Visiting Artist Lineup
July
Nancy Callan
July 3, 5, & 6
Nancy Callan’s exhibition Nancy Callan: Forces at Play is currently on view at Museum of Glass.
Nancy Callan’s artistic voice as a glass sculptor reflects her high-level training and talents. Callan attended the Massachusetts College of Art (BFA 1996) and lives in Seattle, WA, where she is part of the vibrant Northwest glass community. Callan’s numerous awards include the Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship and residencies at Museum of Glass, The Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, OH), the Pittsburgh Glass Center (Pittsburgh, PA), and The Chrysler Museum (Norfolk, VA). She began her glass career in the Pacific Northwest in 1996 as a team member for Maestro Lino Tagliapietra, rising to become his main assistant.
Callan has been exhibiting her work since 2001, at galleries including Traver Gallery (Seattle, WA), Schantz Gallery (Stockbridge, MA), Hawk Gallery (Columbus, OH), Blue Rain Gallery (Santa Fe, NM), and Holsten Galleries (Santa Fe, NM). In addition to exhibiting and creating her own work, Callan enjoys the challenges of teaching and sharing her skills with students. She has offered advanced glassblowing workshops at Pilchuck Glass School (Stanwood, WA), The Pittsburgh Glass Center (Pittsburgh, PA), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME), and Penland School of Craft (Penland, NC). Callan also enjoys collaboration, working with New York City lighting designer Lindsey Adelman and Los Angeles artist Katherine Gray on recent special projects.
Callan’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Shanghai Museum of Art (Shanghai, China), Museum of Glass, the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY), the Muskegon Museum of Art (Muskegon, MI), and the Museum of Northwest Art (La Connor, WA), as well as in numerous private collections.
Nanca Callan with Shadow Realm. Photo by Russell Johnson.
Wendy Red Star
July 23–27
Wendy Red Star lives and works in Portland, Oregon. An enrolled member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe, Red Star works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American ideologies and colonialist structures, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on pop culture, conceptual art strategies, and the Crow traditions within which she was raised, Red Star pushes the conversation surrounding Native American perspectives in new directions. Her residency, part of an on-going collaboration with Pilchuck Glass School, will be an opportunity for Red Star to experiment with incorporating glass into her artistic practice.
Red Star has exhibited in the United States and abroad at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Newark Museum (Newark, NJ), Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY), The Broad (Los Angeles, CA); the Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA); Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain (Paris, France); Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA); Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, IL); St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, MO); the Contemporary Austin (Austin, TX); Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN); Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) (North Adams, MA); The Drawing Center (New York, NY); and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH), among many others. Her monumental sculpture, The Soil You See…, was included in Beyond Granite: Pulling Together, the first curated outdoor exhibition in the history of the National Mall (Washington, D.C), organized by Monument Lab in 2023. The work was then acquired by Tippet Rise Art Center (Fishtail, MT). Red Star’s was included in Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest exhibition at South London Gallery, in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK) in 2024.
Hilltop Artists
July 30–August 3
Hilltop Artists is a youth development arts nonprofit in Tacoma, Washington, operating deeply impactful programs since 1994 with broad community support and a track record of success. Hilltop Artists serves over 650 students a year ages 12 – 26 through its programming, providing tuition-free glass instruction, mentorship, and collaborative leadership opportunities. Hilltop Artists is dedicated to its mission: Using glass art to connect young people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds to better futures.
In 1994, the inaugural group of twenty youth from the Hilltop neighborhood met in the former wood shop at Jason Lee Middle School – now Hilltop Heritage Middle School. They were introduced to a range of sculptural mediums, including woodworking. Back then, glass art involved converting Snapple and soda bottles into blown glass drinkware and vases.
In addition to the now world class hot shop at Hilltop Heritage Middle School, Hilltop Artists has grown to include a hot shop at Silas (formerly Wilson) High School. Tacoma Public Schools has partnered with Hilltop Artists since the beginning, highlighting the organization as a positive force in increasing students’ academic and interpersonal success.
August
Joseph Seymour Jr.
August 8–10
Joe Seymour, Jr. is from the Squaxin Island tribe on his father’s side and from the Pueblo of Acoma on his mother’s side. He grew up in the village of McCartys on the Acoma reservation. In 1996, Joe moved to Olympia, Washington to learn about his Coast Salish culture.
In 2006, he made the decision quit his job as a commercial diver to become a professional artist. He works as a multidisciplinary artist. Primarily he has been studying and making Coast Salish art. But now he is focusing on his Acoma heritage. “Even though I’ve lived in Washington for so long, I never forgot my Acoma culture. I always made home for our sacred days of prayer and dancing.” Now I get to focus on making art from my Acoma culture. His mother designed pottery, his grandmother designed pottery, and Seymour is learning from the legacy that they left behind.
