Charles Banks is a Minnesota based carver with a passion for the Nordic arts. His area of study for the past 20 years has been Scandinavian flat-plane figure carving. A current art educator and lifelong learner, Charles gives his students hands-on experience by teaching history, influential individuals, a study of individual characters, and character design---all culminating in the creation of his students' own hand-carved characters. Charles has taught at the John Campbell Folk School in North Carolina; Vesterheim Folk School in Decorah, Iowa; Milan Village Arts School in Milan, Minnesota; North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota; and the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also a Gold Medalist winner in Flat-Plane Carving at competitions held by Vesterheim Museum, Decorah, Iowa.