Say hello to our newest team member at Handshouse! We are elated to expand our staff to welcome Eva Carter (they/them) on staff as an Assistant Director for the fall. Eva is a recent graduate of Davidson College, where they earned their BA in Anthropology. They hail from Brevard, NC, where they’ve worked for the past five years on staff at Rockbrook Camp. This summer at Rockbrook, while Eva worked as a head counselor, leading peers and campers in social-emotional growth, Marie Brown, Handshouse Studio Executive Director, organized the woodworking program for beginner craftspeople ages 6-16. It was amongst these numerous activities that Eva and Marie first began a conversation about Eva joining Handshouse as it’s first Assistant Director.

Eva is passionate about facilitating community and engaged collaboration and was inspired to join Handshouse’s team after learning of the projects’ natural composition of creative team problem-solving. Eva’s study of Anthropology has given them a passionate orientation towards storytelling, historical exploration, and reckoning with positionality. From these values, they were especially excited to learn about The Gourd Banjo Project, and hope that they can help reinstate these and other meaningful Handshouse workshops.

Eva is joining us in the Northampton office this fall to support Marie with the breadth of administrative-organizational work required to orchestrate the unique types of programming Handshouse offers. Eva jumped right in, and within days of joining the organization was making their mark. So far, Eva is forging ahead on creating clear and abridged resources for the growing Board of Directors, applying for multiple grants, helping manage the many fall projects, and generally providing the much-needed extra hands to help fly the marvelous and unwieldy hot-air balloon that is Handshouse Studio.

Eva has also loved participating in the hands-on Handshouse experiences of reassambling the Notre-Dame Model at the Norwell Cares Day: La Forêt Model Workshop with Norwell Highschool students on September 26th, and the Columbia University, La Forêt Model Workshop on October 29th. Eva was also vital in the full scale-Truss raising in Ann Arbor Michigan. Their participation in high-paced, and complex project management made this ambitious volunteer-led event even possible. And they did all of this while still ensuring 5 grants were in on time and 7 new board members were organized and onboarded for new term.

Welcoming Eva to the Handshouse Studio helm has already proven invaluable, making the nearly impossible series of events of this fall not only possible, but absolutely more joyful to produce. Eva is helping us to do what Handshouse does best: to learn-by-doing. We are working in action to understand how to grow the administrative capacity Handshouse needs to keep offering programing into the future. We are working with the Board of Directors to help raise the funds to continue this assistant directorship and continue to grow our capacity to offer the one-of-a-kind Handshouse experiences so many have to come to know and love.

help Handshouse sustain steady staff positions!

To find out how to get involved in helping Handshouse secure organizational funding,

please contact Nat Crosby, Chair of the Handshouse Studio Board of Directors.