Tracy Kirchmann - Student Representative

  Tracy Kirchmann, Student Representative, is a graduate student at Western Carolina University, where she is a sculpture major with an emphasis in glass under Professor Joan Falconer Byrd. She is also the first glass resident at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsoboro, NC. Tracy has worked to develop the studios and programming at the Jackson County Green Energy Park, for their alternative energy,artist small business incubator. She has been invited to speak at numerous national and international conferences about using methane as an alternative fuel source, including the 2008 Portland GAS Conference, and the 2008National Iron Conference, at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL. She received her BFA in glass and sculpture from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale where she also pursued an internship at Do-U-Glass Art School. She has received numerous scholarships and awards. Recently she was awarded an honorable mention by the International Sculpture Center in the 2009 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards. She is currently teaching the first university soft glass sculpture class using landfill gas, at the Green Energy Park through Western Carolina University.