Thank you for your support!

Thank you to everyone who has offered their vital support to Hilltop Artists! Because of your investment, we can continue to learn and thrive together, offering a trusting, inspiring environment and network of mentors for the next generation of Hilltop Artists.

Every member of the Hilltop Artists community is unique and the collaboration between students, staff, teachers, and supporters like you allow us all to thrive and glow together. Your support is essential in securing the bright futures of our next generation of mentors, teachers, and leaders.

Glow Together, Grow Together with Hilltop Artists

Since our founding in 1994, Hilltop Artists has been rooted in the belief that our students and teachers are partners—that knowledge is exchanged intergenerationally, starting with Dale Chihuly in residence with novice teenagers back in the day, to Luis and Sam instructing students on the torch this afternoon. 

Collaboration and exchange are the keys to our mentorship model: the rich earth that nourishes our program. We are always growing together.

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At the Better Futures Luncheon this year our keynote speaker, Lisa Keating, offered a perfect summation of this work: 

“Hilltop Artists is a very important organization in this ecosystem right here in our community. IN our schools. They have fostered and nurtured a space that draws alum to stay and come back after being out in the world. What that tells me is that Hilltop Artists’ plants and grows deep roots into each student they work with. Those roots are a tether to a community. That is belonging.” 

Belonging is not a simple or quick process, it takes attention and care, building and sustaining trust. Now, every day in the hot shop, we see that generational trust-building.

Throughout that process we’ve been featured in exhibitions across the region, our alums have competed on “Blown Away,” and many people involved in the program have propagated careers of their own in the international glass community. But what inspires me every day is that so many alumni have returned to teach at Hilltop Artists.

In fact, most of our staff are former students! Jessica and Tony taught Trenton and Sam; Trenton, Jessica, and Sam taught Luis, Doug, Jacob, Parker, Dani, and Zane. Ten of our eleven teaching artists are home grown, and they keep learning from each other every day.

These instructors understand our students on a deep level because they were our students: they grew up in these neighborhoods, they went to these schools. Some, like Zane, Dani, and Jacob, went off to college to study art, others worked as assistants to established artists, many, like Doug and Trenton, worked at studios and production companies.

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These alums returned to Hilltop Artists because they’re committed to craft and community, and they want to tend to the cycle of growth in our programs. They want to provide students even more opportunities than they were afforded.

That’s what makes our program so special: with each new generation of artists learning in our programs or returning to teach, they bring a knowledge that enriches and expands what we do in the hot shop.

During our annual September residency at Pilchuck Glass School, two of our newest alum-turned-teaching-artists, Jacob and Dani, taught a neon workshop for our students. 

Following the theme “an illuminated forest”, each student sculpted a neon tree that represented their unique perspective. Displayed together they made a spectacular, interconnected, glowing forest. You can see our students’ beautiful sculptures throughout this letter!

Dani and Jacob were intentional in using this concept: a tree on its own can provide protection and support, but it is only when surrounded by other trees does it become a thriving part of the forest community. I particularly loved the exhibit’s title: Glow Together, Grow Together. 

While every member of the Hilltop Artists community is unique, our collaborative learning allows all of us, students, staff, teachers, and supporters alike, to thrive and glow together.

Beyond the glow of the furnace, the torch, and the neon we see in our shops, there is nothing like the glow you see on a student’s face when they feel safe, learning from friends and mentors they know and trust, creating something beautiful.

Alum Mishawn Cabrera, the most recent recipient of the Greg Owen Award, said it best, “To come to Hilltop and see my friends doing the thing that we’ve been doing since we were kids and trying to pass on that energy, that love, that positivity to the next generation—that’s the kind of thing we need to do for each other.”

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At the nearly thirty year mark, we can see the generations of our Hilltop Artists’ forest flourishing. We support and nourish these new generations, as well as invest in our teaching artists as leaders, committed to providing them a living, professional wage and career development.

Saplings can’t grow tall without the support of nurse logs and ancient trees showing them the way. And it’s not just our teachers who guide and support our young artists; our community of donors, supporters, and fans all contribute to the nourishment of our students and programs. 

All of us come together to provide a wealth of resources for our budding artists.

Please make your year end contribution today. We need your support. Your gift is an essential investment in this collaborative, intergenerational process, securing the bright futures of our next generation of mentors, teachers, and leaders. 

Glow and grow with us!

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