About the Founders /

Rick and Laura Brown share a passion for making. Co-founders of Handshouse Studio, they have worked together on a wide variety of sculpture, architecture, and educational collaborations since they met in 1970.

Both sculptors, Laura and Rick have developed an extensive body of sculptural installations exhibited nationally and internationally, and have played a part in the development of the Land Art Movement. Visit Rick and Laura Brown/Sculpture to learn more.

Rick and Laura founded and managed Morgan Payne Concepts (1982-1992), a design/build firm that brought together their expression of form and space with their skills as makers to reimagine the functional manifestations of house and home. Laura, the licensed contractor, and Rick, the trained architect, worked hands-on to complete over 15 full-house renovations.

Laura and Rick are both lifetime teachers. Rick taught at University of Texas (1975-1977), and The Ohio State University (1977-1981). Rick and Laura have both taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Rick since 1987, and Laura since 1995). They both share a particular interest in teaching through a learn-by-doing approach, in creating opportunities for community interaction, and demonstrating the adventure of discovery by leading as fellow researchers/learners alongside their students.

It is from this shared love of learning, drive and energy for making, discipline for extensive research, and passion for creating community that Handshouse Studio was born. 

Read The Art of Anthropology by Neal Simpson—At their in-the-woods Norwell studio, a husband and wife resurrect objects largely forgotten by history…

Read The Shape Of History by Marie Allen—“How often do you get a chance to reach deep into history and bring something back…”- Rick Brown

The Board of Directors /

Rick Brown is Co-Founder and Board President of Handshouse Studio, Inc. He is a Professor of Sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a Master of Fine Arts from Washington University School of Fine Arts, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia. 
     Rick is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Fulbright Scholars Research Grant to Poland, University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art: Wilson Center Visiting Scholar Program Grant, Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Award of Distinction, Sam Fox School of Washington University, Lillian Heller’s Curator’s Award, Massachusetts College of Art Center for Arts and Community Partnership Grant, ­Davis Foundation Grant through the Colleges of the Fenway, Massachusetts Artists Foundation Finalists Grant for Sculpture, Massachusetts Artists Foundation Finalists Grant for Environmental Design, National Endowment for the Arts Funding for Sculpture Installation (Decordova Museum Lincoln, MA), a Ford Foundation Grant, the Goldsmith Award, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, TN, and recently the 2015 Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association (CAA). You can find a full listing of activities and awards on Rick Brown’s CV.

Laura Brown is Co-founder and Board Treasurer of Handshouse Studio, and faculty of sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She earned a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a MFA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.     
     Laura has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Lillian Heller’s Curator’s Award, Massachusetts College of Art Center for Arts and Community Partnership Grant, Visible Republic Planning Grant, Helen Blair Crosby Sculpture Award, Dondis A. Dondis Travel Fellowship and Ford Foundation Grant. 

Laura Brown’s passion for history, research, making, and teaching, and expansive set of skills in creative problem solving have been the understated backbone of Handshouse Studio from its beginnings. Laura’s indefatigable capacity has been the central driver of Handshouse Studio at every level of the organizations functions, and the reason for it’s continued rigor, execution and success. You can find a listing of many of her countless activities and awards on Laura Brown’s CV
 

Rob Duarte is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at The Florida State University, where he teaches sculpture, digital fabrication, interactive art, and physical computing. He also serves as Co-Director of the FSU Facility for Arts Research. Rob earned an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego, a BFA in Sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and BS in Business Information Systems with a minor in Computer & Information Science from the University of Massachusetts. At UCSD, Rob was an Ujima Scholar and a San Diego Fellow.

Rob Duart was invited to join the Board of Directors in 2020, though he has been a loyal and active Handshouse participant since the first day of his MassArt orientation in 2001. He has taken part in many Handshouse projects, including the Bushnell Turtle, the crane projects in the US and the Czech republic, the Zabludow Synagogue Model and Door project , several Wooden Synagogue project field research trips to Poland and as faculty leader for two Gwozdziec Synagogue/ Making/History travel programs to Poland: a timber frame workshop in Sanok, and a painting workshop in Kazimierz Dolny. Rob Duarte, raised in New England, currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife and two children and has an active sculpture practice exhibiting his works regionally, nationally and internationally.

