Seattle, WA – May 1, 2006 – Pilchuck Glass School announced the selection of its 25th annual Corning Award and Saxe Award recipients today. San Francisco-based artist Julie Alland will receive the 2006 Corning Award and Canadian Rika Hawes will receive the 2006 Saxe Award.

Each award confers a full scholarship for an outstanding artist to attend the Pilchuck workshop of his or her choice. The Corning Foundation Award recognizes the most outstanding student from the prior summer while the Saxe Award elevates the outstanding teaching or artist assistant from the previous summer. Nominated by Pilchuck faculty and staff from the previous year’s summer session, the Corning and Saxe Awards recognize and reward superior work in a community of artists where excellence is the norm. Nominees submitted images of their best work which were viewed and ranked by a jury comprised of professional artists, curators, arts writers and educators.

Julie Alland of San Francisco, California, will receive the 2006 Corning Award. With a B.F.A. from Antioch College in Ohio, Alland first attended Pilchuck in 2003 as part of Karen LaMonte’s master session class, Survey of Techniques. She returned again in 2004 and 2005, increasing her exposure to the many-faceted creative options available through kiln-casting in glass. Alland replicates prosaic objects – items ranging from cardboard egg cartons to coffee cups to the iconic Oreo cookie – to offer viewers a new perspective on everyday items. She will participate in Icelandic artist Brynhildur Thorgeirsdottir’s workshop entitled Sculpture In/Sight.

One of 19 teaching and artist assistants nominated for the Saxe Award, Rika Hawes was a first-time Pilchuck participant in 2005. Although new to Pilchuck last year, Hawes possesses a wealth of experience in glass. With an undergraduate degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and teaching experience at Canada’s Sheridan College, she is presently completing her M.F.A. at Pennsylvania’s Tyler School of Art. Hawes will expand her creative repertoire to include working in hot glass in Jocelyn Prince’s Glass Subversions workshop.

In an unusual twist, both artists’ nominations arose from Wisconsin artist Jeremy Popelka’s 2005 workshop, A Personal Archeology. Artists explored sandcasting as a vehicle for creating assembled sculptures that evoked personal histories and experiences in narrative and abstract ways. Hawes was Popelka’s teaching assistant and Alland one of the workshop participants.

Two of the most prestigious scholarships Pilchuck confers, these awards – both established in 1982 – are made possible by generous annual support from the Corning Incorporated Foundation and from California collectors George and Dorothy Saxe. Past Corning and Saxe Awards recipients’ varying techniques exemplify Pilchuck’s commitment to excellence and to fostering different approaches to creative expression.

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