Born in 1934 in the Bronx, New York, Fred Fenster is revered within the metalsmithing community. He has focused throughout his career on gold and silver jewelry and hollowware in silver, copper, and pewter. Fenster attended City College of New York before receiving a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1960. After operating his own shop for a year, he became a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he began a distinguished teaching career lasting for more than 40 years; he retired as a professor emeritus in 2005. He has been recognized by the American Pewter Guild, and his work is in collections across the world. Most recently he was named the 2011 Master Metalsmith by the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, and in 2015 he received a SNAG Lifetime Achievement Award. Fred Fenster lives and works in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 2005.