Instructors

Chris Freeman

Brooklyn-based artist Chris Freeman has worked in the field of neon since 1985. The majority of his work has been the fabrication of site-specific light sculptures, as well as the engineering and manufacture of neon and Cold Cathode lighting with NYC-based lighting designers and architects. He has worked as a neon technician for Joseph Kosuth, Keith Sonnier, and Stephen Antonakos, and has been commissioned for site-specific neon works for the Newark Public Schools and the Wildwood, New Jersey Convention Center. He has taught neon lighting at The New York Experimental Glass Workshop, Brooklyn Glass, and ceramic sculpture at The School of Visual Arts.

Instructor

Lisandra Wieters

Lisandra is a budding artist based in Newark, NJ. Her art journey began last year when she was accepted into a fellowship program in which she spent 7 weeks at Peter’s Valley School of Craft studying multiple mediums and creating work for an end-of-show exhibition.

Instructor

Pear Ware

Pear ware is a collaborative, multidisciplinary NYC based wears & wares project run by artists Mika Agari and Carol Hu. Their work uses salvaged materials, handmade and bootleg languages to create one-of-a-kind works that express a humorous functionality and a spirit of playful experimentation. The two began their glass practice through the UrbanGlass Bead Project and have been obsessed ever since.

Instructor

Ana Stavarache

Ana Stavarache is a native New Yorker and a junior at Parsons School of design. She has been with Urban Glass since 2020, when she took part of the Bloomberg Arts Program, and has continued to work with the studio as she began college. Ana is currently studying Architecture and Business Management and enjoys exploring different mediums and skills.

Instructor

Michelle Bayat

Michelle Bayat started working with glass at Urban Glass with a class while attending Pratt Institute. Her love and fascination working with glass led to an independent study that has now turned into a personal passion.

Instructor

Alix DeFabbia-Kane

Alexandra DeFabbia-Kane is a glass artist living in Queens, NY. Alix graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2015. Since then, she has been working in New York, focusing on glass for lighting designers and artists, as well as teaching workshops for intermediate and beginner glassblowers. In 2020, Alix and fellow designer Molly Burke created Sunside & Co., where they create tableware and floral functional pieces.

Instructor

Han Duong

Han Duong resides in Brooklyn and is a part-time artist and crafter. An Alumni of UrbanGlass’s Bead Project, she loves using her hands to create colorfully-cute glass figurines and accessories.

Instructor

Hannah Martin

Under the artistic name HAN MADE, Hannah Martin works with glass, wool, and yarn as her primary mediums to create wearable pieces and home accessories. Combining these mediums in cohesive works of art, she explores ways the materials complement and enhance each other despite their differences.

Instructor

Michiko Sakano

Michiko Sakano, was born and raised in the culturally rich city of Kanazawa on the West Coast of Japan. Her family has carried the tradition and business of Kimono making that dates back generations. This upbringing and the influence of traditional Japanese aesthetics, including minimalism, discipline of line, original design and the rigor of handcraft, shaped Michiko's perspective early and continues to guide her approach to glass.

Instructor

Sheila Checkoway

‘Making glass beads is my passion.’ Sheila finds inspiration in nature, her extensive world travels, anywhere and everywhere!

Instructor

Austin Frantz

Instructor

Jason McDonald

Instructor

Mathieu Grodet

Instructor

Kate Hush

Instructor

Josefina Muñoz Torres

Instructor

Sara Greenberger Rafferty

Instructor

Trenton Quiocho

Instructor

Matthew Abadi

Instructor

Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo

Instructor

Cha Cha Chainz

Charlene Foster aka Cha Cha Chainz represents the gold standard in glass chain making. A pioneer of the trend, she has been perfecting the art of flawless and seamless links since 2002.

Instructor

Aya Oki

Instructor

Tara Traister

Tara Traister is an artist and military veteran who served in the Navy and Army National Guard from 1992-1998. She began making art as a way to heal from military trauma in art therapy workshops at the Brooklyn Veteran’s Medical Center.

Instructor

Yiyi Wei

Yiyi Wei is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in China. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Department, where she began to consider her artworks as processes that perceive the entangled connections between human and non-human existences.

Instructor

Rob Panepinto

Rob Panepinto, also known as "p0ng," discovered the art of glassblowing at Urban Glass in the mid-1990s and has been pursuing his passion ever since. Over the years, he has honed his craft through teaching and collaborating with other artists, constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with glass.

Instructor

Terri Sigler

Terri Sigler received her MBA from UCLA and a BA from Howard University. A devoted student of glass, Terri’s artistic expressions are interpreted through vessels and sculptural art. She’s studied at the Corning Museum of Glass, Penland School of Crafts and Pilchuck, among others. She is currently a studio artist in the New York area.

