Our primary part­ners in 2020/2021/2022 were UNCA­sheville, STEAM Studio, and BeLoved Asheville, a local non-profit build­ing a micro-home village to address the housing crisis in Asheville. These micro-homes are an afford­able, commu­nity-oriented, and sustain­able model for future repli­ca­tion.
In this iter­a­tion of Craft for a Greater Good, under the lead­er­ship of our Local Resi­dent Fellows, Annie Evelyn and Ellie Richards, we worked to create furni­ture solu­tions for the micro-home village being built by BeLoved for the home­less inse­cure popu­la­tion in Asheville.

Activ­i­ties to-date have included:

• UNCA STEAM Studio offered a Univer­sity-level semes­ter-long course enti­tled ​‘Craft for a Greater Good: Public Art in Private Spaces.’ Local Resi­dent Fellows partic­i­pated in the design, fabri­ca­tion, and instal­la­tion of built-in cabi­netry for the BeLoved homes. This will be an ongoing offering.

• Contin­u­ing to build furni­ture for BeLoved: we will continue build­ing furni­ture for the BeLoved micro home village and will focus our second year of the program on expand­ing the reach of the project by contin­u­ing to offer work­shops with the STEAM Studio’s youth audi­ences in the Asheville area. 

• Present­ing about CGG: the Resi­dent Fellows will produce a series of virtual presen­ta­tions on FS Connects about CGG’s progress 

• Commu­nity classes, Maker Exchanges: the Local Resi­dent Fellows will offer commu­nity classes and will host TFS member ideas exchanges. These events will raise aware­ness (and funds) for the BeLoved Village project.

  • Confer­ence 2022 Asheville: when we are able to come together for our next confer­ence in 2022, we will antic­i­pate a new model that will allow atten­dees to partic­i­pate in the BeLoved micro home village project. 

  • 2021/2022 build­ing continues/​Spreading the word: Begin­ning this fall, TFS will invite College furni­ture programs to partic­i­pate in CGG. Allow­ing students to contribute will teach them through personal expe­ri­ence why this kind of work is impor­tant and mean­ing­ful. Inspir­ing the spirit of CGG in the next gener­a­tion will have lasting impact.

This incar­na­tion of CGG embod­ies the kinds of possi­bil­i­ties we see for this program. Contribut­ing to some­thing as profound as creat­ing furni­ture for housing the home­less truly exem­pli­fies the program’s intent. 

For complex projects with mean­ing­ful results, we have learned that multi-year engage­ment is crit­i­cal. Extend­ing support will enable us to forge deeper, longer-term rela­tion­ships in commu­ni­ties and engage our member­ship in the process result­ing in big payoffs for the housing inse­cure commu­nity in Asheville.