Winter Maker Residency
The Winter Maker Residency invites visiting artists, designers, and creative technologists to Deer Isle to collaborate with local makers, educators, and students in Haystack’s Fab Lab at the Center for Community Programs and the Island Connectivity Hub.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts launches a Winter Maker Residency as part of its NEA Our Town–funded initiative in partnership with the Town of Stonington, the Island Institute, and Deer Isle Adult & Community Education. The program invites visiting artists, designers, and creative technologists to Deer Isle to collaborate with local makers, educators, and students in Haystack’s Fab Lab at the Center for Community Programs and the Island Connectivity Hub.
Each maker-in-residence will spend two weeks in the community, leading public programs, assisting with the after-school Creative Makers program, and pursuing their own research and experimentation in digital fabrication, sustainable materials, and new hybrid craft processes. Sessions will pair visiting makers with local artists from Deer Isle, creating cross-disciplinary collaborations that connect traditional craft with emerging technologies. Residencies will culminate in public hands-on workshops and presentations developed in partnership with Deer Isle Adult & Community Education.
This new initiative continues Haystack’s mission to foster creativity, experimentation, and community engagement year-round, while positioning Deer Isle–Stonington as a model for rural innovation through art, design, and technology.
Haystack’s Winter Maker Residency is supported in part by Haystack’s Program Endowment, with additional funding provided by grants from G. W Bailey Foundation and NEA Our Town.
MARCH 16–27
Beth Ferguson (she/her) is a designer whose practice blends solar design, digital fabrication, and public engagement. Ferguson is a Design Professor at the University of California, Davis, where she directs the Adapting City Lab. Her collaborative project Climate Kit (with Sara Dean) has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Otago Museum (New Zealand), Ars Electronica, Art Santa Mònica, Dutch Design Week, and the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.
MARCH 30–APRIL 10
Carolina Fernández-Miranda (she/her) is an artist and contemporary craftsperson whose practice spans set design, art direction, and object-making. Her work explores the storytelling potential of materials and the histories, symbols, and emotions they carry—much like the props and set pieces that shape cinematic worlds. Through her studio, Taller La Yuma, Carolina designs and builds a wide range of aesthetic and utilitarian objects that embrace both nostalgia and irony. Her approach resists a singular style, instead celebrating material experimentation and technical curiosity to uncover the narrative power embedded in everyday things.
LOCAL MAKER-IN-RESIDENCE
This winter, Haystack will host a local Maker-in-Residence in the Fab Lab as part of the NEA Our Town–funded Maker Exchange Program. The residency provides space and support for a Maine-based artist to explore digital fabrication, material experimentation, and sustainable making practices. Working alongside visiting residents and community participants, the local maker will use the Fab Lab’s tools—including its plastic recycling equipment—to develop new techniques and creative applications that bridge craft, design, and technology. This residency deepens the program’s commitment to investing in local artists, fostering collaboration, and expanding access to digital tools within the Deer Isle–Stonington community.
Julie Morringello (she/her) is the founder of Modernmaine, an independent design studio dedicated to the creation of contemporary light fixtures. Morringello's innovative designs explore the transformative power of light on both materials and spaces. The sculptural shapes of her lights emerge from a blend of traditional craftsmanship and digital fabrication techniques. Morringello received a BFA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.