Debra Ruzinsky

GAS STAFF & BOARD EDITION

Debra Ruzinsky
Director, Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN
Board Member, Glass Art Society
Lost Wax Casting | Warm Glass | Mixed Media
Member Since 2010

Tell us about yourself.

Debra Ruzinsky serves as Director of the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee. Part of the School of Art, Craft and Design at Tennessee Tech University, the Center supports BFA Academic Programs and Workshop Programs in Glass, Clay, Fibers, Metals, and Wood.

Debra earned a BA in Design from UCLA and an MFA in Glass from RIT.  Using lost wax and mold-making processes, her works explore opacity and translucence, delving into ideas about belief, and the mutability of identity. She has exhibited in such venues as Vis Arts in Rockville, MD, Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY, Hawk Galleries exhibition BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass in Columbus, OH, The Wayne Art Center exhibition Reflections in Glass in Pennsylvania, the Brattleboro Museum of Art exhibition Glass in All Senses in Vermont, and the Glass Heap Challenge exhibition at the Glass Factory Museum in Boda Glasbruk, Sweden. Her works are found in numerous collections, among them the Seto City Museum collection in Seto, Japan, and the Glasmeseet Ebeltoft collection in Denmark.

What is something about you that most people don’t know?

With a prior career in entertainment, Debra is a former Imagineer, designer, and producer of creative projects for films,  music videos, theme parks, exhibitions, and public spaces. Wearer of many hats, she brings a broad-based perspective to her work as an artist, educator, and administrator.

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