POSTPONED: Ellen Fure Smith to deliver inaugural talk in new ‘Business of Art’ speaker series

Ellen Fure Smith of Little Bare Furniture at work in her Bowling Green shop.

Because of a family illness Ellen Fure Smith’s talk has been postponed until February.

From BOWLING GREEN ARTS COUNCIL

The Bowling Green Arts Council is launching a new speaker series with a familiar face from the arts community talking about “The Business of Art.”

Ellen Fure Smith, of Little Bare Furniture, will kick off the inaugural “An Evening With…” event 6-8 p.m., Dec. 3, at Myla Marcus Winery, 133 S. Main St., Bowling Green. This event is open to the public.

Fure Smith is an award-winning artist and furniture maker who has called Bowling Green home since 2013. She is a staple at the Black Swamp Arts Festival and was the designer and primary builder of the downtown parklets. 

[RELATED: Ellen Smith of Little Bare turns furniture into art]

Originally from Virginia, she was majoring in Fine Arts at Marshall University in West Virginia when she discovered her love of working with her hands after taking a furniture making class.

“I never looked back,” she said. “It has been amazing to live in a community like Bowling Green where I can be an artist and have a business that lets me follow my passion.” 

She has won multiple awards at Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green, as well as awards at Toledo’s, Art on the Mall, Maple on Main in Sylvania, OH. and the NWOhio Juried exhibition.  She was also selected for Raw Artists: Cincinnati.

Her work has been chosen for display in the Fuller Art Gallery in Sylvania, and the Leso Gallery in Toledo, where she presented a lecture on her work, “We Art Marshall,” celebrating the opening of the Marshall University Visual Arts Center. She has received juried awards for her sculpture and furniture as well as for her two-dimensional designs.  Her work can be found in numerous homes and private collections.

“I’m not making furniture as a carpenter—I’m making it as an artist,” Fure Smith said.