A Celebration of Michael Hurwitz and John Kelsey

Join us at the Everson Museum at Syra­cuse Univer­sity for an inspir­ing after­noon of insight and reflec­tion as we cele­brate furni­ture maker, Michael Hurwitz and editor, John Kelsey, the distin­guished recip­i­ents of the 2024 – 2025 Furni­ture Society Award of Distinc­tion. This pres­ti­gious award honors excep­tional achieve­ments and a lasting commit­ment to advanc­ing the art of furniture making.

Master furni­ture maker and sculp­tor Mark Sfirri will engage Hurwitz and Kelsey in a thought­ful dialogue about their careers, creative processes, and the impact they’ve made within the world of crafts­man­ship and design. Together, they will explore the intel­lec­tual and aesthetic contri­bu­tions that have shaped their work and enriched the broader furniture-making community.

The Award of Distinc­tion acknowl­edges leaders who have set high stan­dards in the field, foster­ing inno­va­tion, educa­tion, and excel­lence.

Confer­ence regis­tra­tion is required to attend this event. 

About Michael Hurwitz: 

“No one working today, or at any other time or place in furni­ture history, has surpassed this Philadel­phia-based maker in quality, inven­tion, and range. The admirable personal qual­i­ties that he possesses are also amply present in his work, which radi­ates the same calm, centered pres­ence as the man himself. Yet his oeuvre is also astound­ingly, even rest­lessly varied. Every­thing he makes, seem­ingly, is a master­work, while also being entirely unique, an inves­ti­ga­tion of some new form, tech­nique, mate­r­ial, or idea (often all of these at once). Among those who have made their living entirely through their furni­ture-making, none is more deserv­ing than Michael.”

About John Kelsey: 

“John is prob­a­bly best known as the editor of Fine Wood­work­ing maga­zine during the period of its great­est influ­ence, when the publi­ca­tion provided much-needed tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion and artis­tic inspi­ra­tion to count­less makers, both inside and outside the academy – a life­line to those who were working inde­pen­dently, in those pre-inter­net days. John was also a prac­ti­tioner himself, albeit focused mainly on turning, and it was this under­stand­ing of shop prac­tice, as much as his jour­nal­is­tic inquis­i­tive­ness, that informed the scope of the maga­zine. It is no exag­ger­a­tion to say that he constructed the source code for the studio furniture movement.”

Master furni­ture maker Mark Sfirri will moder­ate this conversation