA. She makes classic furni­ture designs recre­ated out of steel to give voice to women in both the wood­work­ing and metal fields, and she utilizes steel in the making of her work to explic­itly expand upon the mate­ri­als that are consid­ered to be part of the fine furni­ture making field.

Sophie received her MFA in Furni­ture Design and Wood­work­ing from San Diego State Univer­sity, and BFA in Sculp­ture and Drawing from SUNY Purchase College. She has exhib­ited her work across the country, includ­ing Blue Spiral 1 Gallery (NC), the Center for Art in Wood (PA), and the Metal Museum (TN), and has been fortu­nate to receive several grants, fellow­ships, and resi­den­cies to help advance her career, includ­ing the John D. Mineck Fellow­ship in 2022. Sophie currently teaches at Kutz­town Univer­sity, and taught work­shops at A Work­shop of Our Own (MD), Arrow­mont School of Arts and Crafts (TN), the Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), and Haystack Moun­tain School of Crafts (ME).

https://​sophieglenn​.com/

Zeke Leonard is the Asso­ciate Direc­tor of the Syra­cuse Univer­sity School of Design, as well as being the coor­di­na­tor of the School of Design’s First Year Expe­ri­ence. His research involves the role of social respon­si­bil­ity and envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship in contex­tu­ally-rele­vant design and fabri­ca­tion prac­tices. Central to his work is the re-purpos­ing of discarded mate­ri­als and objects in ways that inspire conver­sa­tion and call commu­ni­ties to action. Zeke regu­larly part­ners with commu­nity groups and orga­ni­za­tions to find ways to put local resources to better use. 

He has written about his research-based design prac­tices in ​‘The Inte­rior Archi­tec­ture Theory Reader’ (Rout­ledge, Gregory Marinic, Ed.), and has published in jour­nals as varied as Int/​AR: Inter­ven­tion and Adap­tive Reuse and Anthro­pol­ogy News. He previ­ously taught at RISD and NYU, and is a regular visit­ing instruc­tor at insti­tu­tions includ­ing the Haystack Moun­tain School of Craft and the Arrow­mont School of Arts and Crafts. Exam­ples of his wood work are in the collec­tions of the Worker’s Arts and Heritage Society in Hamil­ton, Ontario, The Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Maine Culi­nary Archive. Zeke holds an MFA in Furni­ture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Set Design from the Univer­sity of North Carolina School of the Arts.

https://​zekeleonard​.com/​h​ome.h…

Karen Ernst is a Profes­sor in the Art Depart­ment at Edin­boro Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia, where she has been teach­ing wood­work­ing and furni­ture design since 2004. Orig­i­nally from East Aurora, NY, she received a B.A. in Studio Art from SUNY Geneseo, and her M.F.A in Furni­ture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. She main­tains an active studio prac­tice, exhibit­ing the furni­ture and sculp­tural objects she makes across the U.S. She has been a member of the Furni­ture Society since 2002.

Joshua Enck is a sculp­tor who teaches and main­tains an active studio prac­tice in Rochester, New York. He trained as an archi­tect and a furni­ture designer, receiv­ing his MFA in furni­ture design from the Rhode Island School of Design and his BSAS from the School of Archi­tec­ture at the Univer­sity of Illi­nois. He taught for ten years at RISD: drawing, three-dimen­sional design, tech­ni­cal drawing, wood­work­ing, and metal­work­ing. He has also taught wood­work­ing at the Ander­son Ranch Arts Center and drawing at the Univer­sity of Illi­nois, Williams College, and the Univer­sity of Rochester. Joshua has exhib­ited his work in solo shows at Space Gallery, the RIT City Art Space, Simon Gallery, and the Univer­sity of Maine Museum of Art. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, the Haystack School of Crafts, and the Center for Art in Wood in Philadel­phia have honored his work. Joshua spent five months in India as a Fulbright Nehru Scholar, research­ing tradi­tional metal­smithing and teach­ing at the Sushant School of Design. He most recently was the Anna Ballar­ian Visit­ing Artist at the Rochester Insti­tute of Technology.

https://​www​.joshuaenck​.com/

Joy, laugh­ter, and the unex­pected are at the heart of Annie Evelyn’s work. Employ­ing a range of mate­ri­als and processes, Evelyn uses furniture’s inher­ent inter­ac­tive qual­i­ties and rela­tion­ships with the human body to create new and surpris­ing expe­ri­ences. From 2014 – 2017 Evelyn was a resi­dent artist at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and in 2016 was awarded The John D. Mineck Furni­ture Fellow­ship. She received both her BFA and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Evelyn is an Assis­tant profes­sor of Furni­ture in the Craft and Mate­r­ial Studies depart­ment at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity. She has also taught at RISD, Cali­for­nia College of the Arts, Parsons — The New School, Haystack Moun­tain School, Penland School of Craft, and others. Evelyn has been working to create commu­nity through­out her artis­tic prac­tice, mentor­ing teens, teach­ing art and uphol­stery in commu­nity and youth centers, as well as putting on arts-based events across the country. In 2019 she co-founded Craft­ing the Future with a dedi­cated group of artists from the Penland School of Craft to address the glaring lack of racial and ethnic diver­sity in art, craft, and design.

http://​annieeve​lyn​.com/

Aspen Golann is an artist & furni­ture maker blend­ing furni­ture forms with sculp­ture and social practice.

