The John D. Mineck Fellowship

The Furni­ture Society is delighted to announce that Laura Mays has been unan­i­mously selected as the 2026 recip­i­ent of the John D. Mineck Fellow­ship. Mays was selected by a jury of Wendy Maruyama, Mary Savig, Stephen Markos, and Sarah Watling­ton from 92 appli­ca­tions submit­ted by furni­ture makers from across the country.

The $25,000 unre­stricted fellow­ship, funded by the John D. Mineck Foun­da­tion and stew­arded by The Furni­ture Society, supports early- to mid-career furni­ture makers at pivotal moments in the devel­op­ment of their practices.

The 2026 fellow­ship marks the first year that The Furni­ture Society has stew­arded the Mineck Fellow­ship. The Society is honored to carry forward a program that has made a profound differ­ence in the careers of furni­ture makers. The unre­stricted nature of the award gives a maker the freedom to respond to what their prac­tice needs at a partic­u­lar moment, whether that means taking risks, pursu­ing new direc­tions, or creat­ing the condi­tions needed to sustain and deepen their work.

“We are deeply honored to steward the Mineck Fellow­ship for the first time this year,” said Monica Hampton, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of The Furni­ture Society. ​“An unre­stricted award of this scale can make such an impact­ful differ­ence in the arc of a maker’s career, and we are thrilled to be able to carry this oppor­tu­nity forward. Laura’s appli­ca­tion stood out for the depth of her engage­ment with redwood, her connec­tion to the forests and their history, and the excit­ing body of work she has begun. We are espe­cially pleased that this award will help give her the stabil­ity and resources to estab­lish a perma­nent work­shop and support the next stage of her prac­tice.”

Laura Mays is a furni­ture maker and educa­tor based in Fort Bragg, Cali­for­nia, where she has been the direc­tor and lead instruc­tor at the Krenov School at Mendo­cino College since 2011. Orig­i­nally from Ireland, she has devel­oped a profound connec­tion to the redwood forests of North­ern Cali­for­nia and to the compli­cated history held within the material.

For Mays, redwood embod­ies both the majesty of the natural world and a rela­tively recent history of human exploita­tion. Her work increas­ingly explores these histo­ries through furni­ture, partic­u­larly wall-hung cabi­nets, using the color, grain, struc­ture, and phys­i­cal qual­i­ties of wood to reveal its story and invite inter­ac­tion. She has recently begun a new series of redwood pieces that she plans to develop with support from the Mineck Fellowship.

Mays will also use the unre­stricted award to equip a perma­nent work­shop at her home with machin­ery, power tools, dust extrac­tion, shelv­ing, and wood storage. After more than a decade of renting work­shop space in Fort Bragg, she recently had to leave her long­time studio and is currently working in a temporary space.

“This is incred­i­ble news. I feel quite over­whelmed, and also immensely grate­ful, honored, and humbled,” said Mays. ​“This lands in two ways. On the one hand, it’s going to change my working life to have a stable shop situ­a­tion, and on the other, the vali­da­tion, being seen, means an incred­i­ble amount to me. Thank you to The Furni­ture Society, the Mineck Foun­da­tion, and the jury for this extra­or­di­nary oppor­tu­nity.”

Mays’s impact on the field extends well beyond her studio prac­tice. As the only full-time faculty member at the Krenov School, she teaches wood­work­ing with an empha­sis on hand tools, craft, and a deep under­stand­ing of wood as a mate­r­ial. She also founded the Krenov Foun­da­tion, which supports exhi­bi­tions and commu­nity programs and provides funding for students who are under­rep­re­sented in the field to attend the school.

The Mineck Fellow­ship jury was partic­u­larly moved by Mays’s generos­ity as a teacher and mentor and by her commit­ment to creat­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for others in the field.

“Laura has given so much to other artists over the years through her teach­ing, her lead­er­ship at the Krenov School, and her work estab­lish­ing the Krenov Foun­da­tion,” said the 2026 Mineck Fellow­ship jury. ​“She has devoted tremen­dous time and care to helping others develop their prac­tices. We are delighted to have the oppor­tu­nity to support hers and look forward to seeing it flour­ish.”

“Having a maker of Laura’s quality as the recip­i­ent of the Mineck Fellow­ship is a real honor for the Foun­da­tion,” said Rob Ketter­son, Special Trustee of the John D. Mineck Foun­da­tion. ​“I have long admired James Krenov and what he estab­lished at the Krenov School, so it is partic­u­larly grat­i­fy­ing to see Laura, who has carried that tradi­tion forward through her teach­ing and her own work, receive this fellow­ship. We are delighted to support her as she devel­ops her prac­tice and creates a perma­nent home for her work.”

Mays is also involved with the Larry Spring Museum in Fort Bragg and its multi-year Redwood Time project, which explores the history and pres­ence of redwood in the commu­nity. She is partic­i­pat­ing in plan­ning a 2027 exhi­bi­tion at a former mill site as part of the project.

The John D. Mineck Fellow­ship is one of the nation’s most signif­i­cant unre­stricted awards dedi­cated specif­i­cally to furni­ture makers. Estab­lished through the generos­ity and vision of the John D. Mineck Foun­da­tion, the Fellow­ship has supported a distin­guished group of artists whose work has helped shape contem­po­rary furni­ture making and craft.

Previ­ous recip­i­ents include Will Tracey, Libby Schrum, Bart Niswonger, Vivian Beer, Kimberly Winkle, Sarah Marriage, Annie Evelyn, Jack Mauch, Tom Shields, Beatriz Mayorca, Aspen Golann, Jamie Herman, Sophie Glenn, Sarah Watling­ton, Charles Thomp­son, and Joyce Lin.

Mays receives a $25,000 unre­stricted fellow­ship to advance her redwood-based furni­ture prac­tice and estab­lish a perma­nent work­shop in Northern California

Laura’s Work

Follow Laura on IG

Learn about The Krenov School and The Krenov Foundation

Founded in 1996, The Furni­ture Society is the only national nonprofit orga­ni­za­tion dedi­cated exclu­sively to furni­ture making and design. The orga­ni­za­tion supports makers, schol­ars, educa­tors, and insti­tu­tions through grants, schol­ar­ships, profes­sional devel­op­ment, publi­ca­tions, and commu­nity-build­ing initia­tives that advance the field nationally.