Prison Outreach Program (P.O.P.)
In October 2021, I began teaching woodworking in the New Hampshire Correctional Facility for Women in Concord. To date, we have held five 12-week classes, teaching a total of 21 women, with most of them participating in all five classes.
The 12-week curriculum that Lynn Szymanski, Mary McLaughlin, and I created, provides detailed information, during each class period, about the field of woodworking and what it entails. We discuss basic information about trees along with furniture-making, carpentry, and construction material and demonstrations of hand and power tools. From the beginning of the first class, the students were immediately engaged in making work. There are two projects assigned during the 12-week program, carving a spoon and building a small box. The women enthusiastically worked on both projects, several of them dedicating their spoons and boxes to family members. The facilities are a bit challenging and will remain so until we have a dedicated trades building at the prison, but these challenges do not dampen the enthusiasm and appreciation the women have expressed for the opportunity to learn woodworking. https://www.finewoodworking.com/2021/02/16/second-chances-are-crafted-here
To watch an interview with Lynn Szymanski and me discussing the progress of P.O.P. with Kristen Odle-Devine from the North Bennet Street School on January 27, 2023, check out this link. https://nbss.edu/news-events/news-stories/in-the-making-prison-outreach-program/
Currently on view at the Fuller Museum in Brockton MA, is an exhibition of furniture titled, Shaping Futures: The Prison Outreach Program of New Hampshire Furniture Masters-on view January 24, 2026 - June 7, 2026. This is an incredible exhibition showing furniture made my men incarcerated in the Maine State Prison and the New Hampshire State Prison, along with work from several of the instructors (including myself). https://fullercraft.org/exhibitions/shaping-futures-the-prison-outreach-program-of-new-hampshire-furniture-masters/. As of January 2026, we are updating the woodworking program at the NH Correctional Facility for Women, with new machinery, and hope to include furniture built by incarcerated women in future exhibitions.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
Shaping Futures: The Prison Outreach Program of New Hampshire Furniture Masters
Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA 02301
January 24, 2026 - June 7, 2026
Materials to Masterpiece
League of New Hampshire Craftsman Gallery
49 S. Main Street, Concord, NH 03301
April 2–May 29, 2026
https://nhcrafts.org/event/materials-to-masterpiece/
Farm to Table: Woodworking at Sanborn Mills Farm
Furniture Masters Gallery
49 S. Main Street, Concord, NH 03301
April 2, 2026 – May 29, 2026
https://furnituremasters.org/schedule-of-events/
Recent Exhibitions
ECHO
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
Opening Reception January 23-February 20, 2026
Joined Together: 30 Years of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters
Currier Museum of Art
150 Ash Street, Manchester, NH 03104
October 9-February 8, 2026
Please Approach the Bench
Ongoing Exhibition
Art Complex Museum, 189 Alden Street, Duxbury, MA
https://artcomplex.org/exhibitions-2/
NH Furniture Masters: Annual Prison Outreach Exhibition
Furniture Masters Gallery
49 S. Main Street, Concord, NH
Opening Reception June 28, 2024
June 20 – August 30
https://furnituremasters.org/exhibition-gallery/
Rhythms: 30th Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition
Wharton Esherick Museum
1520 Horseshoe Trail, Malvern, PA 19355
June 13, 2024 – September 8, 2024
https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/rhythms-exhibition/
Modular
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Ave - Cincinnati, Ohio 45206- April 19-May 17, 2024
Opening Reception April 18th and April 19th, 2024
https://www.manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html
Continuing the Tradition
January 27-March 30, 2023
League of New Hampshire Craftsman - League Headquarters Gallery
49 South Main Street - Concord, NH 03301- January 27-March 30, 2023
Crafted Vancouver wrote a blog about P.O.P. titled “Women’s prison inmates craft a new reality upon completing woodworking program”. https://craftedvancouver.com/2021/07/30/womens-prison-inmates-craft-a-new-reality-upon-completing-woodworking-program/
Mary Harding, curator of the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, ME, wrote a blog titled “Leah Woods-A Professor on Sabbatical” in her February 2021 Newsletter. https://mhardingart.com/2021/02/leah-woods-on-the-rocks/