Congratulations Mark Sfirri — 2024 AAW’s Professional Outreach Program’s Merit Award Recipient

Mark Sfirri, was awarded the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Wood­turn­er’s Profes­sional Outreach Program’s Merit Award at the recent Inter­na­tional sympo­sium in Port­land, OR.

The Profes­sional Outreach Program (POP) Merit Award recog­nizes the life­time careers of profes­sion­als and the influ­ence their work has had on other artists in the field of woodturning.

The award was presented by Kim Winkle, chair of the POP commit­tee and a board member of the AAW

“The POP commit­tee grants the Merit Award to indi­vid­u­als who have shown excep­tional devel­op­ment as an artist and whose artwork has directly influ­enced or had signif­i­cant impact on other artists within wood­turn­ing; it is the most pres­ti­gious award given by POP. The 2024 AAW POP Merit Award goes to Mark Sfirri” 

“Mark Sfirri earned his BFA and MFA in furni­ture design at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a wood­turner, furni­ture maker, and sculp­tor working in wood but is also a teacher, researcher, writer, collab­o­ra­tor, photog­ra­pher, and print­maker. He is most well-known for his multi-axis spindle turning, an area that he has been explor­ing since the early 1990s. He has lectured and demon­strated his inno­v­a­tive tech­niques all over the world and his work is included in the perma­nent collec­tion of twenty-eight public insti­tu­tions includ­ing some of our nation’s most well respected, includ­ing the Renwick Gallery of the Smith­son­ian, Yale Art Gallery, Museum of Art & Design, Minneapo­lis Insti­tute of Art, the Museum for Art in Wood, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the James A. Mich­ener Art Museum, among others.”

“Sfirri is profes­sor emer­i­tus at Bucks County Commu­nity College in Penn­syl­va­nia where he ran the Fine Wood­work­ing Program from 1981 to 2017. He has received three national awards: the ​“Distin­guished Educa­tor Award” in 2010 from the Renwick Alliance and, in 2012, the ​“Life­time Achieve­ment Award” from the Collec­tors of Wood Art, and this year’s AAW POP Merit Award.” 

“Sfirri has collab­o­rated with numer­ous artists since 1985. He was a found­ing orga­nizer of the Echo Lake collab­o­ra­tive annual confer­ences that began in 1999 at Bucks County Commu­nity College. Faculty, staff, students, and outside artists from around the world have partic­i­pated over the years. A twenty-year anniver­sary exhi­bi­tion was staged at New Hope Arts in 2019.”

“Embody­ing the spirit of the AAW, he has shared his knowl­edge gener­ously, encour­aged others through demon­stra­tion, panel discus­sion, thought­ful critique and impact­ful mentor­ship. And because his work exem­pli­fies the highest stan­dards of artis­tic quality, crafts­man­ship, inno­va­tion and dedi­ca­tion which has added immea­sur­ably to the field, Mark Sfirri is the recip­i­ent of this year’s Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Woodturner’s Merit Award.” 

“On behalf of the POP commit­tee and the AAW, please join me in recog­niz­ing and cele­brat­ing Mark Sfirri.”

The AAW’s Profes­sional Outreach Program (POP) Commit­tee fosters and promotes high stan­dards of profes­sion­al­ism in wood­turn­ing through initia­tives includ­ing POP Fellow­ship Grants, Merit Awards, Sympo­sium Artist Show­case, exhi­bi­tions, galleries and POP Panel, to name a few.