NHFMA exhibit feature collaborative works

The New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association is holding its annual exhibition at the Kimball Jenkins Mansion in Concord, N.H., through Oct. 25. Pieces on display were the result of a summer-long collaboration between NHFMA members and artists and faculty from Kimball Jenkins, a nonprofit community cultural center.

The collaboration paired 14 masters with 28 artists in a three-month artistic exploration. The multi-media exhibition features a wide selection of works, from fine furniture to paintings, photographs and poems, all inspired by the partners’ artistic relationship and time spent together.

In one collaboration, master Ted Blachly was paired with poets Catherine O’Brian and Jody Wells, fused glass artist Eileen Mae Carter, and photographer Sher to produce a curly maple chest, “I Sent Two Sunsets”.

“We imagined Blachly’s curly maple chest as a birthday gift or ‘homage’ in honor of the poet Emily Dickinson,” the collaborators said in a statement. “We envisioned the chest to be a safe place for her poems, scraps of envelopes, letters and other small, wondrous, even heirloom treasures.”

For more, visit the HNFMA website at furnituremasters.org.

The Winona County Historical Society presented The Art of Fine Furniture at its main museum, the Winona County History Center in Winona, Minn., from Aug. 6 through Sept. 17. The annual exhibition, which started in 2013, featured new work by studio furniture makers and honored the region’s rich woodworking history.

“Each year a new exhibit invites and excites one’s curiosity to explore the inner mysteries and workings of the pieces and the traditional skills of the craftsmanship that goes into each. Like the other gallery shows at the History Center, most of the furniture exhibited is for sale and is free to explore,” the museum explained in a statement.

For more, visit the society’s website at winonahistory.org.