Trained as a 17th-19th century wood­worker, Aspen explores gender and power through the manip­u­la­tion of iconic Amer­i­can furni­ture forms. She teaches furni­ture design at The Rhode Island School of Design, holds a degree from The North Bennet Street School, and teaches craft workshops internationally.

Her work has been featured on NPR and PBS and published in The New York Times, Archi­tec­tural Digest, Remod­elista, Hyper­al­leric, This is Colos­sal, Elle, Luxe, Fine Wood­work­ing, and Amer­i­can Craft.

She has received support for her work from The Windgate Foun­da­tion, The United Artists Foun­da­tion, Winterthur Museum, The Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship and others. She is the recip­i­ent of the 2023 Award in Craft from The Maxwell Hanra­han Foun­da­tion and the Mineck Furni­ture Fellow­ship from The Society of Arts & Crafts.

In 2020, Aspen founded The Chairmaker’s Toolbox — a project foster­ing access and equity in the field of chair­mak­ing. In support of the project, she has part­nered with museums, schools, and chair­mak­ers around the world.

Born and raised outside of Boston, she now lives and works in New Hampshire.

Aspen serves on the boards ofThe Chairmaker’s Toolbox, A Work­shop of Our Own, The Furni­ture Society, and The Society of Arts + Crafts.

Mark Tan is a first-gener­a­tion Cana­dian born and raised in Toronto by Filipino immi­grants. He produces inter­ac­tive sculp­tures made from reclaimed solid wood, found mate­ri­als, and domes­tic construc­tion build­ing mate­ri­als at an archi­tec­tural scale. His work expresses the emotional value of precon­ceived notions, longing, and discon­nect­ed­ness in seeking accep­tance within a community.

He received his MFA in Furni­ture Design & Wood­work­ing in the Craft/​Material Studies program at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity in Rich­mond, VA. His work has been exhib­ited inter­na­tion­ally at exhi­bi­tions such as the Mesa Contem­po­rary Arts Museum in Mesa, AZ, Hillyer Contem­po­rary in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Messler Gallery in Rock­port, ME., Patter­son-Apple­ton Gallery in Denton, TX., Fuller Craft Museum in Brock­ton, MA., Wharton Esher­ick Museum in Malvern, PA., Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, CO., and the DeLeon White Gallery at the Glad­stone in Toronto, ON. He has partic­i­pated in resi­den­cies at Arrow­mont School of Arts & Crafts and the Windgate Artist in Resi­dence at San Diego State Univer­sity. He is currently an Assis­tant Profes­sor of Sculpture/​Wood at Arizona State University.

https://​www​.insta​gram​.com/nint…

Katie Thomp­son is an inde­pen­dent artist, author, creative consul­tant and speaker based outside of Charleston, SC. She is a disabled mother of two, and wife and partner to fine furni­ture­maker Joseph Thomp­son. They live and work out of their home and shop in the swamps of the Lowcountry.

Katie’s work as Design Partner with Joseph Thomp­son Wood­works has been featured in publi­ca­tions such as Furni­ture & Cabi­net­mak­ing maga­zine, Charleston Maga­zine, and has been exhib­ited widely at craft shows, Museums, and galleries. She is also an instruc­tor at the Charleston Woodworking School.

In 2013 Katie started Black Swamp as a line of natu­rally inspired hand­crafted jewelry, art, home décor and acces­sories made using recy­cled wood offcuts from the furni­ture making process. 

Her ongoing project the Women of Wood­work­ing series features some of the craft’s most talented arti­sans from around the globe. A prolific writer, Katie is the author of a 2016 children’s book Little Beaver Builds a Bed and is currently working on a second children’s book project (2019). Her latest project, Pen & Chisel, a monthly digital journal for wood­work­ers, artists, and makers launched, explor­ing orig­i­nal stories from change-making voices in the craft and trades. 

