Art school’s scholarship honors late craftsman

The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts in Boston recently announced a new scholarship for emerging artists and woodworkers through the Neal Widett Scholarship Fund. The late Neal Widett was a master craftsman, woodworker, and sign maker in Boston for more than 40 years.

Several of Widett’s childhood friends from Newton, Mass. started the fund to pay the tuition of at least two students each year for the school’s summer program for a period of ten years. It will also provide for a Widett Master Woodworking Class.

“The Eliot School is honored and humbled to steward the commemorative scholarship of such a well-loved and accomplished artist. Neal Widett is a powerful example for young people and lifelong learners of taking an unconventional career pathway into the arts, and how handcrafted art may contribute to the essential character or feeling of a community,” says Titi Ngwenya, the school’s director of development and communications.

For more, visit www.eliotschool.org.

New furniture competition

The International Society of Furniture Designers is accepting entries for Innovation + Design 2021, a juried industry-sponsored furniture competition open to professional maker/designers and students.

“The Innovation + Design 2021 competition and exhibition is an excellent opportunity for designers, makers, artisans and students to express broader creativity, thoughtfulness, and inventiveness with executable designs in functional home furnishings,” explains John Conrad, the society’s executive director.

Finalists will have their projects displayed at The Loft at Congdon Yards in High Point, N.C. in September, followed by a three-month public showing at the Theater Art Galleries in High Point.

For entry details, visit www.isfd.org.

More growth expected

Growth in improvement and repair expenditures to owner-occupied homes is expected to remain solid throughout the year and into 2022, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity report from the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

The LIRA projects a healthy pace of mid-single digit gains in annual home renovation and repair spending this year, with 4.8 percent growth by the first quarter of next year.

“With a financial boost from recent federal stimulus payments and strong house price appreciation, homeowners are continuing to invest in the upkeep and improvement of their homes,” Chris Herbert, the center’s managing director, said in a statement “This lift in incomes and ongoing strength of the housing market are providing homeowners incentives to make even greater investments in their homes this year.”

Registration begins for NWFA Expo

The National Wood Flooring Association has opened registration for the 2021 NWFA Wood Flooring Expo and Coverings 202, two co-located trade shows scheduled for July 7-9 at the Orlando Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

The NWFA Wood Flooring Expo is the largest tradeshow and conference worldwide dedicated exclusively to real wood flooring. Coverings is the largest international tile and stone exhibition and conference in North America. Both shows offer hundreds of exhibitors on the show floor and numerous educational opportunities. 

This article was originally published in the June 2021 issue.