Mass Cultural Council Grants for Creative Individuals

I am honored to share that I have been awarded a 2026 Creative Individuals grant from the Mass Cultural Council – one of 464 unrestricted $5,000 grants awarded to artists across the Commonwealth this year. 

My application centered on what has become the growing heart of my practice: the intersection of history, mythology, and folklore – and specifically the way marginalized folk beliefs and “lost” narratives survive in the cracks. Imperfectly stubborn, like weeds in concrete across the centuries. I have always been drawn to stories that were deliberately obscured, hidden, or simply forgotten in the official record of history. Glass as a medium feels like a powerful vehicle with which to share tell these stories. It’s fragility highlights the precarious survival of folk traditions, while its permanence emphasizes the endurance of belief.

Glass painting and stained glass were techniques I learned in college, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but it was only recently that I have been able to fully reclaim the medium. Over the past few years I have invested heavily in additional training and resources – classes in Siena at Vetrate Artistiche Toscane focusing on traditional glass painting and at the Corning Museum of Glass with Judith Schaechter exploring uses of flashed glass – in addition to investing in an expanded studio space and kiln. My other artistic practices – materials research, foraged elements, mixed media – are not going anywhere, they will continue to enrich my glass practice.

This grant matters to me beyond the immediate support. Not only does it acknowledge my continued dedication to art, oftentimes when it feels impossible and impractical to be creative, but it also supports an endangered practice. The materials are becoming more expensive and elusive every day (anyone who’s tried to find Reusche paints lately knows exactly what I mean), and the knowledge base is shrinking. Being able to dedicate more time and resources to this work is something I don’t take lightly. My hope is to invest these funds into additional studio upgrades and materials that would otherwise not be financially realistic for me.

I am grateful to the Mass Cultural Council for recognizing not only my creative persistence, but the tradition of stained glass and the need to preserve it.