BIOGRAPHY

Lucartha Kohler was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania but spent most of her youth in the Harrisburg /Hershey area. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Moore College of Art in Philadelphia majoring in fine art and fashion design. By chance she relocated to Southern New Jersey in an area known for glassmaking since the 18th century.

Over a 20 year residency in New Jersey she took advantage of her proximity to glass factories and Wheaton Village to train herself in the traditions and applications of many glass making techniques.

A quest for more information and technical skill led her to Penland School for Crafts for a Glass Concentration. Over time she developed her own methods of forming and decorating glass based on ancient processes. The subject matter of her art is based on images from ancient cultures and is unique in its fusion of symbolism and figuration.

In 1985 she moved to Philadelphia from South Jersey and has recently moved again to Durham NC where she plans to live and work. In addition to her studio production and sculpture, Lucartha teaches, demonstrates and conducts workshops at venues including The University of the Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia PA, The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, Wheaton Arts, a glass center in Millville NJ and The Glass Furnace, a glass school in Istanbul, Turkey.

Her work has been shown in many one woman and group exhibitions in the US and abroad including the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA, The Design Arts Gallery, Drexel University, Philadelphia PA, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, and Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

Lucartha is a recipient of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships and 2 Masterworks Fellowships from The Creative Glass Center of America in Millville NJ. A Wales/Philadelphia Artist Residency, a British-American Arts Council travel grant, a Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity Grant and an Independence Foundation Fellowship.

Her work is in a number of museums and included in many public and private collections. She has been written about in a variety of publications including her own books "Glass: An Artists Medium" and “Women Working in Glass”.

RESUME

Click here for a printer friendly, Adobe PDF version of this resume (including exhibitions.)

PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS

Women Working in Glass, Schiffer Publications, Ltd., 2003
The Glass Furnace, Lucartha Kohler, Glass Art, Jan/Feb, 2003
Philadelphia City Paper, Glass Act, Review, Robin Rice, Sept. 21, 2000
Glass: An Artists Medium, Lucartha Kohler, Krause Publications, 1998
Pate de Verre and Kiln Casting of Glass, Jim Kervin and Dan Fenton, GlassWear Studios, 1997
Philadelphia City Paper, April 18-24, 1997,
Review, Robin Rice Glass Magazine, Spring 1997, Number 66, Preview, Warm is Hot, by April Kingsley
Seven Arts, Dec. 1996, Vol. 4, No. 12, Visual Arts, Folding Screens at City Hall, I. Cherkassky
Harmony's Realm of Light, Lucartha Kohler's Glass Sculpture, Glass Art, Jan/Feb 1996
Profile, Zanne Miller, Art Matters, Vol. 14, No. 5, Dec. 1994-Jan. 1995
Glass Magazine, No. 56, Summer 94, review Corning Glass Review 12, Neues Glas, 2/91
Gallery Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 10, 1990
Profile, Burton Wasserman, Art Voices, March/April, 1981
Photo Silk Screen On Glass, Glass Studio, Vol. 19, 1981
A Ceramic Shell For Casting Glass, Glass Art Society Journal, 1978
Survey of Contemporary Glass, 1977, Corning Museum Microfiche

AWARDS

Sabold Elementary School, Artist in Residence, 2004
Cultural Specialist, grant, U.S. State Department, 2003
Glass Group, Philadelphia, grant, 2003
Spring-Ford High School, Artist in Residence, 2003
Independence Foundation, Fellowship in the Arts, 2001
Leeway Foundation, Window of Opportunity Award, 1999
Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority Design Competition, finalist, honorarium, 1995
Artists Confronting the Inconceivable Bronze Award, 1992
Wales/Philadelphia Visual Artists Exchange, Artist Residency, 1991
British American Arts Association Travel Grant, 1991
Visual Arts Fellowship, Crafts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1989
Exhibition award, Friends of Charles Allis Art Museum, 1989
Masterworks Fellowship, Creative Glass Center of America, 1988, 1990
New Jersey Great Ideas, 1982, exhibition award
In A Sense, 1984, competition award
Visual Arts Fellowship, NJSCA, 1983
Honorarium, Arts Inclusion Design Competition, NJSCA, 1980

EXPERIENCE

2008-09 Professional Institute for Education, Inspirations, summer intensive,
2008       PAEP and PA Board of Education joint residency
2007       PAEP Artist in Residence, Residency artist,
2007       Exton Elementary School, Exton, PA
2007       St Denis Elementary School, Havertown, PA
2006       Meredith Elementary School, Artist Residency
2005       Owen J Roberts Elementary School, Artist Residency
2004       Sabold Elementary School, Artist Residency
2003       Springford High School, Artist Residency
2005       Curate glass exhibit "Out of the Mold" Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
2000-06 Philadelphia Sculptors, curate annual 5 School Student Show with Paul Hubbard
2004-05 Salem Community College, Glass Center advisory committee
1996-04 Creative Glass Center of America, Board of Trustees
1984-86 Designer, Wheaton Industries, January
1977-83 Philadelphia Art Alliance, Curator, Crafts Gallery, Board of Directors
1972-76 New Jersey Teen Arts Festival, County co-coordinator
1970-76 Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Commissioner and chair

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2008-09 Professional Institute for Educators, Inspirations, Summer Intensive
1999-09 University of the Arts, Phila. PA Adjunct faculty
2004       Sculptor's Guild, Yerevan University, Armenia (Lecture)
2003       Worcester Center for Crafts, New Traditions workshop
2004       Urban Glass, Brooklyn NY
1999-03 Salem County Community College, Glass Center
1997-10 The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass
1994-02 Wheaton Village, Millville NJ
1995-02 Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
2002       The Glass Furnace Glass School, Istanbul, Turkey
1994       Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers Univ. Newark NJ,
1994-09  Fleisher Art Memorial, Phila. PA, Faculty
1994-01 Tyler School of Art, Phila PA,
1995       Brookhaven College, Dallas TX
1992-01 Demonstrate glass bead making, Wheaton Village, Millville, NJ

SELECTED COMMISSIONS

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Rouse and Associates
Borowsky/Wagman Collection
New Jersey State Museum
Morris Museum
Memorial Hospital, Mount Holly, NJ
Corning Museum of Glass
Wolf, Block, Schoor and Solis-Cohen
Newark Museum
Museum of American Glass
Ricardo Muti
Paul Stankard Collection
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Norman and Susanne Cohn
Henry and Linda Wasserstein
Clifton NJ Sculpture Park
Widener University School of Law
Sabold Elementary School
Meredith Elementary School
Exton Elementary School
St Denis Elementary School
Museum of American Craft
Lehigh Valley Hospital

EDUCATION

Carnegie Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh,PA
Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Penland School of Crafts