Events Calendar

Back to Craft: The Art of Labor by Hand

Monday, October 12

6:00 pm

Location: Shorewood Village Center

Through the lens of beautifully handmade tiles, Ben Tyjeski will share ideas on balancing an Arts & Crafts lifestyle while navigating the challenges of the 21st century. He will present on his adventures exploring faience tiles and architectural ornament in Shorewood and the Milwaukee area, and talk about the lessons these tiles offer on how the arts improve our daily lives.

Ben Tyjeski is a faience tile artist, writer, and critic of the design world whose philosophy places nature as the guiding principle in how we live and create beauty. His studio is called the Tyjeski Tile Company, where he designs and creates handmade tile installations for homes and buildings. He has published numerous books on historic tiles and terra cotta, including Pottery Bridges Around the World, Carl Bergmans and the Continental Faience & Tile Co. and The Lake Bluff Story in Art Tiles, and writes columns for Urban Milwaukee and Wauwatosa Historical Society. He gives architecture walking tours on terra cotta in various Milwaukee neighborhoods and has given presentations for local and national institutions. In 2012, Tyjeski earned his BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. He was also a Milwaukee Arts Board Mildred L. Harpole Artist of the Year in 2023.

This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Shorewood Public Library and the Shorewood Historical Society.