Craft For A Greater Good at the ACC Conference in Minneapolis

“Commu­nity is at the heart of every­thing we do and that’s what I thought was done so well with this project. We were build­ing commu­nity through­out this part­ner­ship and really build­ing it to last” ‑Monica Hampton, TFS Executive Director

At a moment when craft is expand­ing beyond indi­vid­ual prac­tice, this session explores how collab­o­ra­tion and shared knowl­edge can trans­form making into a force for mean­ing­ful commu­nity change, high­light­ing its rele­vance to the field today.

TFS’ Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Monica Hampton was joined by Zeke Leonard (TFS Board member and Asso­ciate Direc­tor of the Syra­cuse Univer­sity School of Design), Dorothy Dunn (Special Trustee for the Sara Little Turn­bull Foun­da­tion), and Sarah Mason (indus­trial design student at Syra­cuse Univer­sity and volun­teer at A Tiny Home For Good) for an in-depth presen­ta­tion and conver­sa­tion about The Furni­ture Soci­ety’s Craft For A Greater Good Program, its four iter­a­tions in seven years, and how each program has left a mean­ing­ful impact on the commu­nity, the local part­ners they worked with, and TFS’ members and community.

Craft For a Greater Good demon­strates how craft can move beyond the studio to actively shape stronger, more connected commu­ni­ties. Through a case study of an ongoing part­ner­ship in Syra­cuse, this presentation/​conversation brings together voices from commu­nity, acad­e­mia, and phil­an­thropy to explore how shared knowl­edge, design, and making can address real-world needs. Partic­i­pants will leave with a deeper under­stand­ing of how collab­o­ra­tive, commu­nity-based craft models can be adapted and sustained in their own contexts.

The Furni­ture Society would like to recog­nize and congrat­u­late the follow­ing TFS members for their induc­tion into Amer­i­can Craft Coun­cil’s College of Fellows:

• Silas Kopf
• Clifton Monteith
• Vivian Beer

Congrat­u­la­tions to all the 2026 inductees!