Teaching at UrbanGlass

UrbanGlass instructors bring knowledge and expertise to our students, sharing a passion for creative expression in glass.

We are currently accepting proposals for week-long intensive classes, taking place each year in January, July, and August. If you are a local instructor (would not require housing/travel), interested in teaching regularly at UrbanGlass, please reach out to the Director of Education, Kate Dowd at kate@urbanglass.org with your CV and a description of what you’d be interested in teaching.

UrbanGlass Adult Intensives Program
Founded as the New York Experimental Glass Workshop, we are accepting proposals for our adult intensive classes that first and foremost embrace the experimental nature of our beginnings. We are looking for instructors who are generous with information, have excellent communication skills, can manage their time in the studio effectively, and are pursuing new territory in their teaching/making. Instructors must value diversity and equity both in and outside of the glass studio. Whether you are a seasoned teaching artist who has a new idea, you’re exploring an experimental process, are looking to collaborate with someone new, or would like to try teaching in this format for the first time, we would love to hear from you!

Class Environment
Located in the Downtown Brooklyn arts district, UrbanGlass is a non-residential, public access studio. Our courses take place in an unique, professional environment amongst working artists. This shared environment creates certain parameters, like class length and studio access, which must be considered from the inception of the class. Running concurrently with all of our classes is the studio rental program, so professional renters will be using all studio areas outside of specific class times.

Intensives typically run Tuesday - Saturday, either 10am-4pm EST or 5pm-9pm EST, with some allotment of additional student access throughout those days, opposite of class time. Weekend courses run Saturday & Sunday, 11am-6pm EST. For a visual guide of our studio spaces, click here.

Classes are capped between 9 and 12 students depending on the studio area. Typically, instructors will work with 1 local Teaching Assistant, who will be hired at the outset of class and introduced to the instructor via email. Additional TAs or class support will be discussed in more detail upon workshop approval.

Student Body
Classes are generally open to all skill levels. Should we accept a more advanced course, we will do our best to communicate eligibility requirements to the students. Adult workshops are open to ages 14 and up. The variety of ages and skill levels in workshops can be challenging, but as long as instructors are prepared, it is also extremely rewarding and creates surprising connections and results in class. Workshops are attended by a wide range of students of all backgrounds, experience levels, and perspectives. We accept students from partnering educational institutions around the world. We also see a high volume of professional artists in NYC take courses to bring glass into their active art practices.

We will contact you if we need more information or have any questions about your proposed workshop. If selected, we will reach out to confirm dates and details. We schedule classes about six months to a year ahead of time, and select instructors through proposals, recommendations, and our own reach outs. If you do not hear back from us within 3 years of your proposal, please apply again. There is no limit to the number of proposals per teaching artist, so feel free to send multiple ideas as separate applications. Before applying, please click here to read about our values and culture expectations for workshops.

Intensive Proposal Application

Instructor name:

Where are you based? City, State, Country

Co-instructor name (if applicable):

If you would like to collaborate with someone else to bring this workshop to life, but do not have a specific co-instructor in mind, are you open to us match-making you with another artist based on technique/theme/philosophy?

Yes

Course title idea(s):

Course description (theme, content, goals):

What should the students expect? (Ratio of demo:work time/finished objects made/technical skills gained):

Have you taught this course before or is this a new exploration? If yes, where?

Have you ever taught or assisted a workshop at UrbanGlass? If yes, when?

Given that UG differs from other institutions providing summer programming (non-residential, shorter teaching hours, located in Brooklyn, public-access/professional environment), why is UrbanGlass, and the environment of NYC, the appropriate place for this class to run?

What resources specific to our facility are you excited to use?

Give us a short summary of teaching experience and philosophy (you can also attach a CV or resume). If you have little/no teaching experience, describe why you’d like to teach an intensive.

CV or Resume

Provide the names and contact information (phone + email) for 2 references who can speak to your teaching ability or communication skills.

Upload up to 5 images of your artwork. Images should be a maximum of 1MB and labeled with your name. If you are submitting a video, please upload a video still and email the full file or link to kate@urbanglass.org with your name.