Pilchuck Glass School Welcomes New Executive Director: Ms. Patricia Grieve Watkinson

Pilchuck Glass School is proud to announce the selection of Patricia Grieve Watkinson as the School’s new Executive Director. Ms. Watkinson, who was chosen after a nationwide search, is welcomed back to the State of Washington after serving as the Executive Director of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for almost five years. Previous to that she served as Curator and then Director of the Museum of Art at Washington State University in Pullman.

Her extensive arts background includes directing and curating experience as well as teaching and development experience in Europe and the United States. Throughout her career she has served on committees and boards of such prestigious institutions as The American Federation of the Arts, Western Region Representative; The International Council on Museums, Modern Art Committee; Washington Art Consortium, President; and, Exhibits USA, Art Advisory Board. Exhibitions curated by Ms. Watkinson, such as Northwest Focus: Incisive Expressions; Gaylen Hansen: The Paintings of a Decade; and, Contemporary Metals: Focus on Idea, have toured nationally and internationally. Furthermore, her writings have appeared in such books and periodicals as Kenneth Callahan (University of Washington Press, 2000), William Morris: Myth, Object and the Animal (University of Washington Press, 1999), the Glass Art Society Journal, and American Ceramics. Mr. Jeffrey Atkin, President of the School’s Board of Trustees, commented that, “Ms. Watkinson’s unique skills and knowledge of both the regional arts community as well as the international arts community will enable her to lead Pilchuck confidently into the future.”

R. Bryce Seidl, long-time Pilchuck Board member, has been serving as Interim Executive Director of the School during the national search and will continue to do so until Ms. Watkinson joins the School staff in early December. She will attend this year’s 24th Annual Pilchuck Glass School Auction on Friday, October 18, 2002, at The Westin Seattle.

Founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly with the support of patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and the late John H. Hauberg, Pilchuck Glass School is the largest and most comprehensive international education center for artists working in glass.