Seymour received his BA from the Evergreen State College in 2018. In 2023, he was in the inaugural graduating class of the Institute of American Indian Arts, MFA Studio Arts program.
Seymour joins Museum of Glass in conjunction with Glass Fest Northwest and IN THE SPIRT Arts Market and Northwest Native Festival.
Annette Blair
August 20–24
Australian artist Annette Blair creates work which most recently explores simple utilitarian objects and their ability to evoke a common sense of nostalgia. Her artistic practice is divided into several facets; the design and manufacture of functional glassware, the development of exhibition work, teaching in Australia and the United States, as well as gaffing for many of Australia’s leading glass artists. Blair’s residency is part of the Museum’s collaboration with Pilchuck Glass School, and will be an opportunity for Blair to push the boundaries of her work with the help of the Hot Shop Team.
October
Alton Bucheimer
October 3–5
Alton Bucheimer is a trans AFAB Filipino glass artist working in Seattle, WA. He was raised in a small farm town in Maryland where he started blowing glass in 2009 at the age of sixteen. He went on to receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in glass in 2014. After graduation he relocated to Seattle, Washington.
His studio work is an exploration of both his gender and racial identity using pattern and form. Heavily focusing on negative space utilizing the transparent properties of glass he explores the multiple dualities of his identity and how he fits into the world. He finds inspiration in community, written language, and society.
David Walters
October 8–12
Throughout his career, David Walters has been fascinated with narrative and storytelling. Referring often to the fairy tales of our youth, he weaves familiar stories with a more personal interpretation. He imbues these cautionary tales a sense of his own history or personal experience to give them a more contemporary and intimate relevance. Walters joins the Hot Shop after being honored with the Grand Prize Coney Award for his contribution to the 2024 Red Hot Annual Auction and Gala.
Åsa Sandlund
October 15–19
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Sandlund studied in France and England, spent two years at the Sorbonne, and earned her BFA at Beckmans School of Design. She began her career as an art director at Lowe-Brindfors, working on accounts like Ikea and Saab. Her role as a design assistant at Kosta Boda earned her a scholarship to the Pilchuck Glass School.
Sandlund immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 and joined Nordstrom as a Graphic Designer and Art Director. She rose through various creative leadership roles and now serves as the Senior Creative Director, overseeing Nordstrom’s brand strategy and identity across all channels. Her work has earned numerous awards, including RAC Gold and AIGA, and she has authored a book on typography.
In addition to her corporate role, Sandlund collaborates with her husband, glass artist Preston Singletary, and is an accomplished glass artist herself. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in the U.S. and abroad and featured in publications like New Glass Review and The New York Times. Sandlund has served on advisory boards for IslandWood, The Pilchuck Glass School, Artist Trust, and the University of Washington’s professional advisory council in design.
Luis Sanchez
October 31–November 2
Luis Sanchez was born in Berkeley, California, and later moved to Tacoma, Washington when he was nine years old. Sanchez found glass at the age of 13 through the Hilltop Artists program. He has continued to work for Hilltop Artists for the past decade, going from student to the Programs Manager, now overseeing the production program. Sanchez has gained further skills at Pilchuck Glass School and Touchstone Center for Crafts. He has been featured in the Tacoma Art Museum, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, and most recently Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Sanchez was one of the Hauberg Fellows at Pilchuck Glass during the 2024 spring residencies. Sanchez is inspired by traditional Mexican folk art sculptures which are covered in bright colors and small fun textures.
November
Stephanie Simek
November 14–16
Starting in 2007, Simek began performing with instruments built from deconstructed obsolete devices. Her residency at the Museum of Contemporary Craft titled "Jewels/Joules" led to a research residency at Signal Culture NY, where she studied the magnetic recording potential of minerals.
Most recently Simek has been studying the elusive interpretations of holes within the fields of mathematics, philosophy, science, and law. Ideas around what constitutes emptiness have provided the starting point for her work over the past several years, creating conceptual “containers” or “vessels” in a wide range of forms and materials.
December
Raven Skyriver
December 10-14
Born in 1982, Raven Skyriver started blowing glass in high school at the age of sixteen. Raven’s mentor, Lark Dalton, taught him how to build glass blowing equipment and trained him in the traditional Venetian technique. In 2003 Raven was invited to join the William Morris team. He worked on the team until Morris' retirement in 2007. The experience of working with such a talented group of artists galvanized his decision to follow Glass Sculpture as a profession.
Raven lives near the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, and produces his work in the greater Seattle area. Raven shows his work nationally and has been featured in group shows internationally. His focus in the area of sculpture, and the depiction of marine life is inspired by his island upbringing, and informed by the creatures that inhabit this fragile ecosystem.
