>>RIT Professor Michael Rogers: Today we’re
fortunate to have Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz
from Seattle. They’re two of Seattle’s
premiere glass blowers. They’re demonstrating
advanced techniques to our students and it’s
in conjunction with our collaborative project
we have going on with industrial design. What
they epitomize is fine craftsmanship — a
high level of design. It's an essential aspect
of our program we believe.
>>Michael Rogers: So we have
artists coming in on a rotating basis from
all over the world to work with us and demonstrate
— to speak up about their art, their craft.
What that does for us is give the students
a variety of different ideas and input on
ideas of how to approach the medium.
>>Michael Rogers: The students
are of course very excited to have these artists
come in from not only all over the United
States but also from around the world. Next
quarter we have two artists coming from Japan.
We’re very excited about that. We have artists
coming from California. Pretty much, we can
get the best artists out there to come in
and demonstrate to the students. They don’t
really do it for the money, they do it for
the sheer joy of sharing what they know with
others. I think that’s part of glass working
is that there are traditions all over the
world. There is a lot of technique involved
— a lot of process and it's really hard
to learn.
>>Michael Rogers: It’s almost
as a matter of necessity for the long life
of the medium to pass on these important techniques.
SO that’s why I believe people come. And
everyone loves working with the younger students
and many of the professionals who come here
look at our students as being the next generation
of professionals out there so that’s why
they are very generous with their talents.
