Aspen Golann is a furniture maker, artist, and educator whose work explores gender and power through iconic American furniture forms. Trained in 17th–19th century woodworking, she blends traditional hand-tool techniques with contemporary themes in both fine furniture and sculpture. Drawing on American decorative arts and material culture, her work alters historic furniture forms to investigate how craft history has shaped our understanding of ourselves. Through acts of revision and intervention, she creates objects that more fully embrace the complexity of American history, celebrating and subverting the traditions of American decorative arts.
Golann founded the Chairmaker’s Toolbox, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to traditional woodworking through free and sliding-scale education, mentorship, tool redistribution, and community building. Since 2020, the Chairmaker’s Toolbox has helped create pathways into chairmaking and furniture-making for hundreds of emerging craftspeople across the United States.
Golann teaches Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design and leads workshops nationally and internationally. She has taught and lectured at institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Sotheby’s, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Golann currently serves as an Artist-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the recipient of the 2025 United States Artists Fellowship, the 2023 Maxwell Hanrahan Award in Craft, and the Mineck Furniture Fellowship. She was also a finalist for the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Loewe Foundation. She lives and works in southern New Hampshire.
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