SDSU School of Art and Design Names Spring 2022 Artist in Residence

Award-winning furniture artist and maker, Aspen Golann, has been named SDSU School of Art and Design Artist in Residence this spring. Golann will bring her expertise in the blending of early American furniture forms with sculpture and social practice to students in the school’s furniture and woodworking program.

Though the program received interest from a number of talented artists, according to Adam Manley, assistant professor of furniture and woodworking and the director of its artist in residence program, Golann really stood out.

“Aspen’s work is fantastic,” said Manley. “Not only is she a technical wizard, but the unique blend of traditional historic forms and contemporary ideas, along with her abilities as a teacher and supportive community member all interested us in Aspen.

Golann comes to SDSU with impressive experience and expertise. In 2020, she was awarded the coveted Mineck Furniture Fellowship from the Society of Arts and Crafts. Her work has been exhibited nationally and published in a number of leading design, woodworking, and craft publications. She also serves on the board of A Workshop of Our Own and as an ambassador to the Board of Fine Woodworking Magazine. Golann has received support for her work from The Windgate Foundation, Winterthur Museum, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and others.

Though Golann has worked as an artist in residence at several museums and craft schools around the country, this will be her first time working at a university.

“So many furniture programs focus exclusively on the function and craft of furniture and objects and never engage with the role of furniture, function, or materials in Society,” said Golann. “I am excited to share space with makers who see furniture objects as more expansively sculptural and conceptual.”

For an artist like Golann, residency opportunities like the one offered at SDSU often inspire and transform their creative process. “Leaving my studio, expanding my community of makers, witnessing other processes and ways of engaging the materials and forms of furniture - these are the kinds of experiences that can refocus and sometimes fully redirect that kind of work I make,” said Golann.

Adam Manley, assistant professor of furniture and woodworking and director of the SDSU Furniture Artist in Residency program finds immense value in bringing in professional artists to work alongside students. “Both undergraduate and graduate benefit hugely by having an established or up-and-coming working artist at work in their space, interacting with them, demonstrating their technical process, giving studio visits and feedback, and generally going about the business of being a hard-working artist alongside them,” said Manley. “They become a part of the community and represent what their career and practice can look like if they work at it.”

The SDSU Furniture Artist in Residence program has been in existence since 2010 based on grant requests for funding from the Windgate Foundation, a private, family foundation, whose goal is to advance the contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States. This coming April, the SDSU School of Art and Design is mounting an exhibition for the program’s 10 year anniversary, which was postponed from its original date due to COVID 19. It will feature over 20 renowned artists in wood, craft, design, and sculpture, who have come through the program since its inception

The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.