Tage Frid

Tage Frid (1915 - 2004) was a Danish artist who helped revive the art of handmade furniture in the United States. Frid, who was long associated with the Rhode Island School of Design, was both a highly influential teacher and an innovator whose approach was at odds with that of many other furniture designers.He arrived with his friend, Jack Prip (a silversmith), in the United States in 1948 after being recruited by Mrs. Aileen Webb, founder of the American Crafts Council, to teach at the new School for American Craftsmen in Alfred, NY. Frid moved with the school when they moved to Rochester Institute of Technology in 1950. In 1962, he went to the Rhode Island School of Design to head its department of woodworking and furniture design until his retirement. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Frid began reaching woodworking students outside of the classroom when he started "Fine Woodworking" magazine. His foremost writing achievement, the three-volume “Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking” (Taunton Press, 1993), is still in print and remains one of the most respected set of manuals on the subject.