2022 Glassblowing Class Cedric Mitchell 266

Instructor

Ellis Dulchin

Born and bred in Brooklyn, Ellis fell in love with glass taking classes at UrbanGlass while in high school. After attending Tyler School of Art and Architecture he returned to New York, where he splits his time between Urban Glass and his studio in Mountaindale NY. His work focuses on experimentation in pattern and texture, incorporating blown glass and cast metal.

Instructor

Goldie Poblador

Goldie Poblador was born in the Philippines where she received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2009.

Instructor

Jessi Li

Jessi Li (b.1987) grew up in Jersey City, NJ. They hold an MFA from Hunter College (2019) and a BA from Bard College at Simon’s Rock (2009). Li makes sculpture about the instability existence in glass, clay, and repurposed objects.

Instructor

Marcy Chevali

Marcy Chevali is a visual artist with an MFA from the Maine College of Art; she has been based in New York City since 2008.

Instructor

Ben Barocas

Ben Barocas has been lampworking borosilicate glass since 2002. Over the years he has exhibited in solo and group shows in Ruckus Gallery, Stoked Gallery, Long Island Glass, Made Gallery, Sherlocks Glass, 1 Percent Gallery, and many more.

Instructor

Michael Davis

Michael Davis started working with stained glass in 1975, and has worked at many stained glass studios in California and New York City. In New York he worked for: Rambush, Greenland Studio, Jack Cushen, St. Ann’s and the Gil Studio. Davis also ran his own glass blowing, stained glass shop in Long Island City for 18 years.

Instructor

Thomas Zickuhr

Instructor

Layo Bright

Instructor

Rebecca Erde

Rebecca Erde is a designer, fabricator and educator based in Brooklyn. She has a diverse background in glass casting, architecture, woodworking, metalworking and digital fabrication.

Instructor

Tomo Sakai

Born and raised in Japan, Tomo Sakai discovered glass when she was a teenager. After graduating from the glass program at Tama Art University in Tokyo in 2002, she moved to a small town in the glassmaking region of the Czech Republic to study glass engraving.

Staff, Instructor

Austin Davenport Grier

Austin Davenport Grier is a glass person from Northern California who has dabbled in all facets of the glass world from tiny detailed beads to immersive decorative glass hallways.

Instructor

Cedric Mitchell

Cedric Major Mitchell, Los Angeles-based glass artist from Oklahoma who honed his skills while attending Tulsa Community College studying business. Learning about the glass art-form as an emerging local hip-hop artist while recording in the music studio, he immediately enrolled as an elective. As a student, he quickly transitioned into an apprentice and instructor at The Tulsa Glassblowing School.

Instructor

Suzanne Head

Suzanne Head received her BFA in drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2016. With a multi-faceted approach to visual story telling, Suzanne has created work in pencil, paint, clay and glass, in addition to pursuing public art as a muralist.

Instructor

Jessica Tsai

Jessica Tsai earned her BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. She worked in New York City as an art fabricator, moldmaker, and museum preparator.

Instructor

Jenine Bressner

Jenine Bressner has been sculpting glass with torches since 1998, and lasercutting textiles since 2009, having studied glass at RISD and digital fabrication through MIT.

Instructor

Jennifer Halvorson

Instructor

Miguel Unson

Miguel Unson draws inspiration from archaeological ambiguity and deliberate chaos. He found his voice in glass having completed a Masters Degree in Communication and Packaging design at Pratt Institute.

Instructor

Avery Shaffer

Avery Shaffer, an artist and designer working in kiln-formed glass, received his BFA from East Carolina University with a concentration in painting.

Instructor

Nisha Bansil

Nisha Bansil works in NYC and the Catskill Region of NY, where she fabricates commissioned glass works as well as her personal projects. She has been a resident artist at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, and Bullseye Projects.

Instructor

Chris Duffy

Mostly known for mixed media sculpture often involving glass, Christopher Duffy is part dedicated craftsman and part cultural dilettante. He has lived in New York City since 2006 in Brooklyn and or Queens.

Instructor

Ali Feeney

Always playing with new materials, Ali Feeney is drawn to all things soft, shiny, and contrasting. Emerging artist, business owner, and educator, her research focuses on gender norms, craft histories, materials, and family dynamics.

Instructor

John Dillard

John Dillard (B. Gulfport, MS, USA 1995. ) Is an interdisciplinary sculptor living and working Brooklyn, NY. After receiving a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design, John continues to show nationally and internationally with residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Burren College of Art, and George Enescu University of the Arts.

