Future Makers Silent Auction

Twelve one-of-a-kind chairs, designed and built by students at KPU’s Wilson School of Design for the Museum of Vancouver exhibition, Future Makers: Chairs by New Designers, are now up for auction. 

Each chair transforms decades-old marine-grade mahogany—harvested in Central America during a period when mahogany extraction was often tied to deforestation—into a bold statement of sustainability, design, and craft.
The project began as a challenge from the Museum of Vancouver: reimagine dormant material into functional, future-facing design. Guided by MOV staff, local designers and their instructors, student teams designed and built chairs during an entire semester-long course—12 of which are available here.
Proceeds from the auction will support the Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén (ACOFOP), an association of 24 Indigenous and rural organizations that use community forest management practices to develop activities for sustainable timber and non-timber forest use, community tourism, local capacity building and for the socioeconomic benefit of the communities in the Maya Biosphere Reserve— including forest preservation and reforestation. The Reserve was created in 1990 to protect the largest area of American tropical forest remaining north of the Amazon. 

Founded in 1894, the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) has a rich and vibrant history as the oldest cultural institution in the City of Vancouver.

The Museum’s mission, “to be a gathering space that fosters connection, learning, and new experiences of Vancouver’s diverse communities and histories,” deepens our understanding of Vancouver.

The MOV works to connect Vancouver’s past to its present through exhibitions and programs that look to the future. We are committed to deepening our collective understanding of the City through our common stories, objects and experiences.

The Museum has organized its work into the four pillars, which are utilized to frame the institution’s exhibitions, curatorial research, and public programming. These are: Redress and Decolonization; Immigration and Diversity; Environment and Sustainability; and Urban and Contemporary Issues.

We host galleries focused on Vancouver's history, as well as temporary exhibitions showcasing Vancouver artists, designers, collectors, thought- and taste-makers, histories, and the occasional traveling exhibition.

We acknowledge that MOV is located within the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.