Silas Kopf is an American furniture maker specializing in the art of marquetry. Kopf graduated from Princeton University in 1972 with a degree in architecture and soon began designing and making furniture. In 1988, he received a Craftsman’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and used the opportunity to study traditional marquetry techniques at the École Boulle, an institute of interior architecture and design, in Paris. His major projects include several pianos commissioned by Steinway & Sons and benches, desks, and cabinets for private collections and museums. His designs frequently incorporate floral depictions, other images from nature, and trompe-l’œil concepts. Kopf was named Master of the Medium by the James Renwick Alliance of the Smithsonian Institution in 2015. This biennial award recognizes American craftspeople in the fields of wood, ceramics, glass, metal, and fiber.

Since 1978, he has worked in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he continues to build and design.

Nora Valdez is an international, award-winning sculptor and teacher from Argentina where she received her degree and title of Professor of Fine Arts in San Luis. In 1984 she moved to Perugia Italy where she further developed and exhibited her work, followed by a move to Zaragoza, Spain where she started working in marble. In 2002, Nora moved to Easthampton where she worked on the Manhan Trail Mural and other local projects followed by another move to Boston in 2004 where she currently lives, teaches, and maintains a studio.

Nora’s work has been exhibited and installed in permanent public spaces in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and throughout the U.S. She creates sculpture installations that reflect on the nature of change, the life of the individual, and the forces that buffet our souls. For the past decade, her work has focused on the immigrant experience, recreating in her art the hard road of those caught within alien systems seeking the rootedness of home. Valdez sculpts the human figure and related objects in symbolic narratives, often informed by her dreams, and her thematic concerns are also reflected in her involvement with the community. Nora is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery and an Advisor and Professor at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in VT.