“The tech apprentice program at the Pittsburgh Glass Center offers a unique opportunity to work, learn, and create in a state of the art public glass facility. I take pride in being one of the backbones of the facility as my day to day involves maintaining the cleanliness and the equipment, as well as facilitating classes, workshops, and rentals. It definitely isn’t the cleanest job, and sometimes isn’t the most fun, but it is very rewarding. In my time at the studio we built a large glory hole, rebuilt both a furnace and a kiln, and met some very awesome people. In addition to the tech side of things, you get access to using the shop to make and develop your own work. For me, this was a balancing act because I would work all day, and then work on my own work at night. If you don’t have a strong work ethic, as well as self-motivation then this job is not for you. You get out of it what you put into it, and if you put yourself out there, I guarantee you will be very happy with the results.”
- Samuel Spees, 2018 Tech Apprentice
Heather Clancy
Tech Apprentice
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Heather Clancy is an artist who works primarily in cast glass to create sculptures referencing the changing built environment. Through the reference of aged locations she works to create a platform for discussion of personal memory and passing time. The subject of her work stems from observing the urban environment she inhabits as an adult in contrast to her own rural upbringings in Deerfield, OH.
She received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and now finds herself as a Tech Apprentice at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Her work has earned her several Scholarships including the Viktor Schreckengost Scholarship, Glass Art Society’s General Scholarship, and the Penland Higher Education Partners Scholarship.
caroline landau
Tech Apprentice
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Caroline spent the past few years working with glass at Public Glass (San Francisco, CA), Slow Burn Glass (Oakland, CA), and Starworks (Star, NC). At these and other glassblowing centers, she assisted artists, taught classes, and worked on her own art practice.
In 2017, Caroline was a part of the Arctic Circle Artist Residency in Svalbard, Norway where she worked on her project, Archiving Ice. She made molds of icebergs and replicated them into glass, and filled them back up with their own specific glacier water. In 2018, Caroline returned to Svalbard/Spitsbergen and worked aboard the tall ship Antigua.
Caroline is a multi-disciplinary artist from Reading, PA and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. She completed her MFA from San Francisco Art institute in 2016.
tate newfield
Tech Apprentice
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Tate Newfield began blowing glass in his senior year of high school at Punahou Academy in Hawaii. He recently graduated from the glass program at the School of American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology.
In 2018, Newfield was awarded first place at the annual Glass Art Society International Student Exhibition at Murano, Italy. He also traveled to Nagoya Japan to work on a project with local glass students at Aichi University. In 2017, he was a visiting demonstrator at the Shanghai Museum of Glass.
Currently, Newfield is working as a technician apprentice at the Pittsburgh Glass Center where he is continuing to experiment with new glass processes.