The Ron Desmett Award - Pittsburgh Glass Center (Due May 31)
The Ron Desmett Award - Pittsburgh Glass Center
Deadline: May 31st, 2026
The Ron Desmett Memorial Award for Imagination with Glass recognizes creative thinking in four categories and celebrates the late PGC cofounder and glass artist Ron Desmett. The award is for artists who think outside the box, practice curiosity, and take risks to create unique, imaginative works that are either entirely glass or that incorporate glass.
Ron Desmett was an artist who eschewed conventions, promoted idea over technique, and ultimately posed the question “Is this work truly ‘me’?”
Through experimentation and innovation, he developed his own autobiography in glass. In order to foster these characteristics in future generations of artists, $6,000 ($3,000 monetary award and $3,000 in studio time) will be awarded annually to an artist (or scholar) in one of the following four categories – Youth, Glass Artist, Nonglass Artist, and Writer.
Award Categories:
Youth
A student of high school age who shows rare talent and whose work embodies Ron’s spirit. An awardee in this category will receive, upon high school graduation, a $2,500 cash award to be used for further education and a year of free classes and private instruction at PGC.
Glass Artists
An artist whose main discipline is glass, whose work embodies Ron’s spirit in a creative nature, and who shows great promise. An awardee in this category will receive a $2,500 cash award and time in PGC’s studios to create a new body of work.
Nonglass Artists
An artist whose principal medium is not glass, but who, over their creative lifetime, has embodied the experiential and experimental qualities that Ron valued. An awardee in this category will receive a $2,500 cash award and time in the PGC studios with the help of an experienced glass artist to create his or her vision in glass.
Writers
A writer whose area of interest is craft and who seeks to explore new critical approaches to writing about glass and glass art as the field continues to develop. Writers must have previously published, field-specific articles or manuscripts and be willing to work on questions posed by the award committee, so that new critical ground can be broken. An awardee in this category will receive $2,500 cash award and a residency in Pittsburgh, during which the awardee will be expected to visit PGC, spend time exploring the medium, and ultimately write about it using their previously demonstrated critical skills and scholarship. Additionally, the awardee would write an essay for publication about an exhibition at PGC and present a lecture at PGC on their chosen topic.