Pilchuck Glass School Programs
THE SUMMER PROGRAM
The summer program is made up of seven concurrent sessions, and runs from May through August. During each session, participants enroll in one of the five courses offered on different techniques and concepts related to glass. Courses are designed for people with a range of experience and skill levels. Every year, the summer program features a diverse roster of instructors and artists in residence from all over the world, ensuring that this educational experience exceeds expectations.
EMERGING ARTIST IN RESIDENCE (EAIR) PROGRAM
The Emerging Artist in Residence Program supports artists who are making a transition in their professional lives. Whether moving from academia to a professional studio practice, taking up a new medium, or beginning a new body of work, artists find this independent residency ideal for contemplation, research, and experimentation. The program provides artists with a place and the time to develop an idea or project in glass, with the potential for realizing a new body of work.
The residency requires a project proposal and supports kilnworking, coldworking, printmaking, and use of mixed media. The EAIR program is an independent artist’s residency. Residents have access to many Pilchuck studios, including the glass-plate printmaking (vitreography) studio; plaster studio; fusing, slumping, and casting kilns; flameworking torch; and coldworking equipment. No hot glassworking is available.
HAUBERG FELLOWSHIP
This springtime residency program was established to encourage side-by-side exploration and collaboration among a group of outstanding artists. Founded in 2000 with a funded endowment to honor Pilchuck co-founder, the late John H. Hauberg (1916–2002), the Fellowship offers as many as six established professional artists the opportunity to create work that responds to Pilchuck’s environment or uses the school’s glassmaking facilities. Participants are selected following a competitive application process. Criteria for their selection include artistic merit and collaborative theme.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
In 2013 Pilchuck's partnership with the Museum of Glass has enabled the school to bring 14 Australian artists to the Pilchuck campus to teach during the Summer Program sessions. A number of these artists will also complete residencies at the Museum of Glass and the museum is sponsoring the exhibition, "Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest." This collabration with the Museum of Glass increases the international scope of Pilchuck's programmatic offerings and highlights the importance of the school in the growth of contemporary glass in Australia. This "Australian Summer" at Pilchuck, in part, has increased interest both nationally and internationally in Pilchuck's programming and resulted in significant increases in applications for summer courses, scholarships, and residencies.
Pilchuck, like many nonprofits, is challenged by external forces that threaten the stability of its funding for core programs. Within this paradigm, one of Pilchuck's greatest challenges lies in predicting the variable costs of fuel that keep its world-class facilities operational. In spite of budgeting for a net surplus in its budget, the rising--and frequently volatile--cost of fuel provides stress on the organization's finances.