Instructors
Instructor
John McGuckin
My name is John McGuckin and I’ve been crafting with glass since 2014. I graduated from Salem Community College, New Jersey, in 2020. While there I earned a degree focused in scientific glass technologies. My work has consisted of pendant and marble making with borosilicate glass.
Instructor
Megan Ulrich
After studying Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design, Megan found herself where many makers do, supplementing multiple jobs in the arts by working in hospitality.
Staff, Instructor
Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez
Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez has been a professional glassworker for over 13years, a path that has led her to artist residencies at Pilchuck Glass School, The Creative Glass Center of America, MASS MoCA, STARworks Glass Lab, and the UTAG Glass and Neon Studios. Her work has been shown internationally at several venues, most notably in Young Glass, a once-per-decade exhibition featuring rising international glass artists under 35. Domestically she recently exhibited at Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh and UrbanGlass in Brooklyn. Her sculptures are included in New Glass Review #33 and #38, publications of The Corning Museum of Glass. Ahmadizadeh Melendez is currently faculty at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, from which she received her BFA in Glass. She holds an MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Staff, Instructor
Emily Doerflein
Emily Doerflein’s work captures the human form using glass as well as mixed materials. After receiving her BFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Emily has moved back to New York to join the UrbanGlass community.
Instructor
Caroline (Coco) Picard
Caroline (Coco) Picard is a writer and curator based in New Mexico. As the Executive Director of the Green Lantern Press, she has published over 40 books on art, theory, and literature.
Instructor
Ghislaine Sabiti
Ghislaine Sabiti is an interdisciplinary French/American Congolese-born artist, a painter, costume designer, and flame worker who was raised on the outskirts of Paris, France and is now based in New York.
Instructor
Anna Riley
Anna Riley is a researcher, teacher, and artist interested in material culture. Her research projects have been supported by fellowships and residencies at UC Berkeley, the Corning Museum of Glass, UrbanGlass, the Museum of Arts and Design, and Dieu Donné Papermill.
Instructor
Jason Montalvo
Jason Montalvo, MPS, LCAT, ATR-BC is a Brooklyn-based Art Therapist with over 15 years of experience in working with youth of diverse backgrounds and is currently working with at-risk foster children, adolescents, and their families throughout the New York City area currently with the agency Mercyfirst.
Instructor
Gabe Cohen
Gabriel Cohen is one half of Fredericks & Mae - a company that started 12 years ago making handmade arrows, tassels and kites.
Instructor
Hilary Wang
Hilary Wang is a maker turned archivist. She holds a MSLIS from the Pratt Institute School of Information and was the Guggenheim Museum Born-Digital Archives Fellow and a former Graduate Fellow at Barnard College Archives and Special Collections.
Instructor
Shuhei Fujii
Shuhei Fujii is a Japanese glassblower who works out of UrbanGlass. In a loud, bustling Brooklyn, Shuhei tries to imbue each glass vessel with the subtlety and simplicity, and the beauty and quietness, of Japanese craft-making.
Instructor
KEEP
Susan Spiranovich and Adam Holtzinger are the founders of KEEP, a Brooklyn-based lighting company. The two met at the Cleveland Institute of Art where Susan graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and Adam with a BFA in Glass.
Instructor, Current
Amanda Ladd
Amanda Ladd has been working with flowers professionally for over 15 years.
Instructor
Simone Kearney
Simone Kearney is a writer and an artist living in New York City. She is author of Days (Belladonna Press, 2020, forthcoming), My Ida (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017), and In Threes (Minute BOOKS, limited edition artist chapbook, 2013).
Instructor
Rowan Renee
Rowan Renee is a genderqueer artist who works with analog photographic techniques to appropriate historical records and interject them with new meaning. Rowan has been practicing the wet plate collodion process since 2010.
Instructor
Evan Voelbel
Evan Voelbel received his BFA in 3D/Glass from Massachusetts College of Art in 2010. Following his undergraduate education, Evan worked as a teaching assistant at Massart, as a studio assistant for glass artists local to Massachusetts and also as a gaffer and teacher at a number of glass studios in the Boston area.
Instructor
Nate Cotterman
Nate Cotterman is known for his modern interpretation of glass objects, using traditional Venetian glass blowing techniques.
Instructor
Ross A. Delano
Ross has been working with glass since 2005 after being introduced to the material at Franklin Pierce University while getting his B.S. in Business Administration.
Instructor
Kacie Lees
Kacie Lees is an interdisciplinary artist and professor based in Brooklyn, New York. Lees’ vivid works examine affective qualities of light and tertiary spaces.
Instructor
Silvia Levenson
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Silvia Levenson immigrated to Italy in 1981, during the "disappearances" of the Dirty War. In 2004, Levenson received the Rakow Commission Award from the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and in 2008 she was shortlisted for the Bombay Sapphire Prize. In 2016 she received the Venice Glass Award.
