Haniel Wides

Haniel Wides (they/them) is an artist/craftsperson, a joker of all trades, and a maker of queer relics. Haniel received their BFA from Cooper Union and is a graduate of Cabinetry and Furnituremaking at North Bennet Street School. Much of Haniel’s professional life has revolved around ensuring and promoting access to trade skills and tools for systematically marginalized groups, leading workshops in wood- and metalworking for incarcerated youth, queer folks, women and GNC people, the elderly, and disabled adults.

Having spent their entire adult life in the trades, Haniel utilizes a wide variety of carpentry, chairmaking, and cabinetrymaking techniques both contemporary and preindustrial. They incorporate a wide range of philosophical and cultural influences of their own identities into their methodology, including labor history, Queer theory, Jewish mysticism, Balkan mythology, various subcultures, and pop culture, to approach woodcraft with a socially and historically conscious lens.

Haniel has received support through institutions including The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Furniture Society, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, The Center for Furniture and Craftsmanship, and The Museum for Art in Wood. They operate their business out of Charlestown Furniture Makers, a shared woodshop in Boston.

To know more, you can follow along on Instagram at @manibus.studio and @totally.literally.

Photo by Ingrid Al Zorn