Each year, the Glass Art Society conducts a rigorous and competitive jury process to select the latest emerging artists who have displayed excellence in glass. Along with the opportunity to share their work with a large audience of established artists, educators, peers, collectors, art historians, and critics, recipients of the MacPherson-Wortley Emerging Artist Award will receive a cash prize, a special lecture slot at the next GAS Conference, a digital catalog and media coverage in our social media channels, and more. Special thanks to Nancy and Roger MacPherson and Barbara and Richard Wortley for their visionary support of this award.
WHO TO NOMINATE
The GAS Board invites you to nominate ONE emerging artist who you believe meets the criteria for this award (see below). Thank you for your assistance in helping us to select and showcase new and important glass talent!
Nominees for the MacPherson-Wortley Emerging Artist Award must:
- Be an artist whose work displays originality and creativity while expanding the field of glass
- Be an artist whose work displays skill and innovation, conceptually and/or technically.
- Be an artist dedicated to using glass in their creative practice and uses glass as their primary medium.
- This includes performance, video, or installations with glass.
- Have been working in glass for 12 years or less.
- This includes time spent enrolled in a degree-granting program and/or learning at a public access studio.
- Not currently enrolled in a degree-granting education program.
- Be a current GAS Member OR willing to become a GAS Member.
- Must be available to present in-person at the 2026 Glass Art Society Conference in Corning.
HOW TO NOMINATE
Nominate an artist for the MacPherson-Wortley Emerging Artist Award via this form by midnight Eastern on December 31.
OUR SELECTION PROCESS
Nominated artists will be notified via email and asked to apply online through Submittable.com. Our jury will then review applications and select three candidates to present their work in a joint, in-person session at the 2026 Glass Art Society Conference in Corning. This year’s jurors are Tuçe Erel, Erica Rosenfeld, and Kimberly Thomas.
Tuçe Erel (1981, Ankara) is a Berlin-based curator, art writer, and cultural worker. She studied sociology at METU (2005) and art theory and criticism (MA program) at Anatolian University (2009). She did her second MA in Art Arts Policy and Management (with curating pathway) at Birkbeck College (2015).
After working at various institutions in Istanbul as a content editor, event manager, archivist, and gallery assistant, she has been a freelance curator and art writer since 2013.
Erica Rosenfeld lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and has an art, design and teaching practice. Using glass, found objects, food and mixed media she creates sculptures, installations and performative works that investigate themes of fear, nostalgia, new growth, memory distortion and material association. She also has a limited edition line of glass jewelry.
Erica is also a founding member of The Burnt Asphalt Family, an artists’ collective with the mission to create community-centric art that meets somewhere at the crossroads between art, craft and design. Their work is a hybrid of a dinner party, a happening and interactive installation. The family has performed and shown their artwork throughout the United States at various Universities, arts institutions and Museums including Urban Glass, The Chrysler Museum, The Museum of Arts and Design, The Corning Museum of Glass, Wheaton Arts and Pilchuck Glass School.
Her own work is held in private and public collections nationally and has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, Kentucky Museum of Art, Louisville, KY, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI, Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI. Erica has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, Urban Glass, The Corning Museum and Worchester Center for Crafts; she has been a visiting artist at Tyler School of Art, San Jose State, University of the Arts, Pratt University and University of Louisville. Her work is included in the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design, The Essex Peabody Museum, The Toledo Museum of Art, and The Museum of American Glass. Erica also has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, Glass Magazine, New York Magazine and American Craft. She has taught workshops and has been a visiting artist at Tyler School of Art, Pratt University, MASS Art, Ball State University, Urban Glass, Pilchuck School, The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass as well as other arts institutions and Universities.
Kimberly Thomas is a biracial interdisciplinary sculptor and flameworker. She is a current artist in residence at Penland School of Crafts in Bakersville, NC. and is known for her work’s intentionally flawed and unusual motifs as well as her intricate sculptural inventions. A self-taught glass artist, Thomas earned a BFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and spent six years as a special effects make-up artist before she began flameworking in 2009.
Thomas’s work is often autobiographical and conveys her unique perception of the world. Drawing her influence from concepts, questions, and theories about human nature, she combines realism and fantasy. She imparts her truth into dark, yet entertaining, narratives. Recurring themes in her work include the undesirable facets of life and human nature, freedom from the corruption imposed by society, and expansion of self-knowledge. Thomas challenges viewers to face what makes them uncomfortable in order to invite opportunities for fresh perspectives and personal development.
Using intuition as a guide, Thomas’s creative process is a balancing act between experimentation and intention. She uses borosilicate glass as a core medium as well as steel, wood, and other mixed media to create her kinetic, sculptural inventions. Her attention to detail and regard for realism contribute to the intensity and sophistication of each piece.
Thomas is a prolific artist who is dedicated to her professional and creative growth. In addition to working in her studio, Thomas exhibits her work in museums and galleries across the United States. She was selected for Pilchuck’s 2021 Emerging Artists in Residence Program and has participated in residencies at both Tacoma Museum of Glass and the Chrysler Museum. Her work has been acquired by the Imagine Museum St. Petersburg FL.
ABOUT THIS AWARD
The MacPherson-Wortley Emerging Artist Award was initially funded by a generous investment from Dorothy and George Saxe and is now funded by Nancy and Roger MacPherson and Barbara and Richard Wortley. This award, presented annually, recognizes emerging talent in the glass community and provides a critical platform for artists to share their work with the broader community.