In association with its new exhibition, A Way with Wood: Celebrating Craft, Mystic Seaport Museum will host Woodcraft Weekend August 29-30. Independent craftspeople and woodworkers will be spread throughout the Museum grounds displaying their projects and products, and providing demonstrations for visitors.

Participating artisans are:

• Woodworkers Guild of Rhode Island – Demonstrating a range of skills from sharpening and squaring a board to relief carving and carving in the round
• Tom Lauria – Scratch-built fine scale ship and boat models
• Paul Schmitt – Kit and scratch built ship models
• Alex Bellinger – Ships in bottles, completed and in progress
• Brian Cooper – Demonstrating the creation of a Greenland kayak paddle using all hand tools
• Chris Sanders – Tool-sharpening demonstrations
• Katherine Park – One-of-a-kind furniture
• Laurent Robert – Intricate, decorative wood carving using traditional methods
• David Douyard – Handmade chairs

Centerbrook Architects & Planners industrial designer and model maker, Patrick McCauley, will be working in the A Way with Wood exhibition, where he will fabricate a chair from the Centerbrook Chairshop. The Chairshop is an in-house program where staff members design and build a chair incorporating diverse materials, construction techniques, and finishes. Chairs from previous classes will be on display, as well as imagery that celebrates the history of the program and its participants.

At 11 a.m., Saturday, the principal designer of the Museum’s Thompson Exhibition Building, Chad Floyd, FAIA, of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, will give a presentation to discuss why and how wood was used in the building’s design. The talk will be in the Masin Room of the Thompson Building. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

All Woodcraft Weekend events and activities are free and included with Museum admission. Visitors are required to wear masks and practice social distancing.