The opening reception for the First Annual Yestermorrow Design/Build School Exhibition and Sale will be Saturday, November 5, from 5-7pm in Yestermorrow's Main Gallery. The exhibit will continue through November 19, from 9-5 daily. The exhibit, dubbed "Art by the Yestermorrow Community," will present over 35 art objects produced by the school's talented instructors, staff, and friends. Participating artists and artisans include David Sellers, Michael Egan, John Anderson, Josh Jackson, Christian Jaquith, Diane Gayer, Monica DiGiovanni, B'fer Roth, Larry Ribbecke, Randy Taplin, Lisa Williams, David Thurston, Candy Barr, Art and Ann Schaller, and others. Works include paintings, sculpture, blown and stained glass, furniture, mixed media, ceramics, and photography. The reception is free and open to the general public. Wine and hors d'ouevres will be served. In addition, an online gallery will be available through the winter.

This new two-week course, also known as Bridging the Worlds will be offered during Yestermorrow's Winter Session January 1-13th. This innovative class explores the design/build process in depth. Using a small pedestrian bridge as the project, with a budget and real life client as the vehicle, the class as a team will be challenged to define an overriding design concept from which the rest of the design decisions will flow.

The team will be encouraged to explore materials as well as creatively push the limits of design, all the while learning that designing and building are not two separate/linear processes, but rather one integrated process. Students will participate in intensive round robin design exercises, model building, group decision making, and most importantly, hands-on building. Registration will be open through December 1st and will be limited to 8 students.

Yestermorrow's Board of Directors welcomes two new members this fall: Mickey Ackerman and John "Sucosh" Norton.

MICKEY ACKERMAN has been the head of the industrial design department at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence since 1991. He graduated from the school in 1979 with a master's degree in industrial design and began teaching there full-time in 1984; he has also taught at the Swire School of Design in Hong Kong and at the Glasgow School of Art. Ackerman has created products for such companies as Dansk, Salton, Robot Coupe and Telescope Folded Furniture, and has also designed limited-production lighting and furnishings. Ackerman currently heads his own consulting business and directs product development for Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT.

JOHN "SUCOSH" NORTON graduated with a B.A. from Williams College in 1970 and moved to Vermont to start a furniture making business. He left furniture building to develop cast iron wood stoves for Vermont Castings, then high-reliability wind turbines with Northern Power Systems. John designed innovative wastewater treatment systems with his own company, Four Elements Corporation and after a period in New Bedford, Massachusetts managing a commercial fishing venture, he returned to Vermont and to Controlled Energy Corporation, where he is currently Vice President of Operations, Planning, and IT.