ROCKPORT — The board of directors of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship has announce that Matt Hoggle has been appointed Executive Director, effective June 1, 2022.

“The Center is a nonprofit woodworking school in Rockport that is dedicated to providing the best possible education for people who want to design and build functional, beautiful, and expressive work out of wood to the highest standard of craftsmanship,” said the Center, in a news releaes.

Hoggle succeeds Peter Korn, who founded the Center 29 years ago and led its growth as a craft school.

Hoggle joins the Center from the Contemporary Austin where he is the director of the museum’s Art School at Laguna Gloria, an organization he has served for the past 15 years. In his role as director, he has been responsible for all aspects of the art school’s operations, including programming for more than 600 classes each year, faculty and staff hiring and management, strategic planning and budgeting, and operational oversight of an 8,500 sq. ft. facility on a 13-acre campus.

“We are thrilled to welcome Matt to the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and are confident that he will carry on the educational mission to which we are all so dedicated. His experience running the Art School at Laguna Gloria and his dedication to craft will serve us well,” said David Ingram, President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. “On behalf of the entire Board, I would like to thank the Search Committee for the persistence it took to achieve such an excellent outcome. We knew that finding a candidate who could step into Peter Korn’s shoes was not going to be easy. I also want to thank Meg Weston for so ably serving as Interim Executive Director since Peter’s retirement, in December, and our staff and instructors for continuing to deliver our programs with excellence.”

A proud lifelong learner, Matt Hoggle has over fifteen years’ experience in nonprofit art and craft education with more than twelve years in administration. A childhood interest in film and photography led to a BS from the University of Florida focusing on video and audio production. Then a post-college discovery of the joy of craftsmanship coincided with a new job at a community art school and reset the course of his career. The satisfaction achieved from his first properly cut dovetails and the personal enjoyment he has found working with wood enhances his personal and professional life. As a result, Hoggle has focused his career on exploring the creative process, the joy and personal development that come from learning craft, and how best to provide those opportunities to others.

“I am delighted to have the leadership of the school pass into Matt’s capable hands,” said Peter Korn, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship’s founding executive director. “We are mutually committed to a seamless transition, and I look forward to seeing the Center thrive with his guidance as new opportunities and challenges arise.”

“I am so grateful for the kindness shown by the board and staff and the trust they have placed in me,” said Matt Hoggle, incoming executive director of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. “This opportunity at the Center fulfills a long-held desire to marry my experience in educational leadership with my personal affinity for woodworking. Craft has been an integral part of my life and its expression in a variety of media has been the focus of my work at the Art School at Laguna Gloria. With this new and exciting chapter, I am eager to immerse myself in the mid-coast Maine community and get to work collaborating with the board and staff to ensure the continued success of this remarkable school that Peter built.”

About the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship

The Center was founded by Peter Korn, in 1993, to meet the educational needs of contemporary woodworkers. It began as a summer workshop program in a barn behind his house and moved to its present location in Rockport, Maine in 1996. The Center became a non-profit organization in 1999, and Korn served as Executive Director until his retirement in 2021. In 2021, the Center successfully completed its most recent endowment drive, raising $6.6 million for the Education and Impact: Endowing our Future initiative. Education and Impact was the culmination of a rigorous, multi-year effort to expand the audience for current programs, amplify their national impact, and prepare the Center for the present transition to a new generation of leadership.

The mission of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship is to provide the best possible education for people who want to design and build functional, beautiful, and expressive work out of wood to the highest standard of craftsmanship. At the heart of the Center’s mission is the belief that design and craftsmanship are deeply meaningful expressions of the human spirit that contribute to individual fulfillment and inform the larger culture. The Center aims to have an enduring, positive impact on the field of wood craftsmanship and design by providing a diverse community of novice, intermediate, and advanced woodworkers—both amateur and professional-track—with inspiring learning experiences in a supportive and inclusive environment.

The school offers four mutually enhancing, hands-on programs that address the educational needs of a broad audience, from absolute beginners to experienced professionals. These range from one and two-week Workshops, through twelve-week and eight-week Intensives, to a Nine-month Comprehensive that provides future professional furniture makers with in-depth training at the highest standard. The fourth program, Fellowships, offers advanced creative opportunities to emerging-professional and established woodworkers. Learn more at www.woodschool.org