Abby Mechanic

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. Her port­fo­lio covered over­see­ing all analog-making facil­i­ties on campus, includ­ing wood­work­ing, metal­work­ing, ceram­ics, sewing, textiles, light lab, and more. Other respon­si­bil­i­ties included employee hiring, onboard­ing, manage­ment, health & safety, and system devel­op­ment. After Parsons, Mechanic worked at Peters Valley School of Craft as the Educa­tion Direc­tor, over­see­ing the school’s program­ming, studio spaces, and artis­tic team. Mechanic managed a wide range of shops, includ­ing black­smithing, ceram­ics, fibers, fine metals, glass, print­mak­ing, photog­ra­phy, and wood­work­ing. She curated, planned, and executed 160+ work­shops a year with the help of a seasonal team. Mechanic currently serves as the Board Pres­i­dent of The Furni­ture Society, where she is leading the orga­ni­za­tion through a new 5‑year strate­gic plan merging her skills in admin­is­tra­tion and furni­ture making. In addi­tion, she travels around the country teach­ing and expand­ing the field of wood­work­ing at orga­ni­za­tions like North Bennet Street School, Arrow­mont School of Craft, Charleston School of Wood­work­ing, Wendell Castle Work­shop and more!