School Directors

Tim Tate is the Co-founder and Creative Director and Marketing Director. He is a sculptor who has been working in glass, steel, concrete and ceramic since 1989. He oversaw a glass casting production studio in New Orleans for three years. Tate’s artwork has been shown in many galleries and museums including the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Mint Museum, the University of Richmond Art Museum and the University of Virginia Art Museum. Tim was the recipient of the 2009 Virginia A Groot Foundation Grant for his work in sculpture.

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Erwin Timmers is one of the DC area's leading ‘eco-artists’. Erwin is Co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School. His work in sustainable design are seen in some of the large public art projects he has just completed, including a sculpture project for the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarter Ariel Rios Building low-impact courtyard, in Washington, DC.

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Michael Janis brings his architecture background and disciplines to the Washington Glass School and Studio projects. He has taught at Penland School of Craft and Istanbul’s Glass Furnace Arts Center. His work is featured again in this year's Corning Museum of Glass publication 'New Glass Review', and his artwork is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was named 'Outstanding Emerging Artist 2008-2009' by the Florida Glass Art Alliance, and has been awarded the 2010 Saxe Fellowship award for outstanding technical ability and achievement in glass art. Michael will have solo exhibition of his work at the Fuller Craft Museum in 2011.

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Current Instructors

The Faculty at the Washington Glass School includes working artists, professionals and educators from across the spectrum of art and sculpture, incorporating many different media. These seasoned professionals teach all aspects of sculptural, functional and decorative glass along with media such as steel, concrete, encaustics, ceramics, neon, and lighting.

Robert Kincheloe has been working with glass since 1997, with a strong background in borosilicate glass. He has studied furnace glassblowing, flameworking, scientific glassblowing, sculpture, murrini, encasements, casting and coldworking. Over the years he has helped to set up several glass studios and has spent the last two years as a studio artist at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. Robert's work centers on the use of combining hot, warm and cold glass processes, and he takes a mathematical approach to design. This encourages him to repeat a technique over and over in search of perfecting the logic of the design and controlling its process. Robert hopes to expand the glass community through his works, classes, demos and lectures, and as such, he will be creating a new series of flameworking borosilicate classes. Robert recently received the "Emerging Artist Award" from FLOW glass magazine.

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Michael (Fig) Mangiafico graduated with a BFA in glass art from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985. He has been teaching torchworking and glass blowing for over 20 years. He owns and operates his own glass studio in Pittsburgh, PA. Michael has exhibited and taught across the US and is a member of the Glass Art Society, The International Society of Glass Beadmakers, and The Pittsburgh Craftmen’s Guild. His work is available in galleries nationwide and has been featured in numerous art magazines and publications.

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Elizabeth Ryland Mears is a full time, award winning, studio artist. Whether representational or conceptual, her creations reflect her strong connection with nature, and Liz's sculpture often combines glass with mixed media. She has studied and taught lampworking techniques at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass Studio, and The Studio of Corning Museum of Glass. Flameworking, written by Liz, was published in 2003 by LARK Books.

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Marty King is one of the Washington area’s most accomplished neon artists and currently the Hirshorn Museum’s safety assurance consultant. Her projects include pieces for film, television and stage. Her body of work includes large scale installations in the Air and Space Museum in Washington and for the CBS television set for the Winter Olympics. In addition to commercial projects, she has worked with hundreds of artists and individuals.

Lea Topping has been an independent studio artist for over 20 years with a gallery at the Torpedo Factory. She has studied at the Tyler School of Art, University of California/San Diego, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and Purdue University.

Alison Sigethy studied design at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and received degrees from Marymount University. She is a member of several glass guilds and was Chairman of the 2004 Glass Arts Festival, a bi-annual event sponsored by the National Capitol Art Glass Guild, the Glen Echo Glass Art Consortium, and the National Park Service.

Sean Hennessey teaches sculpture and mold making. An accomplished painter and sculptor, he established Scenic Artisans in 2004, following a ten-year career in the theater, where Sean was responsible for all painting and sculpting of stage props and set decoration at the internationally renowned Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC. His work has been part of Helen Hayes Award winning productions. Sean has also contributed toprojects at other arts and theater venues, such as the Kennedy Center, the Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Arena Stage, Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, and the Smithsonian Institute.