Adriana Katzew is Professor in the Art Education Department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Adriana obtained her doctorate and master’s degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her AB in American History and Literature from Harvard University. Her teaching and research focus on community engagement and social justice, and on the intersection between visual arts and ChicanaX and LatinaX activism. Adriana’s research also encompasses students of color in art colleges, as well as arts-based interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Adriana's artistic practice is photography-based, with a deep connection to documentary photography, history, and marginalized and silenced voices. 

Adriana was invited to join the Board of Directors in 2020, recognizing that Handshouse Studio is a unique, innovative, interdisciplinary, arts-based educational organization whose pedagogy deserves in-depth study, documentation, and research in order to serve as a model to be replicated, as well as located within the landscape of transformative education in the US. As a researcher in the field of education, specifically arts education with an interest in interdisciplinary and object-based teaching and learning, Adriana Katzew is leading the research for the Handshouse Studio Pedagogy project, an investigation into what defines the core philosophies driving the learning experience of a Handshouse project. Adriana’s husband and son are already avid admirers of Handshouse for its learning-by-doing philosophy. 

Eric Lemont is Senior Counsel at National Development from Sullivan & Worcester LLP, where he was a partner in its Boston office. Eric received a Masters in Public Practice from the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, his law degree from the New York University School of Law, and a BA in History from the University of Michigan. While in private practice, Eric represented a wide range of clients in complex commercial real estate transactions, including developers, real estate funds, REITs, banks, and insurance companies. Eric has a broad transactional background that includes extensive experience with acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, and financings across various asset classes (office, retail, industrial, multifamily and hospitality).  His professional affiliations include Former Chair, Purchase and Sale Committee of Real Property Section, American Bar Association, Program Committee Member, REFA, Boston Bar Association, NAIOP MA. In addition to his charitable activity of join ing the Handshouse Studio Board of Directors, he is also a board member and former coach, Lexington Youth Basketball Association. In his free time, he enjoys reading (especially WWII history and historical fiction) and playing basketball.

Eric was invited to join the Handshouse Board of Directors in 2023, after having offered an advisory role in the management of the 2022 Notre Dame Project exhibitions. He has brought his passion for history and professional experience to help lead Handshouse Studio into a strategic planning process to help it see its mission and vision into a robust and sustainable future.

Marc Holland is a Professor and Chair of the Studio Foundation Department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Marc obtained an MFA in Sculpture from Bard College, an MFA in Visual Art from Rutgers University, a BFA in Photography and Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and a Professional Certificate in Photojournalism from New England School of Photography. 

As a Professor in his 21st year at MassArt, Marc teaches Form Study, Projects in Wood, and Boston to Beijing: China Through the Five Senses, a 16-day travel course to Beijing and Dunhuang, China. He is also the Coordinator and a Professor of the Studio PreSemester Program. Each October, Marc travels to Beijing, China, to teach at the Beijing Royal School, to work with high school students interested in attending Art Colleges in the United States. In addition to teaching, Marc has served in several roles at MassArt. He is a former Vice President and Secretary of the MassArt Chapter of Massachusetts State College Association Faculty and Librarians Union (MSCA), and has served on several committees, most notably as Co-Vice Chair of the MassArt Strategic Plan, and Co-Chair of the Search Committee for the MassArt Provost. He has presented at several National Conferences, including the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design Conference (AICAD) and the National Academic Advising Conference (NACADA). Before returning to college in his 30’s, Marc worked as a news photographer for 12 years. His Professional Organizations include Kezurou-kai USA, The National Academic Advising Association and the College Art Association.

