Kentuckys craft community will pay special
honor to glassblower Stephen Rolfe
Powell of Danville,
Kentucky, with this years Rude
Osolnik Award. The award is named after Rude Osolnik, a nationally acclaimed
woodturner from Berea,
Kentucky who has devoted his life
to the development of his craft. Powell is the sixth recipient of this
prestigious award which recognizes artists for their contributions to the craft
community, preservation of craft traditions through teaching and sharing and
exemplary workmanship. Previous award recipients include fiber artist Alma
Lesch, weaver Emily Wolfson, fiber artist Arturo Sandoval, instrument maker
Homer Ledford, and ceramist Joseph Molinaro.
Stephen Powell was born in 1951 in Birmingham, Alabama. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in
Painting and Ceramics at Centre
College, Powell went on to earn a
Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Louisiana State University. It was while at LSU, between
1980 and 1983, that Powell had his first experience in glass blowing. Glass has
been a full time obsession for him since then, whether he is teaching it or
producing his own work.
Glass students from around the globe
have been inspired by Powell through workshops, demonstrations and lectures that
he has performed in Russia, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand and all over the
United States. His greatest impact, however, has been in the Art Department at Centre College, in Danville Kentucky, where he is currently the Paul L.
Cantrell Professor of Humanities. Powell was hired by Centre in 1983 to teach
ceramics and sculpture. By 1985, thanks in part to Corning Glass in Harrodsburg,
Philips Lighting in Danville and Corhart in
Louisville, he
had built a glass studio and founded Centres glass program, which attracts
prospective students from around the country. Many graduates of the program have
gone on to graduate school and to become successful glass artists. This fact was
recently demonstrated at the Kentucky Art and Craft Foundations exhibition
featuring Kentucky glass artists, which was heavily
dominated by Centre graduates.
Powell will be publicly recognized
at a dinner Friday, March 16, 2001, that will take place during A Toolbox for Craftspeople: Marketing for the
21st Century, a workshop weekend presented by the Kentucky Art and
Craft Foundation and the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program. This years workshop
will be held at the University of Louisville.
