George Wurtzel

George Wurtzel is an American artist, craftsman, and blind woodworking instructor. He has taught classes in woodworking at the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired's Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa County, California and owned a furniture studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a new shop set to open in 2019 in Greeneville, Tennessee.

Biography Born in 1954 in Traverse City, Michigan, George Wurtzel lost his eyesight at a young age due to hereditary retinitis pigmentosa. He owned a successful furniture business in Michigan, where his projects included the renovation of the historic Traverse City courthouse, for which he built a new set of doors. Through OUB, Wurtzel operated a camp for blind children, which won the 2009 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award for "outstanding programs serving blind people."

Wurtzel moved to Minnesota in 2009, opening a furniture store in South Minneapolis. In 2014, his work was included in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. In 2018 he announced the acquisition of space for a new workspace and gallery in Greeneville, Tennessee. and can identify different types of wood by smell. Blindness Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND),

In addition to woodworking, Wurtzel has worked as a bicycle and auto mechanic and trained Arabian horses for endurance riding. In 2018, he was featured in a televised advertising campaign for Subaru in which he is shown leading a group of travelers through the wilderness, something he has been known to do for visitors to Enchanted Hills.