A fine woodwork show and sale featuring designs by professional woodworkers from the Berkshires and neighboring counties in New York and Connecticut. Silent auction to benefit the Berkshire Woodworkers Guild Scholarship Fund, which supports individuals who aspire to make woodworking their professional goal. Throughout the weekend, Guild members will demonstrate various woodworking techniques.

Sean Stanton from North Plain Farm, Great Barrington, Mass., will be onsite Saturday and Sunday offering farm-raised pork sausages and beef hotdogs. Pleasant & Main in Housatonic, Mass., will be onsite both days as well with their signature coffee drinks, baked treats and savory breakfast crepes. 

For 23 years, the Guild has hosted its Fine Woodwork Show at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.

Website:   www.berkshirewoodworkers.org

Dates: Saturday, Aug. 31, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 1, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission:       $5 General Admission; $3 for Berkshire Botanical Garden Members

Highlights: The Guild will announce the aspiring woodworkers who are the 2024 recipients of scholarships monies totaling $24,000.

Silent auction to fund next year’s scholarships.

Guild members will be showing and selling their work.

Guild members will be demonstrating woodworking techniques.

The Berkshire Woodworkers Guild is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) of 85 professional and amateur woodworkers who live and work in the Berkshires and neighboring counties in New York and Connecticut. Guild members share expertise, tools, and business opportunities, and promote awareness of the benefits and availability of custom woodworking. The Guild represents a range of backgrounds and experience. Members include furniture makers, cabinetmakers, boat builders, sculptors, house builders, wood turners, luthiers, and suppliers of wood products. We practice and advocate for fine woodworking on a professional level and encourage woodworking as an enjoyable hobby.

We are interested in the work of others, in exchanging ideas and techniques, in learning more about woodworking, and in helping one another with advice on skills and materials. To encourage this, Guild members meet once a month in a member’s shop for a brief meeting followed by a demonstration of a technique, tool, or project. These meetings are a time for members to share ideas and learn new ways of approaching their craft. We are a supportive group, welcoming new members to join those who have been part of the Guild for many years.

For 23 years, the Guild has hosted its Fine Woodwork Show at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.

This year 32, Guild members will be displaying their work and live demonstrations will be ongoing throughout the weekend highlighting various woodworking techniques. An important highlight of the show is the Silent Auction. Since founding our guild in 1998, members have supported individuals planning to become professional woodworkers. To that end we have established a Scholarship Fund supported by generous financial donations and by the proceeds from our annual Silent Auction to which guild members donate a variety of beautiful wooden objects. 100% of the proceeds from our Silent Auction go to our Scholarship Fund. As our reputation has grown, our recipients have attended some of the best woodworking and wooden boat building schools in the country. Examples include the North Bennet Street School in Boston, the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts in Beverley, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, the Krenov School in Fort Bragg, California, the Apprenticeshop in Rockport, ME, and the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, R.I.

To date the Guild has awarded $88,000 in scholarships to 44 recipients. The 2024 show will feature scholarship recipients showcasing work completed during their time at the educational institution supported by the awarded Scholarship funds. $16,000 in scholarship monies was awarded in 2023 to five recipients, and in 2024 the Guild awarded $24,000 to six recipients, including two from the Berkshires.