Instructor

Alex Krueger

Instructor

Christopher Kerr-Ayer

Christopher Kerr-Ayer grew up in rural Vermont. He started learning about glass in 2009, as an apprentice in a small production studio. Kerr-Ayer refined his skill and studio practice through working as a production assistant and employee. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Johnson State College, Vt.

Staff, Instructor

Ipek Tepper

Ipek grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and is a glass artist, curator and an architect. She moved to Brooklyn in 2018 after receiving her MFA degree in Glass from Rhode Island School of Design.

Instructor

Alex Demmerle

Instructor

Robin Cembalest

Staff, Instructor

Lucas Kernan

Lucas Kernan (they/them) is a second generation glassblower and technician at UrbanGlass.

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

Jess Krichelle

After taking a neon design and fabrication course with Lili Lakich in Los Angeles, Jess studied neon glassblowing under Michael Flechtner to make her own light sculptures. She worked as the Lab Supervisor at the Museum of Neon Art before she moved from Los Angeles to New York in 2021 to pursue her glass education.

Staff, Instructor

Malcolm Kriegel

Brooklyn born artist Malcolm Kriegel began his career as a maker in high school.

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

Percy Echols II

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 and creative projects have been supported by fellowships, residencies, and grants from the Center for Craft, the Brooklyn Arts Fund, UC Berkeley, Residency Unlimited, the Corning Museum of Glass, UrbanGlass, the Museum of Arts and Design, and Dieu Donné Papermill. She is currently a graduate student at the Bard Graduate Center, NY.

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

Wes Valdez

Wes Valdez lives and works near Philadelphia, PA as an artist and educator...

Instructor

Lenise Omeasoo

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My name is Lenise Omeasoo, I’ve been creating beaded jewelry for the past 10 years. Starting out with small hair accessories for my daughter, then moving on to larger pieces for my growing following.

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

Brooke Hamling

Brooke Hamling is an artist working in cast glass and ceramics. She is currently the head of research and development at Zircar Luminar Glass Products.

Instructor

Jasmine Anokye

Jasmine Anokye, a 2016 Bead Project Alum, is the founder of Waysted Studio - an artistic lifestyle brand passionately committed to self care and body autonomy.

Instructor

SheBends

Instructor

Rosemarie Oakman

Instructor

Efrat Lipkin

Instructor, Bead Project Alumna

Ope Omojola

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.

Staff, Instructor

Phil Garip

Phil Garip is a neon artist and fabricator based in Brooklyn. He is a Sagittarius, a cat parent, and his love language is improv.

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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 Brooklyn-based artist who explores how queer identity is mediated by the law. In their research-led practice, they collect imagery, text and documents that address the intergenerational impact of gender-based violence and incarceration from State records and family archives.

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

Cammi Climaco

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.

Instructor

Deb Adler

Instructor

Morgan Peterson

Instructor

Nate Sheaffer

Instructor

Alexander Rosenberg

Instructor

Corey Pemberton

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

Nicole Lahy

Instructor

Kim Sharp

Instructor

Morgan Gilbreath

Instructor

Clif Eddens

Instructor

Ben Sharp

Instructor

Liesl Schubel

Liesl Schubel was born in Ontario, Canada in 1990, and currently lives in Trenton, NJ. As a queer person, the complexity of identity, home, and familial histories and relationships inspire their practice. Liesl is trained as a glassblower, having worked with glass for over 12 years.

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.

Instructors

Category

Instructor

Chris Freeman

Instructor

Lisandra Wieters

Instructor

Pear Ware

Instructor

Ana Stavarache

Instructor

Michelle Bayat

Instructor

Alix DeFabbia-Kane

Instructor

Han Duong

Instructor

Hannah Martin

Instructor

Michiko Sakano

Instructor

Sheila Checkoway

Instructor

Austin Frantz

Instructor

Jason McDonald

Instructor

Mathieu Grodet

Instructor

Kate Hush

Instructor

Josefina Muñoz Torres

Instructor

Sara Greenberger Rafferty

Instructor

Trenton Quiocho

Instructor

Matthew Abadi

Instructor

Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo

Instructor

Cha Cha Chainz

Instructor

Aya Oki

Instructor

Tara Traister

Instructor

Yiyi Wei

Instructor

Rob Panepinto

Instructor

Terri Sigler

Instructor

Ellis Dulchin

Instructor

Goldie Poblador

Instructor

Jessi Li

Instructor

Marcy Chevali

Instructor

Ben Barocas

Instructor

Michael Davis

Instructor

Thomas Zickuhr

Instructor

Layo Bright

Instructor

Rebecca Erde

Instructor

Tomo Sakai

Staff, Instructor

Austin Davenport Grier

Instructor

Cedric Mitchell

Instructor

Suzanne Head

Instructor

Jessica Tsai