Dave D'Orio has a BFA in sculpture from the University of Hartford and has worked in glass for over 15 years. His artwork features mixed media, glass and steel. Dave is Director of DC GlassWorks, one of the DC area's premier public access hot glass shop, located in Hyattsville, MD. DC Glass Works offers both glass blowing and metal casting. The classes formed by the combining the resources of both glass centers promises to create a diverse artistic population whose common goal is to explore glass and the creative process.

Click here to see DC GlassWorks site.

Nicole Puzan graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006 with a BFA in Craft / Material Studies and a concentration in glass. Since graduating, Nicole has spent time teaching herself screen-printing and sewing - but is very excited to be back in the world of glass.

Tim Slagel has been an LED fanatic since getting his mom to buy him a Radio Shack grab bag in the 5th grade. Despite degrees in Engineering and work on optical data storage and digital imagers, Tim's spare time is filled designing and building gadgets that blink and glow. Since moving form Silicone Valley to Washington, DC, he has led LED project workshops for Dorkbot DC and worked with local multi-media artists to add electronics smarts and interactivity to their work.

Diane Cooper Cabe's glass portfolio comprises both sculptural and functional pieces. She began her career in glass with studies at local and national glass centers, including Washington Glass School, where she was one of the first studio artists. A Bullseye E-merge finalist, Diane's cast and fused artwork has been exhibited in local and national galleries. She is a resident artist with the Art Glass Center at Glen Echo, Maryland.

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Allegra Marquart has been teaching printmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) for decades. Nine years ago she began to include glass as a way to strengthen and revitalize her imagery. Her glass artwork is featured at international art venues, including SOFA Chicago and Palm Beach 3.

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Chris Shea has been a professional studio metalsmith since 1997, creating sculpture, furniture and architectural metalwork in forged steel, bronze and glass. His work is shown at Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia and has been exhibited throughout the country, most recently at SOFA Chicago through Maurine Littleton Gallery. Chris has taught at Montgomery College, Thomas Jefferson Arts Center and Snow Farm School in MA.

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Debra Ruzinsky received her BA in Design from the University of California at Los Angeles, and her MFA in Glass Sculpture from RIT. She has been working in glass since 1982. She serves on the publications committee of the Glass Art Society, and was Visiting Asst. Professor of Glass at RIT for the 2008-2009 academic calendar year. Her work is part of the collection of the Seto City Museum in Seto, Japan, and the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark, as well as the RIT Wallace Library Collection.

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Jennifer Lindstrom, began exploring warm glass in 2001 when she enrolled in her first glass fusing class. Her love of the medium has taken her to Penland as a work study student. Her elegant and disciplined aesthetic in glass was featured in the Washington Post's Style Section.

Ellyn Weiss is a painter and printmaker that works in a wide variety of media. She lives in Bethesda and has her studio in Mt. Rainier, MD. Her work is inspired by biological forms and structures, which she finds endlessly fascinating in their combination of sheer beauty and functionality. She was one of the founders of Artomatic, is a member of the Board of "Art Enables", has the largest piece of art in the DC City Hall Art Collection, and is represented by the Nevin Kelly Gallery in Washington where her most recent show, paintings in tar, opened in September, 2009. Ellyn is the arts blogger known as Gessohead.org

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Jim Manning has been bending glass for 12 years, and works with DC's neon queen Marty King. Their neon studio Light’n Up Neon, is one of the areas leading neon art centers. Featured in the Washington Post, Jim has work on display at the District Fine Arts Gallery, and had an exhibition of his artwork at the Katzen Arts Center.

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Click here to visit Jim's website

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Teaching Assistants and Friends of the Studio

The School also has a number of Teaching Assistants who bring their expertise and enthusiasm to the classes. This provides an excellent instructor/student ratio resulting in quality class time and opportunity for productivity. Friends of the Studio involves volunteers to support the Washington Glass School classes, events and collaborative projects.

Teaching Assistants

Jon Gann
Jennifer Lindstrom
Christine Otvos
Kirk Waldroff
Mike Raman
David Pearcy
Nicole Puzan
Lisa Dano
Molly Pfemister
Becky Williams

 

Special Friends and Supporters of the Washington Glass School

Janet Hirshberg
Kay Janis
Veronique Lanthier
Brett Marden
Liz Mears
Helene Safire

Studio Artists

Leslie Beil
David Cook
Cheryl Patrice Derricotte
Nancy Donnelly
Sean Hennessey
Allegra Marquart
Syl Mathis
Duncan McClellan
Betsy McCluskey
Chris Barnett
Anne Plant
Chris Shea
Teddie Hathaway