Faculty > Rika Hawes
Rika Hawes
Assistant Professor, Glass Art
In fall 2009, Rika Hawes was named as Assistant Professor of Glass Art at Salem Community College. Hawes came to SCC in fall 2008 as an adjunct faculty member, teaching Glass Art and Art Appreciation during the 2008-2009 academic year. Now, as a full-time faculty member, Hawes leads the Glass Art and Industrial Glass Design programs, further developing these two areas and providing world-class instruction to students at the new Samuel H. Jones Glass Education Center.
Hawes earned her MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2006 and a BFA in Sculpture from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University) in 2002. She graduated with honors from the internationally renowned glass program in The School of Crafts and Design at Sheridan College in 2001.
Her education focused on art and design, as well as the essential skills that are indispensable to the successful artist of the 21st century. She has received many grants, awards and scholarships, such as a Leeway Foundation Grant, a Temple University graduate fellowship, scholarships to the Pilchuck Glass School, and research and production grants from the Ontario Art Council and the Ontario Craft Council. Hawes has been awarded residencies from Flux Space in Philadelphia, the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts and Cultural Center in Millville, N.J., and the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
A Philadelphia resident, Hawes brings an array of talent, skill and experience to SCC, including owning a successful cold-working business, exhibiting her work in galleries around the world and teaching for 13 years. Hawes also authored a how-to manual on using Mold Mix 6 (a mold-making material used in casting glass) as well as several published articles that focus on contemporary glass and glass education. She is involved in the broader glass and contemporary arts communities via her active participation as a board member, volunteer, advocate, public speaker and mentor. Most recently, in September 2009 she presented lectures and demonstrations at the Flemish Center for Contemporary Glass Art in Lommel, Belgium.
A renowned artist in her own right, Hawes is recognized for her skill as a glass maker but particularly for her talents as a hot caster, cold worker and kiln caster. Her work is recognized both here and abroad for her sensitivity to material and subtle approach to the demonstration of technical acuity. Critics make special mention of the manner in which she depicts the relationship between her interests and methods of making via discrete objects that make use of phenomenological certainties inherent to glass and other materials. Her work has been selected for inclusion in New Glass Review on four occasions. In 2009, Hawes appeared on the New Jersey Network’s “State of the Arts” program that featured WheatonArts’ Creative Glass Center of America Fellows.
Hawes’ choice of materials is varied and often changes from one project to another. She most commonly works with digital media, video, photography, performance, found objects and, of course, glass. Hawes’ most public creative project is her work as one of the three founding members of the ‘Cirque De Verre’ and ‘ThreeHeaded Presents:’, alongside collaborators Charlotte Potter and Kim Harty.
Cirque De Verre is a variety show of sorts, making use of the idea of “the circus” and superimposing it on the space of the “glass demonstration” as an alternative venue for performance art. Members of the cirque wholeheartedly embrace art-as-spectacle and artist-as-performer. Their performances consist of acts like the ‘Two-Headed Glass Blower’ and ‘Synchro-Blow’ (synchronized glassblowing) and take place at schools and public-access glass studios around the country.
‘ThreeHeaded Presents:’ is a gallery-focused endeavor whereby Hawes and her collaborators work together to develop exhibitions that relate to their common interests in perception, contemporary media, film, sculpture and performance. Their projects stem from their observation of specific opportunities for exploration and commentary that are inherent to the idiosyncrasies and character of each city in which they exhibit their work. They presented ‘Adventures in the Land of Smoke and Mirrors as the culmination of a two-month residency at Flux Space in June 2009, and in August presented ‘The Tourist Trap’ in Jackson, Wyoming, gateway to the Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.