Wheaton Conversations with 2026 Fall Fellows:
KCJ Szwedzinski and Erin Hoffman
Join us via Zoom on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Meet WheatonArts 2026 Summer Creative Glass Fellows Felicity Machado, Chuchen Song, and Charlie Manion! Together, they will discuss their unique, individual experiences and creative processes. Join us as we consider technique, approach, and problem-solving with these dynamic artists as they share what they have been exploring during their Fellowship at WheatonArts.
Closed captioning is provided.
This event is part of “Wheaton Conversations,” a virtual series highlighting a diverse community of Artists!
To see the full schedule of conversations, Click Here.
Wheaton Conversations is generously presented by PNC Arts Alive! and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.
KCJ Szwedzinski
Seattle, WA
KCJ Szwedzinski is a Seattle based interdisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator working primarily in glass, neon, and site responsive installation. Their work investigates how belief systems are constructed, inherited, and materially reinforced, with a particular focus on religious, economic, and political frameworks. KCJ is interested in how objects and environments carry symbolic as well as functional weight, and how material culture shapes behavior, memory, and perception.
KCJ holds an MFA in Glass, Sculpture, and Judaic Studies from the University of Louisville and a BA in Art History and Printmaking from the University of North Florida. They have been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, Pilchuck Glass School, Rero Glass in Antwerp, the Pierini International Glass Art Center in Biot, France, and the Taoxichuan Art Center in Jingdezhen, China. Alongside their studio practice, they serve as Operations and Programs Assistant at the Glass Art Society and co facilitate the Pilchuck Neon Residency, a peer driven program dedicated to expanding access to neon education, now in its third year.
Recent and upcoming projects, including False Profit / Prophet and a neon based rose window series, examine how light, distortion, and spectacle operate as tools of persuasion, memory, and collective identity.
Erin Hoffman
San Jose, CA
Erin Hoffman is an interdisciplinary artist who thinks about the complexities of human communication. Working primarily with glass sculpture and installation, Hoffman explores how meaning shifts, distorts, or fractures as it moves between sender and receiver. Through many different forms of transmission, she interrogates how information can be interpreted (or misinterpreted), enjoying the moments when things are misread and transformed into something new and beautiful.
Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Hoffman earned her BFA in Glass from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (2015). She later worked as the Departmental Assistant in the glass program at the University of Louisville from 2015 to 2018. Hoffman received her MFA in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies from Alfred University in New York (2020). She currently lives and works in San Jose, California, where she has served as Studio Manager at the Bay Area Glass Institute since 2021, helping to grow and sustain a vibrant, community-centered nonprofit glass studio.
