A Conversation and Makers Mixer

A Conversation and Makers Mixer | at The Center for Art in Wood | Sat, Jan 25, 2020 | 4 – 6 pm

Join us for a conversation with Katie Hudnall, Cheryl R. Riley, Eve-Lena Shermaine Pinder, Rosanne Somerson, and Deirdre Visser followed by a makers mixer. Celebrate the closing and listen to a conversation sharing personal experiences and the exhibition Making a Seat at the Table: Women Transform Woodworking. 

Katie Hudnall (photo by Harold Lee Miller)

Katie Hudnall received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art & Design and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Furniture Design/Woodworking. She has been the recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Art Fellowship, the Windgate Wood Residency at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, and Anderson Ranch Residency and most recently a Peter S. Reed Foundation Fellowship.

Her work has been included in many publications and exhibitions including Studio Furniture: The Next Generation, Crafting A Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft, and Beyond Boundaries at SOFA Chicago.

She lives and works in Indianapolis, IN, where she teaches Furniture Design at Herron School of Art & Design.

Cheryl R. Riley (photo by Tom Grill)

Cheryl R. Riley is an individual artist NEA grant recipient.  Her designs are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, the Smithsonian’s Museum of African-American History & Culture, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum and the Mint Museum of Architecture and Design in Charlotte, NC.  Her art and designs have been exhibited throughout the United States.

Her public and institutional art commissions are installed in San Francisco, Sacramento, Atlanta and New York City. Since 1993, she has served on nine selection panels,  lectured or participated on panels over 40 times.  These include several University of California campuses, Stanford University, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the School of Visual Art in New York, BARD Graduate Center for Studies of Decorative Arts, Design & Culture.  She has written for or been featured in more than 10 books and 40 magazine and newspaper articles.

Cheryl has served on the executive boards for the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD)  in NYC, SFMoMA’s SECA Auxiliary, the American Craft Council and Capp Street Project (the first site-specific artist residency in the U.S.). Recent residencies include Vermont Studio Center, Oxbow and BARD College at Simon’s Rock in conjunction with the James Weldon Johnson Foundation.

Cheryl is also an Art Advisor with a focus on artists of the Black African Diaspora.  She currently resides with her wife of 20 years, the interior designer, Courtney Sloane, in a live/work loft space in Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District.

Eve-Lena Shermaine Pinder

Eve-Lena Shermaine Pinder, educator and creative, is an emerging woodworker and Philadelphia native.  While carving out a career in social services, empowering underserved populations with the tools to create increased self-sufficiency for themselves and their families, Eve-Lena, decided it was time to follow her own counsel and began to pursue her long deferred dreams. Eve-Lena earned a certificate in Carpentry Technology from Camden County College Career and Technical Institute. Spring 2019, she was selected as a participant in the Building Hero Project, a Tiny WPA initiative; the training program culminating with the community powered design-build project, of Samuel Powel Elementary Pollination Garden. During the summer months, Eve-Lena collaboratively taught product design/woodworking basics, to high school youths, at The Village of Arts & Humanities; a learning series, which led to the students restoration of Ile Ife Park benches. March 2020, she is planning to test for a local carpentry apprenticeship program. Eve-Lena’s intention is to remain committed to community empowerment and transformation, while increasingly challenging her comfort zone, fostering growth within herself and her greater community.

Rosanne Somerson (photo by Cary Wolinsky, Trillium Studio

Rosanne Somerson – A designer, professor, and academic leader, President Rosanne Somerson has been advancing art and design since she was a student at RISD.  After launching a successful design practice, she returned to the College to teach and founded the Furniture Design Department before serving as Provost and chief academic officer.

As RISD’s 17th president she is committed to expanding inclusion, equity, and access in order to enhance a genuinely rich learning environment that consists of diverse experiences, viewpoints, and talents.

President Somerson also maintains a creative practice, designing and creating furniture for exhibitions and commissions, and frequently speaks and writes about the power of critical thinking and making, underscoring the value of art and design to advancing life in the 21st century.

Deirdre Visser

Deirdre Visser is a curator, writer, community-based artist, and woodworker. As Curator of The Arts at CIIS in San Francisco and publisher of CHROMA books, she strives to promote pluralism in the arts, to support artists in the creation of new and experimental work, and to foster dynamic and critical dialogues within and across communities that propose integrative approaches to the urgent questions of our time.

This event is free to the public. The Center for Art in Wood interprets, nurtures, and champions creative engagement and expansion of art, craft, and design in wood to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of it. A suggested donation of $5 per person enables us to provide programs and exhibitions throughout the year.

For questions contact Katie Sorenson, Community Engagement Manager at [email protected] or 215-923-8000 ext 103.