Seattle, WA – March 17, 2006 – Pilchuck Glass School announced today that Chuck Lopez, a Seattle-based artist who creates in glass, will design the centerpieces to anchor its annual fall fundraising auction scheduled for Friday, October 13, 2006. Lopez’s design was chosen from among twelve highly competitive submissions in a juried review process. Praising Lopez’s artistry, reviewers agreed his design reflected sophistication, vibrant color selection, and vessels shaped for broad appeal.
Lopez will lead a 20-person production team of volunteers and staff in creating 120 centerpieces at Pilchuck’s Stanwood, Washington, campus from May 8 through 19, 2006. While the centerpieces will be created following Lopez’s designs and under his direction, each will be unique in its color combination, size, and shape. His centerpieces will be featured on the auction invitation, catalog, advertising and related publicity materials, and will be placed on each of 100 tables the night of the event. Attendees will have the opportunity to bid on the centerpieces during the auction.
Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Lopez began working with glass in 1989 at a production studio in nearby Boulder. After seven years learning all facets of working with glass in a production environment, he shifted his attention to completing a master of fine arts degree at Alfred University in New York.
His involvement with Pilchuck reaches back to 1994. He has been a volunteer, student, summer staff member, teaching assistant, and Emerging Artist in Residence. No stranger to the school’s centerpiece program, Lopez previously served as program manager for the school’s centerpiece production in 2005 and 2004. He routinely teaches glassblowing classes at Seattle’s Pratt Fine Arts Center while pursuing the creation of his own art.
What began as an informal effort in the 1980s, with Dale Chihuly and William Morris creating small centerpieces for the school’s early auctions, has grown into a prestigious design competition offering artists significant exposure to an international community of contemporary glass enthusiasts. Recent centerpiece designers include Ann Wåhlström, Greg Owen, Katherine Gray, Mitchell Gaudet, and Pinkwater Glass (the design team of Kurt Swanson and Lisa Schwartz).
Pilchuck’s 28th annual auction will be held on Friday, October 13, 2006, at The Westin Seattle (1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle), beginning at 5:00 p.m. Tickets for this black-tie gala begin at $250 per person and may be purchased by calling the school’s event reservation line at 206-621-8422, extension 44, or by e-mailing reservations@pilchuck.com.
Dale Chihuly, with the support of patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg (1916-2002), founded Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. Chihuly envisioned a retreat that would offer artists an opportunity to work with and learn about glass. Amid the spectacular beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Chihuly’s vision became a shared reality for thousands of artists and patrons throughout the world. In just thirty-five years Pilchuck has become the largest and most comprehensive international educational center for artists working in glass.
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Pilchuck Glass School receives generous annual support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission, PONCHO, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation, the Corning Incorporated Foundation, and many generous individuals.
Image of Chuck Lopez’s centerpiece prototype available upon request. The image is in jpeg format, 1536 x 2048 pixels in size, and 72 dpi resolution.
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