COLOPHON

Biography

Ben Lignel

He/Him/His

Written by Mellanee Goodman

Benjamin Lignel is an educator, writer, curator, and artist living in Montreuil, France. Coupling his identity to place is something he is reluctant to do, having grown up in a country with a colonial past and a nationalistic present. Rather than thinking of place as a geographical location, Ben has begun to consider place as a web of relations. He is core faculty for the MA in Critical Craft Studies (Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC), a guest teacher at Alchimia (Florence), and supervisor of a two-year writer’s program with Handshake (Wellington). Ben is currently working with a group of scholars toward establishing a Knowledge House for Craft. Whether working on a book or creating a ceramic pot, Ben finds excitement in unanticipated possibilities. Of his many accolades, Ben is one of the three editors for this publication, to : Craft, and for that we are genuinely grateful. This publication would not have come to fruition without his encouragement, his ability to take a mere discussion or draft writing and turn it into a clever mock-up, his persistent emails, and his calendar invites as he juggled three, sometimes four or five time zones to accommodate the team. For Ben, the future remains uncertain, but what will always be present are his two children, Giuliano and Cosima.