ROCKPORT (July 6): Exhibition dates: Monday July 10, 2006 - Thursday, September 7, 2006 

“New Work by Faculty,” a display of furniture, woodturnings, and carvings by coaches at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, opened this week at the Rockport School’s Messler Gallery. 

Peter Korn, the school’s director, explains the show as “luminous work from a cast of doubtful characters who happen to be some of the premium makers in the world,” The troupe comprises 24 woodworkers from as far a field as New Zealand, Australia, and England, and as close up to home as Union, Appleton, and Camden. 

“This is virtuoso woodworking,” commented Bruce Brown, curator of the nearby Center for Maine Contemporary Art, “equally at home in a museum or a living room.” In fact, a lot of of the makers on show have international reputations and their work is symbolize in major museum collections, such as those of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.