about

Lily Tilton is an artist and woodworker from Boston, Massachusetts. She was introduced to woodworking at a young age by her father, a self-taught woodworker like his father before him, and she is inspired by these treasured childhood memories in his shop to continue to explore this medium. She has a degree in Cabinet and Furniture Making from the North Bennet Street School as well as a double Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Psychology from Colby College. She has always been curious about human behavior and the determination of acceptable practice within society, and she uses techniques grounded in traditional furniture-making to examine themes of gender, consumption, and conformity as well as to simply highlight the natural beauty and behavior of wood. She has held a fellowship at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and worked in multiple fabrication shops before recently completing a nine-month artist residency at Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft in North Carolina. Her work has been published in Fine Woodworking magazine and exhibited in shows across the east coast.

media

Boston Celtics commercial

NBSS portrait project

Work Ethic scholarship

2022 Exhibition: Cabinet & Furniture Making

exhibitions & awards

  • Lily’s wall cabinet is currently on display at the North Bennet Street School’s 2026 exhibition: Disciplines across Decades, which runs through July 3rd.

  • In November 2025, Lily was asked to speak to the woodworking students at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge as a visiting artist, which included a month-long exhibition of her work in the school gallery.

  • One of Lily’s marquetry boxes was displayed at the North Bennet Street School’s 2025 Exhibition: Meaningful Work, which ran through the summer.

  • Lily’s piece Faint has been selected for showcase in the 2025 Artfields Competition and Festival, which took place in Lake City, South Carolina from April 25th to May 3rd.

  • Several of Lily’s works were featured as part of the North Bennet Street School’s 2024 Exhibition: Then & Now. The show ran throughout summer 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.

  • Lily’s windsor chair was displayed during the 2023 Exhibition: Continual Craft at North Bennet Street School in Boston.

  • Lily’s side chair was featured within the Reader’s Gallery in issue 303 of Fine Woodworking Magazine.

  • Lily’s rosewood cabinet was selected as a finalist in the International Society of Furniture Designers’ 2023 Innovation + Design Awards, a juried competition culminating in a public exhibition at the Art Gallery at Congdon Yards in High Point, North Carolina.

  • Lily’s rosewood cabinet was included as part of North Bennet Street School’s student display at the 2022 Fine Furnishings Show in Providence, Rhode Island, while her side chair was featured in the show’s Parade of Chairs.

  • Lily’s end table was featured in the North Bennet Street School 2022 Exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the shop over 25 years apart.