All programs Apply

Glass

BFA

Join an innovative and creative community that values craft and technology, fosters critical thinking, and nurtures sustainable approaches to glass.

Location: On Campus (Boston)
Format: In-person, Full Time
Length of Program: 4 years
Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass

Our Glass program combines technical mastery, creative exploration, and critical inquiry within a collaborative community of makers. Students develop expertise across a range of glass processes while exploring the role of materiality, craft, technology, and sustainability in contemporary practice. Supported by dedicated faculty and state-of-the-art facilities, students receive individualized instruction and mentorship while engaging with the broader professional glass community through travel opportunities, scholarships, and networking experiences that enrich their artistic and professional development.

A smiling person with red hair and glasses holds a glassblowing rod with molten glass at the end, standing in a workshop inspired by Massachusetts public higher education, with furnaces and colorful chalkboard drawings in the background.

Elise Riddell BFA ’26 Glass. Photo: Mike Ritter

A group of 20 people poses and smiles together in an industrial workshop. They are surrounded by metal tables and equipment, with Caution Hot signs visible above. Most are casually dressed, some kneeling in front, others standing behind.

MassArt alumna and season 4 winner of Blown Away, Morgan Peterson, visits MassArt glass department

What You’ll Learn

Glass majors at MassArt cultivate the critical knowledge to pursue sustainable and meaningful futures as creative glass practitioners. Our curriculum provides a progressive trajectory that develops technical skills in glassblowing, flameworking, casting, mold-making, carving, and cold construction to inform thematic projects, historical context, personal interests, and professional development.

Specialized glass studio courses examine materiality, process, and emerging technology, while seminars encourage students to examine the values that drive their work, their role as artists in society, and the broader context for their creative practice.

Through technical training, conceptual development, and critical dialogue, students learn to integrate material expertise with personal vision and contemporary ideas.

In the studios and classrooms, our dedicated and accomplished Glass faculty work directly with students to provide technical instruction, facilitate discussions and lectures, and provide individualized feedback and support. Beyond the curriculum, students are encouraged to participate in a wealth of opportunities to enrich their experience at MassArt and develop their personal practices through travel, scholarships, and networking with professionals in the field.

Notable alumni of MassArt’s Glass program are successful creative entrepreneurs, exhibiting artists, award-winning designers, technical fabricators, and educators.

BFA Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the Glass BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.

Develop skill and an understanding of the importance of craftsmanship
Understand a wide range of approaches and methodologies to problem solving
Develop good working habits & self discipline
Develop cross disciplinary awareness
Develop an understanding of conceptual, symbolic and metaphoric issues
Develop an awareness of historical, contemporary, cross-cultural issues and artists working in their field
Encourage their personal vision and imaginations to become a tangible reality
Develop a working knowledge of design principles
Develop a sense of being an artist using life and studio experience to support their ideas
Cooperative classroom experience
Foster collaboration among peers
Establish relationships/ work with community
Safety: tools, equipment, materials, processes
To assume the responsibility of the development of their own professional career in whatever direction it may take
Participate in critical dialogue with peers in their field
Develop professional and vocational resources
Sustainability

Department Chair, 3D Arts

Heather White Professor, Chair, 3D Arts

Career Outcomes

Career Paths

Graduates of MassArt’s Glass program pursue careers as creative entrepreneurs, exhibiting artists, designers, technical fabricators, educators, and other professionals working across the contemporary glass field.

Internships

Beyond the curriculum, students are encouraged to participate in opportunities that expand their professional experience, including travel, scholarships, and networking with artists, designers, and industry professionals.

Alumni Employers

Notable alumni of MassArt’s Glass program are successful creative entrepreneurs, exhibiting artists, award-winning designers, technical fabricators, and educators.

Facilities & Resources

MassArt’s comprehensive glass studios provide state-of-the-art equipment for glass fabrication, including two furnaces for casting, blowing, and hot-sculpting glass, two workstations, and four annealers. The flameshop is outfitted with five torches and workstations, as well as two annealers. Kilns support casting and fusing courses, and two state-of-the-art cold shops include a sandblaster, carving equipment, polishing tools, and a Merker lathe.

In the studios and classrooms, dedicated Glass faculty work directly with students to provide technical instruction, facilitate discussions and lectures, and offer individualized feedback and support.

Learn More