Prison Outreach Program (P.O.P.)
In October 2021, I began teaching woodworking in the New Hampshire Correctional Facility for Women in Concord. To date, we have held five 12-week classes, teaching a total of 21 women, with most of them participating in all five classes.
The 12-week curriculum that Lynn Szymanski, Mary McLaughlin, and I created, provides detailed information, during each class period, about the field of woodworking and what it entails. We discuss basic information about trees along with furniture-making, carpentry, and construction material and demonstrations of hand and power tools. From the beginning of the first class, the students were immediately engaged in making work. There are two projects assigned during the 12-week program, carving a spoon and building a small box. The women enthusiastically worked on both projects, several of them dedicating their spoons and boxes to family members. The facilities are a bit challenging and will remain so until we have a dedicated trades building at the prison, but these challenges do not dampen the enthusiasm and appreciation the women have expressed for the opportunity to learn woodworking. https://www.finewoodworking.com/2021/02/16/second-chances-are-crafted-here
To watch an interview with Lynn Szymanski and me discussing the progress of P.O.P. with Kristen Odle-Devine from the North Bennet Street School on January 27, 2023, check out this link. https://nbss.edu/news-events/news-stories/in-the-making-prison-outreach-program/
In Recent News:
The first exhibition of work by incarcerated women is on display at the NH Furniture Masters Gallery, located in the “Smile” Building at 49 South Main Street, Concord, NH within Concord Chamber of Commerce’s Welcome Center. The exhibition is on view from October 28, 2022 until January 6, 2023. Images below are work made in the women’s program.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
NH Furniture Masters: Annual Prison Outreach Exhibition
Furniture Masters Gallery
49 S. Main Street, Concord, NH
Opening Reception June 28, 2024
June 20 – August 30
https://furnituremasters.org/exhibition-gallery/
Rhythms: 30th Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition
Wharton Esherick Museum
1520 Horseshoe Trail, Malvern, PA 19355
June 13, 2024 – September 8, 2024
https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/rhythms-exhibition/
Please Approach the Bench
Ongoing Exhibition
Art Complex Museum, 189 Alden Street, Duxbury, MA
https://artcomplex.org/exhibitions-2/
Recent Exhibitions
Modular
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Ave - Cincinnati, Ohio 45206- April 19-May 17, 2024
Opening Reception April 18th and April 19th, 2024
https://www.manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html
Continuing the Tradition
January 27-March 30, 2023
League of New Hampshire Craftsman - League Headquarters Gallery
49 South Main Street - Concord, NH 03301- January 27-March 30, 2023
Winter Show 2023
Furniture Masters Gallery
49 South Main Street - Concord, NH 03301- January 27-March 30, 2023
https://furnituremasters.org/exhibition-gallery/
Kimball Jenkins Collaboration Exhibit with the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association
49 South Main Street - Concord, NH - September 5-October 31, 2022
https://furnituremasters.org/exhibition-gallery/
Spring is in the Air - Exhibition of Furniture from the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association
49 South Main Street - Concord, NH - March 19-June 18, 2021
https://furnituremasters.org/exhibition-gallery/
Crafted Vancouver wrote a blog about P.O.P. titled “Women’s prison inmates craft a new reality upon completing woodworking program”. https://craftedvancouver.com/2021/07/30/womens-prison-inmates-craft-a-new-reality-upon-completing-woodworking-program/
Mary Harding, curator of the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, ME, wrote a blog titled “Leah Woods-A Professor on Sabbatical” in her February 2021 Newsletter. https://mhardingart.com/2021/02/leah-woods-on-the-rocks/