Instructor
Sally Prasch
Sally Prasch started working in glass in 1970 with Lloyd Moore. Received BFA in Ceramics and Glass, also degrees in Applied Science and Scientific Glass Technology.
Staff, Instructor
Gayle Forman
An avid fan of frozen treats, Gayle Forman gravitates toward things that melt, spill, and generally make a mess.
Instructor
David Licata
David Licata is an artist from White Plains, New York. He is a graduate of Cranbrook academy of art with a MFA in metalsmithing and a BFA in Sculpture and Art education from SUNY New Paltz.
Instructor
Deborah Czeresko
Heavily influenced by an extensive background in hot glass fabrication, Czeresko's work is preoccupied by the cultural significance and the hierarchical systems of value that exist within the objects and beings that surround us.
Instructor, Current
Jeffrey Close
Jeffrey Close is a maker, designer, and artist based in Brooklyn, NY whose work explores an inclination towards fine art, architecture, and functionality within the context of 21st century design.
Instructor
Jessi Moore
Moore is an artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Making and teaching has led her all over the country, including: Seattle, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania
Instructor
Blaine Davis
Blaine is a (commercial) photographer in New York, most interested in people and design. Blaine studied Photography & Imaging at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and he has been commissioned by T Magazine, Vogue, and Nike.
Instructor
Grace Whiteside
Grace Whiteside is a NYC based artist, glassmaker and founder of an interdisciplinary collaborative design line called Sticky Glass. They received two BFA’s from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017 in Sculpture and Craft and since then has exhibited work at venues such, as Black Iris gallery (Richmond, VA), Recess (Brooklyn, NY), Westbeth Gallery (NYC), Present Company (Brooklyn, NY), Established Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) and UrbanGlass’s Agnes Varis Art Center (Brooklyn, NY).
Instructor, Visiting
Matthew Szosz
Matthew Szösz is a practicing artist and educator known primarily for his innovative use of glass to explore the relationship between experimentation, process and aesthetic product. He received his BFA, BID, and MFA(Glass) from Rhode Island School of Design.
Instructor, Visiting
Dylan Karle
Dylan Karle was born and raised in New York City. He began school for biochemistry, but once he found flameworking and discovered Salem Community College he left his biochemical studies to pursue dual degrees in scientific and artistic glass blowing.
Instructor, Visiting
Jay Macdonell
Jay has worked for many studios since 1992 for various artists, designers and architects as a project manager, design consultant and gaffer. He has worked for artists such as Laura and Alessandro De Santillana, Xu Bing, Angelo Filomeno, Bruce Mau, Catherine Chalmers, and Mildred Howard and has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, The Bay Area Glass institute in San Jose, Pittsburg Glass School, Espace Verre in Montreal and the Royal Copenhagen School of Art and Architecture on the island of Bornholm, Denmark.
Instructor, Visiting
Julia and Robin Rogers
Julia and Robin Rogers share a passion for sculpture and molten glass. After assisting each other for ten years, they decided to create collaboratively.
Instructor, Visiting
Kit Paulson
Kit Paulson received her MFA from Southern Illinois University and her BFA from Alfred University.
Instructor, Visiting
Brent Rogers
Brent Rogers was born and raised in Seattle, Washington where he worked as a production glass blower and designer at the Glass eye studio.
Instructor, Visiting
Jiri Pacinek
Jiri Pacinek started his career in glass in the early 1990’s, when he joined Chribska 1414 Glass Works.
Instructor, Visiting
Iryna Stepanchuk
Iryna Stepanchuk is a Certified Public Accountant with comprehensive industry knowledge and hands-on experience in providing support in the areas of tax, accounting, and business operations to small- and mid-sized businesses and individuals.
Instructor, Visiting
Chris Wolston
CHRIS WOLSTON is a New York and Medellín-based artist whose work explores both the material vernacular of the modern day, and the fetishization of process. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and later traveled to Colombia on a Fulbright grant.
Inspired by manual techniques and the regional contrasts between his Brooklyn and Medellín studios, Wolston creates work that demonstrates playful adaptations of materials, often mixing high- and low-tech processes. Wolston’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of American Glass, and the Museo de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia.
Instructor, Visiting
John Hallett
John Hallett lives and works in New York City. Born and raised in Adelaide, Australia, he has worked in a variety of creative and instructional roles throughout Australia, Europe and the United States, including having spent time working and learning from professional mold makers in Murano and Czech Republic. John holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from the University of South Australia and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Instructor, Visiting
Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend
Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, a past board member of the Glass Art Society (1982-86) and an Honorary Life Member, served as the first woman president from 1984-86. She was a partner and co-creator of the architectural glass studio, Renaissance Glass, from 1973-1987 in Austin, Texas.
