Press Releases 2008

Winter Session Fellows

NEW CREATIVE GLASS CENTER OF AMERICA FELLOWS ARRIVE AT WHEATONARTS FOR THE WINTER SESSION

MILLVILLE, NJ – The arrival of a new year means the arrival of new Creative Glass Center of America Fellows to WheatonArts. The first group arrives January 7 for a 12-week session. They will develop and refine their techniques towards new or expanded work. This program, the only one of its kind in the U.S., provides emerging and mid-career artists unrestricted access to the Glass Studio facilities and materials necessary for blown, cast and kiln-formed glass.

Kimberly Harty was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2006. During her time at RISD she developed a course of study in the performance of glassmaking and how it relates to the subsequent object. Through the use of video documentation she combines new media with materials to create installations that produce a physical experience for the viewer. Harty has worked for artists such as Jocelyne Prince, Joe Cariati, Deborah Czeresko and Jim Butler. She was a scholarship student at Pilchuck Glass School in 2005 and 2007 and has also been named Emerging Artist by the Glass Art Society in 2007. She currently lives and works as an artist and educator in Chicago, Illinois.

Rika Hawes received her Master of Fine Arts degree in glass from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and her BFA in Sculpture from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She graduated from the Glass Program at Sheridan College with high honors. She has been actively involved at Pilchuck Glass School since 2004 as a Saxe Award / Scholarship recipient, teaching assistant and staff member. Hawes has been teaching since 1996. She has been on the faculty staff at Sheridan College and Tyler School of Art. Her work is eclectic, from glass objects and installation, to photography, video and light. “I am interested in perception, ephemera, serendipity and chance,” says Hawes. Her work has been featured in New Glass Review and she has exhibited internationally, including solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the U.S.

Charlotte Potter grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont. She earned her BFA from Alfred University with a glassblowing concentration and a dance minor. She graduated cum laude in May 2003 and received the Divisional Honors Award for excellence in glass art. Upon graduation Potter was a glass blowing instructor at Buck’s Rock Creative Arts Camp in Connecticut and later a studio assistant at WheatonArts in Millville, NJ. She has assisted many other recognized glass artists such as Flo Perkins, Chuck Lopez and Kathleen Ash. She was a staff member at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington and a teacher’s assistant for glassblowing classes at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. 

Potter worked for a year at Vella Vetro Glass Studios and Studio Inferno in New Orleans as a glassblower, caster, cold worker and installation assistant. She is pursuing her art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, working with Laurie Thal, assisting blowing and casting glass. She also works out of Heron Glass Studio located in Driggs, Idaho. Last summer Potter demonstrated at the Glass Art Society Conference in St. Louis, and participated in an advanced glass sculpting class at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Presently, she teaches glassblowing, slumping and fusing classes at the Center for the Arts in Jackson Hole. This summer she earned a scholarship for an advanced glassblowing class at Pilchuck Glass School.

This session ends April 4. The other 2008 sessions are: Spring - April 21 to July 18 (12 weeks); Fall I -September 1 to October 10 (six weeks); and Fall II - October 20 to November 28 (six weeks).

Visitors have the opportunity to see this group of Fellows demonstrate their special glass techniques during an Open Studio, February 8, at 7 p.m. Admission is free for the general public. Light refreshments will be available.

The CGCA has serviced glass artists and the arts community since 1983. Over 260 professional and emerging artists have been recipients of a CGCA fellowship, nearly 200 from the U.S. and over 20 foreign countries. For more information, call the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts at 800-998-4552 or 856-825-6800, ext.106, or visit www.wheatonarts.org.

WheatonArts strives to ensure the accessibility of its exhibitions, events and programs to all persons with disabilities. Provide two weeks notice for special accommodations. Patrons with hearing and speech disabilities may contact WheatonArts through the New Jersey Relay Service (TRS) 800-852-7899 or by dialing 711.

  Funding has been made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. WheatonArts receives general operating support from the New Jersey Historical Commission, Division of Cultural Affairs in the New Jersey Department of State and is supported in part by the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism.

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