Marc was invited to join the Handshouse Studio Board of Directors in 2023, and strongly supports the mission of the organization to connect and educate communities through the making of historic objects. He believes deeply in Public Education and the opportunities it provides for all. He embraces Japanese and Chinese philosophy of slowing down and making things by hand. Marc lives in Bedford, MA, with his wife Jane, his son Kai and daughter Jia. In his free time, he coaches youth soccer, and volunteers with his son at the Bedford Council on Aging.

Nathan Spunt is Senior Director, of Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis with Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA. After graduating highschool in Brookline, MA, Nathan followed his dream to begin a career in the auto industry, getting his BS in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Management at Kettering University  (formerly GMI Engineering & Management Institute) in Flint, Michigan. He built Saturns in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and worked for GM for 8 years before returning to Boston to attend Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA with a concentration in Finance and met his wife, Emily. After school, they moved to New York City, where he worked in finance/banking and they had three daughters. After 8 years, they decided to return to Brookline where their girls could follow the family traditions of attending Brookline public schools, sailing, and skiing with their father as often as possible.

Nate was invited to join the Handshouse Board of Directors in 2020. Nate has followed the journey of Handshouse with enthusiastic interest since the beginning and is eager to help find ways to support Handshouse’s unique hands-on projects and make its projects available to a wider community.

Founding Director

We are heartbroken to share that Cary Wolinsky passed unexpectedly on Friday, June 16 2023. There are no words to express the depth of this loss for all the people who loved him and were loved by him. Read more about Cary and words from his family here.

Cary Wolinsky began his career as a news and magazine photographer for the Boston Globe, while studying journalism at Boston University. Cary crisscrossed the globe as a senior photographer for The National Geographic Magazine for 35 years while also working as freelance photographer for many national magazines including, Natural History, Smithsonian, Newsweek, Discovery, and International Wildlife. 

Cary was one of the founders of Trillium Studios—a remarkable family business—focused on photography, graphic design and film, that since 1979, has produced media projects in 44 countries. Cary, as well as Babs and Yari Wolinksy of Trillium Studios,  have played a significant role in providing both the highest quality film and photographic documentation, graphic media and website design and critical advisory support for all of our creative endeavors. The growth and success of Handshouse Studio can, no doubt, be attributed in large part to Cary Wolinsky’s exceptional photographic eye, savvy global wisdom, and his intuitive capacity to tell a good story. 

Cary has been a loyal member of the Handshouse Studio board of Directors since it began in 2001. He was similarly dedicated to helping young artists advance their work, being an active member of his community, a devoted father, husband, and person for a long line of border collies, and regular patron of the Stetson Meadows Reserve...where indeed the decades’ long friendship with Rick and Laura Brown began as a chance encounter in the forest.

About the Principals

Marie Brown, Executive Director of Handshouse Studio

marie@handshouse.org

Marie is a director and maker who received received her MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin, and her BA in Music and Theatre from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, and developed a broad range of skills through a devoted practice of life-long learning. She is drawn to collaborations that invite innovative, multi-disciplinary, and educational approaches to challenging questions, is passionate about building connections, cultivate curiosity, and empowering the voice, body, heart, and hand. 

Marie joined the Handshouse Studio as Director in 2018. She has also participated as Project Manager and Workshop Leader for the Gourd Banjo Project Workshops/Exhibitions (2018-2020), Faculty for the Toys For Elephants: Thailand travel programs (2019-2020), Project Leader for the Trojan Horse Project (2017-2020), Program Coordinator for the Gwozdziec Synagogue Project: Poland travel programs (2011-2012), Associate Director of Handshouse Studio (2003-2004), and Management Assistant for the Bushnell Turtle Project (2002).

Marie is eager to continue the organization’s legacy of making learning adventurous through exceptional hands-on projects, while also working with the founders to develop new ways to share the internationally recognized Handshouse experience with more diverse audiences. 

Marie lives with her two daughters in Northampton, MA. You can see more of her work on Marie Brown’s CV.

The Board of Advisors/

The Board of Advisors is group of committed Handshouse Studio volunteers that endeavor to offer their wisdom, insight, and advice to help the organization work toward its mission and vision.