Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers explores tradition, change, sustainability

Staff Report
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — “Evolving Traditions,” a new exhibit at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), showcases innovative work by 15 members of the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers and six collaborating artists. Tom Bodett, Timothy Clark, Greg Goodman and Charles Shackleton led the creation of the exhibit, which is on view through Feb. 13.

“‘Evolving Traditions’ highlights the creative energy and fresh thinking that Guild members are bringing to their work with this gorgeous, confounding material — the flesh of trees — some ancient, once alive — that knew the sun and the wind and the soil,” Bodett wrote in a statement accompanying the exhibit.

The theme of “Evolving Traditions” was inspired by changing concepts of “home” and “work” during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as by an increasing focus among Guild members on sustainable furniture-making practices. Each piece is accompanied by a statement tracing the furniture maker’s influences and how their work has changed through time.

“My work is constantly evolving,” Guild member, exhibit organizer and exhibiting maker Timothy Clark said. “As I approach 60 years old, I am still finding new inspiration and trying out new things. One lifetime will not be enough to create all that I can dream of, but at least it has not been dull.”

The beds, chairs, tables, dressers, mirrors, cabinets and other pieces in the exhibit take their inspiration from sources as diverse as the hand-hewn furniture of gauchos in the Patagonian wilderness, the finely detailed Japanese woodworking art of Kumiko, the mandala-like botanical paintings of Margaret Shipman and the illustrations of Dr. Seuss.

“Evolving Traditions” features work by George Ainley, Jim Becker, Richard Bissell, Tom Bodett, David Boynton, Jason Breen, Timothy Clark, Erin English, Nick English, Chris Ericson, Bob Gasperetti, Greg Goodman, Erin Hanley, David Hurwitz, David Lewis, John Lomas, Pete E. Michelinie, George Sawyer, Charles Shackleton, Margaret Shipman and Shari Zabriskie.

BMAC will present two events in connection with the exhibit: a tour of woodworker Richard Bissell’s Putney workshop, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5; and a lathe demonstration at Brattleboro’s HatchSpace, at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12. (Register at the BMAC website.)

For more information, call 802-257-0124 or go tobrattleboromuseum.orgonline. In Downtown Brattleboro’s historic Union Station at the intersection of Main Street and routes 119 and 142, the BMAC is wheelchair accessible.