News

For an inside look at traditional building crafts, visitors came to the Masters of Building Arts Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, March 25–27. The Guild was there, too!

Building on the success of the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival which focused on the Masters of the Building Arts, the School of the Building Arts (SoBBA) worked with the Guild and other preservation-minded organizations to present a two-day free festival focusing on the building arts. Festival goers were treated to demonstrations and talks on such historic building trades as stone carving, carpentry, ironwork, masonry, timber framing, and plasterwork. Through interactive hands-on presentations, participants learned about the techniques, tools, and traditions of the building arts. Find out more by visiting SoBA's website, www.aboutsoba.org.

Bus Shelter Project

During the two-day festival, Guild members Rudy Christian, Laura Saeger, Donnas Williams, Bob Smith and Peter Bull led a group of volunteers in two days of timberframing in the beautiful center of a historic city. Their project was to build a small but intricate bus shelter for the City of Charleston.

Above (from left): Bob Smith, Rudy Christian, Peter Bull and Donna Williams. Mouse over the images to see a larger version.