Emily Bunker
Emily works with her hands.
The importance of creating space for women-identifying makers within male-dominated crafts/trades has become increasingly clear with her years of experience in the woodshop. In July of 2016 she organized and moderated a panel on the problems, evolutions, and possible futures of these male-dominated spaces as part of the National Furniture Society Conference held in Philadelphia.
She currently works as a builder/fabricator at a small woodworking company in the neighborhood of Port Richmond, and makes furniture at her own space nearby.
Awarded Grants
2019
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
Related grantees
Overview
Emily Bunker will attend and present at the annual National Furniture Society Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conference, GroundWork, is focused on the inspiration, intersections, and experimentation of furniture practice. Emily will present Street Furniture Now!,a lecture that will focus on several themes of building furniture outdoors and in public spaces including, equity and exclusion, sustainable materials, interventions in the built environment, and skill-sharing programs that are shaping cities. This opportunity is an extension of her artistic practice as a fabricator who often works with neighbors of all ages and backgrounds to build benches, tables, and other amenities in parks and at schools using power tools. Within weeks of returning, Emily will design and implement a curriculum with teens as a teaching artist with the Village of Arts and Humanities, utilizing what she has learned.
2016
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Emily Bunker’s project will begin by organizing and leading a tour of five women-led workshops across Philadelphia designed for girl-identifying and gender non-conforming teens interested in the trades/crafts. Emily will build wooden selfie sticks (using a lathe and traditional joinery techniques) and distribute them as a tool for participants to engage with other mentor/role-models in these fields and to celebrate and document their own work. Documentation for #Craftswomen Workshop Tours will be housed on www.craftswomenproject.org, accompanied by resources for young folks looking to access these cis-male dominated fields.