Instructor, Visiting
Robert Panepinto
Robert Panepinto has been working in glass for over twenty years and started at Urban Glass.
Instructor, Visiting
Sydney Cash
Cash has had a diverse and experimental career, creating with flat glass, mirror, painting, pattern and portraiture. He’s explored process, material science, movement and personality.
Instructor, Visiting
Holly Cooper
"Working out of my studio in Austin, TX, I have been a professional artist my entire working career. With a background in painting, art history, ceramics, textiles, jewelry and finally glass, my work melds all of these disparate disciplines into my creative work. I draw inspiration from a variety of cultural and historical traditions and incorporate them into my glass beads."
Instructor, Visiting
Kate Clements
Kate Clements is an artist who lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. Over the past decade, her delicate glass installations and headdresses have been displayed throughout the United States. Clements' work explores a variety of mediums - from glass and textile to sculpture and installation - that centers on the capricious and often vicious life-cycles of fashion, adornment, and ornament.
Instructor, Visiting
Kristin Deady
Kristin is the Glass Education Administrator at Salem Community College (SCC), overseeing both the Glass Art and Scientific Glass Technology programs at SCC’s Glass Education Center. Prior to SCC Kristin was the Glass Technician at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University; and taught in the glass departments at Tyler and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Kristin received an AA from Salem Community College in 2005, her BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010, and completed her MFA at the Tyler School of Art in 2014. Recent exhibitions include the 74th Woodmere Annual in Philadelphia, the Governors’ Island Art Fair in New York, and Kristin’s large-scale installation Amplified Aberration was exhibited in 2017 at the Philadelphia International Airport.
Instructor, Visiting
Elise Bernhardt
Fleur Elise Bkln is a Flower Market to Table floral design company started by Elise Bernhardt in 2018.. Bernhardt sources her flowers at the 28th street Flower Market and delivers flower arrangements in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Instructor, Visiting
Amy di Giacomo
Amy is a Yoga Alliance certified Vinyasa Yoga instructor that has been bringing her Workplace Wellness program to offices in Manhattan since 2013.
Instructor
Celeste Tsang
Celeste is a multimedia artist currently based in New Jersey. She graduated in 2018 with a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute.
Instructor, Visiting
Jenny Crescuillo
Jennifer Crescuillo is an internationally exhibited artist currently living and working in Silver Point, Tennessee with her family. She was first introduced to glass at Bowling Green State University where she completed her Bachelor’s of Fine Art in glass.
Instructor, Visiting
Christopher Duffy
Mostly known for mixed media sculpture often involving glass, Christopher Duffy is part dedicated craftsman and part cultural dilettante. He was born in California in 1980, raised in Illinois. He moved to Cleveland Ohio on his eighteenth birthday to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 2003 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass. In 2006 he moved to New York City and currently lives in Queens, New York.
Instructor, Visiting
Erin Dickson
Erin Dickson is an artist, researcher and digital specialist based in the UK. Having completed her PhD in 2015, Dickson has worked as a digital specialist since 2010, now as Digital Specialist at Central Saint Martins, London.
Instructor, Visiting
Karen Donnellan
Donnellan earned a Bachelors of Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. She is Assistant Professor of Glass, and Co-Director of the National Casting Center at Alfred University, NY.
Instructor, Visiting
Jan Janecky
I was born in Liberec 1978. And I live in Liberec in North region of Czech Republic. Famous for his Glass tradition.
Instructor, Visiting
Micah Evans
Micah Evans is a glass artist and designer living and working in Austin Texas. Glass has been an obsession for Micah since the late 90’s, he’s been known to refer to it as a disorder more than a craft or art form. His work is a balance of contemporary craft, and sculpture. Micah travels, teaches and lectures at schools and universities around the world about flameworking, design and glass subculture in the United States.
Instructor, Visiting
Adrianne Evans
I grew up in the state of Pennsylvania, where twice a month I traveled through the Pocono Mountains and was fascinated by miles of road cuts. I received my undergraduate degree from Alfred University in the glacial region of New York State where I studied sculpture and glass and took the geology and astronomy courses that still inspire much of my work.
Instructor, Visiting
Dan Friday
Dan Friday is a member of the Lummi Nation and a Seattle based glass artist. He has spent the last twenty years working for artists such as Dale Chihuly, Paul Marioni, Preston Singletary, and many others.
Instructor, Visiting
Kambui Olujimi
Kambui Olujimi was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn and received his MFA from Columbia University in New York City. Olujimi’s work challenges established modes of thinking that commonly function as "inevitabilities."
Instructor, Visiting
Tim Belliveau
Tim Belliveau was born in Montréal and received his BFA in glass from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2005 and his MFA in Fibers and Material Practices from Concordia University (Montréal) in 2017.
