The impressive growth of the American Association of Woodturners is rooted in the generosity of woodturners, who commonly share their skills, understandings, and techniques for the advancement of the craft. Everyone benefits from this inspiring, supportive environment. In this tenth anniversary year of the AAW, celebrating how we have grown, we are proud to present our first international invitational exhibition. Special thanks go to Albert LeCoff for suggesting the concept for organizing this show:

We began by choosing fifteen woodturners who have challenged, inspired, and/or directed others through the content of their work and have demonstrated an invaluable willingness to share and teach what they bring to the field. Each of these "mentors" (noted with an asterisk in this catalog) was asked to name two woodturners whose work he or she felt represents the best and most promising of what1s new in our field. Thus the selection process, like the development of our craft, was in many hands. And the show, while recognizing outstanding contributors, is weighted toward the future, offering many new and up-coming turners their first opportunity for national exposure.

All together, the forty-five pieces in this show represent some of the foundational and burgeoning work of our first decade of growth through sharing. From here we can begin to see our next ten exciting years.