Monica Hampton has had a life­long inter­est in the arts and educa­tion. Her back­ground is a combi­na­tion of fine arts, art history, educa­tion, and public outreach, with an empha­sis on program devel­op­ment for museums and orga­ni­za­tions special­iz­ing in history, fine art, craft, and design. 

As an inde­pen­dent consul­tant, she produced the Amer­i­can Craft Coun­cil’s 2016 confer­ence. Monica served as the Direc­tor of Educa­tion at The Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths (SNAG) and was formerly the Direc­tor of Educa­tion at the Amer­i­can Craft Council (ACC).

Past posi­tions include working with the Society for Envi­ron­men­tal Graphic Design (SEGD), Metrop­o­lis Maga­zine, and the Cooper-Hewitt.

She studied fine arts and art history at Bard College, received a dual fine arts/​art history BA degree from George Wash­ing­ton Univer­sity, and holds an MS in Museum Educa­tion from Bank Street.

Monica sits on the Board of Direc­tors of The Reher Center for Immi­grant Culture & History in Kingston, NY and is a member of the Craft­NOW Honorary Committee.

Pam Robin­son is a Chicago-based Jeweler, Artist, Educa­tor, and Arts Administrator.

She is the founder of Garnet Studios. She is a member of The Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths (SNAG) and served on their Board of Direc­tors. As their confer­ence liaison, she was instru­men­tal in orga­niz­ing, plan­ning, editing, and sched­ul­ing confer­ences. In 2019 she received the SNAG Volun­teer Recog­ni­tion Award for her service. Pam was on the board of the Women’s Jeweler’s Asso­ci­a­tion (WJA) — Chicago chapter as their Program­ming VP and received their pres­ti­gious Shining Star Award for volun­teerism. She was also a found­ing member of The Chicago Metals Art Guild (CMAG).

Pam earned her BFA from The School of the Art Insti­tute of Chicago, minored in art history, and studied at The Gemo­log­i­cal Insti­tute of America. She is proud of her commu­nity outreach work, has exhib­ited her work nation­wide, published in books and maga­zines, and is happi­est when she’s in her studio creat­ing and sharing her passion with others.

Al Dawson is an artist and maker from South­ern Cali­for­nia. They are an MFA candi­date at Cali­for­nia Insti­tute of the Arts and grad­u­ated from San Diego State Univer­sity with a BA in Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Studies with a minor in Studio Art in 2021. Much of their work combines contem­po­rary craft and concep­tual sculp­ture as a means of explor­ing mate­r­ial and the body. Their profes­sional expe­ri­ence includes studio manage­ment, fabri­ca­tion, and art handling. Al lives, works, and plays in Los Angeles, California.

Justin R. Cockrell(b. 2002) is a craft artist and educa­tor born to freedom in Colum­bus, Ohio, now living, loving, and learn­ing in Rich­mond, Virginia. Syncretiz­ing tradi­tional craft tech­niques and objects with magical realism and quixotics, their work aims to create queered func­tional pieces that serve as records of human and mate­r­ial exis­tence in the Anthro­pocene. Their native language is fiber and textiles and they use the linear and geomet­ric logic of weaving, quilt­ing, and natural dye along with sustain­abil­ity forward design think­ing to work across the mediums of fiber, wood, and metal. They have exhib­ited work at The Virginia MOCA, The Appalachian Center for Craft, and The Ander­son Gallery in Rich­mond, Va and have partic­i­pated in work­shops in various capac­i­ties at Penland School of Craft, Ander­son Ranch Arts Center, Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship, and The Craft­ing the Future Teen Takeover. They are pursu­ing a BFA in Craft/​Material studies and a BA in Spanish liter­a­ture at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity and an alumni of the Yale Norfolk School of Art, and Inter­lochen Center for the Arts.

IG: @Justin.rtc

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

Alex Alois joins The Furni­ture Society (TFS) as our Local Resi­dent Fellow for our Craft For A Greater Good program. This cycle’s iter­a­tion is in Part­ner­ship with A Tiny Home For Good, a nonprofit with the mission to end home­less­ness in Syra­cuse. Alex has been working with A Tiny Home For Good where he works as a main­te­nance special­ist ensur­ing tenants feel safe, comfort­able, and supported in their homes. His role keeps him closely connected to the organization’s mission, and he contin­ues to build rela­tion­ships and pursue work that strength­ens commu­ni­ties, supports indi­vid­u­als, and improves places people live. His inter­est in build­ing and craft began in 2019 when he converted a mini school bus into a camper — design­ing and build­ing every­thing himself, from cabi­nets and shelv­ing to a custom-fit bed. That project sparked his hands-on curios­ity and appre­ci­a­tion for thought­ful, func­tional spaces. Through his work, he was intro­duced to TFS and now serves as the liaison for this collab­o­ra­tive project with Syra­cuse Univer­sity, helping guide the devel­op­ment of a simple, afford­able dresser that can be built on-site, built to last, and built with inten­tion — with the goal of having it become a mean­ing­ful, every­day part of every tiny home for good.

Alexan­der Zimmer­man is an artist, musi­cian, YouTu­ber, podcaster and father. He likes to define himself as a creative as he does not align with any one partic­u­lar form of creativ­ity. Currently he is a MFA candi­date at San Diego State Univer­sity school of Art and Design. When he is not working on a project you can find him watch­ing the Seattle Seahawks, watch­ing Marvel movies, hanging out with his kids, or taking naps.

Check out Alex’s work on:

His Website, YouTube, TikTok, Insta­gram, Face­book, Twitter