Katie is proudly disabled and lives with multi­ple neuro­log­i­cal condi­tions. She suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 18 and expe­ri­enced compli­ca­tions with surgery and contracted bacte­r­ial menin­gi­tis. She received a spinal fusion a few years later and now has eight tita­nium screws and two rods support­ing her thoracic and lumbar spine. She went on to grad­u­ate from the College of Charleston in 2009 with a B.A. in Commu­ni­ca­tions with a focus on Commu­ni­ca­tion Theory. Katie uses her chronic health condi­tions to make a posi­tive impact by advo­cat­ing and sharing her expe­ri­ences with others.

https://​ktthomp​son​.com/

Sarah Turner is an artist and educa­tor trained in the North­west, refined in the Midwest and now based in Boston. She is the Pres­i­dent of North Bennet Street School.

As an educa­tor, working from both the office and the studio, Sarah has also worked at the Cran­brook Academy of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and the State Univer­sity of New York at New Paltz. As the Dean at Cran­brook, Sarah directed the Acad­e­mic Programs of the Academy and estab­lished a Crit­i­cal Studies + Human­i­ties resi­den­tial teach­ing fellow­ship. She has lectured widely, regu­larly serves as a guest critic, and has orga­nized exhi­bi­tions on contem­po­rary applied art in the US and abroad. In 2005, Sarah was awarded a Fulbright Fellow­ship to the Nether­lands to research Dutch contem­po­rary applied art.

In addi­tion to her work in educa­tion, Sarah main­tains a low-produc­tion studio. Her work has been included in exhi­bi­tions nation­ally and internationally. 

Sarah has been a volun­teer and advisor for a variety of orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the South­east Michi­gan Fulbright Asso­ci­a­tion, the Vermont YWCA, the Art Jewelry Forum, the Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths, and the Inter­na­tional (dis)Organization of Recent Art-Grad­u­ates Apply­ing for Teach­ing and Grants [I(d)RAGTAG].

https://​www​.sarah​turn​er​pro​jects​.com/

https://​www​.nbss​.edu/

Chelsea Witt is an artist and educa­tor working in both wood and ink. Currently based in New Jersey, Chelsea has a sculp­ture degree from the Univer­sity of South Florida and is a grad­u­ate of the Furni­ture Inten­sive at the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship. Chelsea has worked for and studied with artist/​makers such as Alexis Dold, Tyler Hays, Christina Boy, Aaron Fedarko, Tim Rousseau, and David Upfill-Brown. Chelsea has taught at Penland School of Craft, Haystack Moun­tain School of Craft, Peters Valley School of Craft and the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship. Chelsea currently teaches 3D design and wood­work­ing at Moorestown Friends School, is the Educa­tion Chair for the Chair­Mak­ers Toolbox, and works for both the Furni­ture Society and A Work­shop of Our Own.

“My prior­ity when teach­ing is to include the excluded and push the bound­aries of​“the norm” in a wood­shop. My prior­ity as an artist is to explore and push the bound­aries of emotional and mental health.”

@littleforestswontdo

https://​furnsoc​.org/​d​i​r​e​c​tory/…

https://​www​.chelseacari​nawitt​.com/

Cleo Lewis was born and raised in Cary, North Carolina and spent time in Alexan­dria, Virginia and Accra, Ghana. Their natural sense of creativ­ity and inqui­si­tion lead them to pursu­ing a BFA in Sculp­ture and a minor in Craft at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity. While at VCU they fell in love with the medium of wood. They now make sculp­tural furni­ture that explores the inter­sec­tion of black femi­nin­ity in an attempt to connect with others that share this inter­sec­tion of iden­ti­ties. Much of their work has been influ­enced by ideas and prac­tices of femi­nin­ity in the places they have grown up.

Jan Rybczyn­ski (yawn rib-chin-ski, he/​him/​his) is a multi-disci­pli­nary artist currently enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design study­ing Furni­ture Design with a concen­tra­tion in Nature, Culture, and Sustain­abil­ity Studies. Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Jan holds a deep appre­ci­a­tion for the beauty within the natural world in all of its subtle complex­ity. Span­ning across furni­ture, sculp­ture, and beyond, his work is inspired by the phys­i­cal attrib­utes of the nine biomes of Earth and the beings which inhabit them, and employs mate­ri­als that lend them­selves to the crafts­man­ship and phys­i­cal process required to work them. His result­ing work provokes the limits of mate­r­ial and process, drawing out the harmo­nious rela­tion­ship between craft and the inher­ent beauty of the envi­ron­ment. Through contin­ued explo­ration, Jan aims to build a sustain­able prac­tice which meshes mate­r­ial, process, and historical/​cultural context — a struc­ture which will allow him to create work while treat­ing the envi­ron­ment with kind­ness and respect, make room for the life­long study of craft, and explore modal­i­ties of service and commu­nity within and around his work.