Mission

The Fellowship program provides emerging and established furniture makers, carvers, and turners with a stimulating environment for research into new skills, new designs, and new perspectives.

Fellowship Categories

• Studio Fellowships provide free studio space and other benefits to individuals who are ready to commit anywhere from a month to a year to expand their creative abilities.
• Endowed Fellowships provide all of the above, plus a stipend of $400/week.There is a limit of 12 funded weeks per applicant.

See websites of previous Fellows.

Facility

Up to six Fellows share the 6,800-square-foot Thomas Miller Jackson Building which contains a machine room with full dust collection, and a bench room where each Fellow is provided a European-style workbench and has use of additional worktables, surfaces, and hand tools. The machine room is equipped with 10″ tablesaws, a 12″ sliding table saw, 8″ and 12″ jointers, 15″ thickness planers, 14″ and 20″ bandsaws, Oneway 1640 lathes, a shaper, a CNC milling machine, a router table, stationary sanders, an oscillating spindle sander, a chopsaw, a scrollsaw, drill presses, grinders, and a horizontal slot mortiser.

Benefits

• Free studio space in a well-equipped facility
• Round-the-clock shop access, including weekends
• Attendance at demonstrations and lectures by more than 40 outstanding professionals who teach at the school annually
• Bi-weekly critiques by faculty and visiting instructors
• Access to the Center’s library and gallery
• Opportunity to participate in biennial Messler Gallery alumni exhibition
• Interaction with hundreds of professional and amateur furniture makers who participate in the Center’s instructional programs

Qualifications

Applicants must:

• be experienced furniture makers, capable and ready to explore new work on their own initiative
• possess good interpersonal skills
• know how to use machinery and hand tools competently and safely
• have a record of creative achievement

All Fellows are responsible for their own housing, materials, and transportation.

Responsibilities

Fellows are required to be on campus, in the shop, Monday – Friday, 9-5.

Fellows are expected to contribute six hours per week to the school, helping out with tasks such as providing support for studio and gallery operations and special events.