"Turning Around America"

A Talk with Beth Ireland
Thursday, September 6, 2012
7pm

At the Eliot School, 24 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain

Co-sponsored with North Bennet Street School

Wood turner and sculptor Beth Ireland spent a year traveling across the United States in a van equipped with a mini workshop and a personal living space; Jenn Moller collaborated with digital support. Ireland stopped at schools and art centers, in small towns and big ones, covering 25,000 miles and teaching over two thousand people how to turn wood.

She has written, “I was just going to teach as many people as I could how to make a simple wooden object. It became so much more.”

Ireland and Moller then traveled to Guatemala, teaching people in a small village to make windows, doors and household items out of wood. She became an advocate for the power of learning to make things by hand.

Beth will speak about what she has learned on the road.

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The talk will be followed by a weekend turning workshop informed by her travels: Wood Turning: Simple Projects.

See work by Beth Ireland and learn more about Turning Around America

American Woodturner Journal published this article about Turning Around America in their August 2012 issue.

photos by Jenn Moller