Meet the Artists

ROBIN CASS

Bio

Dr. Robin Cass is an artist, educator, and academic leader whose career spans more than 30 years in higher education. Her sculptural practice centers on glass and extends into mixed-media work that incorporates metal and other materials. Combining the discipline of traditional glassblowing with contemporary approaches to form and surface, Cass creates biomorphic objects that explore discovery, perception, curiosity, and wonder.

Cass earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Alfred University, and she holds an EdD from Northeastern University. She spent more than 25 years on the faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and held senior leadership roles including Interim Dean of the College of Art and Design. She currently serves as Associate Provost for Experiential Learning and High Impact Practices at Catawba College in North Carolina.

Cass has exhibited, lectured, and taught nationally and internationally, including at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, L’viv National Academy of Arts in Ukraine, and Osaka University of Art in Japan, as well as at leading U.S. institutions such as Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass. Her work has been supported through fellowships, grants, and residencies, including support from Wheaton Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Glass and Ceramic Center of Seto, Aichi, Japan.

Her work is held in public and private collections, including the Museum of American Glass (NJ), the Museum of Glass in Tacoma (WA), and the Tittot Museum (Taipei, Taiwan), and has been featured in publications including Masters of Blown Glass, Breaking Ground: Art/Craft in Upstate New York, and 25 Years of New Glass Review. Cass served on the Board of Directors of the international Glass Art Society from 2004 to 2010.

As a long-time educator and mentor, Cass has supported countless emerging creatives and makers. Her former students and mentees have gone on to become accomplished artists and designers, studio founders and entrepreneurs, educators, and museum and arts professionals, contributing to the cultural sector and creative professions across the United States and internationally.

To learn more, please visit Robin’s website at https://robincass.com/

Holly Guertin

Bio

Holly, a Salisbury native; is a contemporary fiber artist working primarily in felt, embroidery, and crochet who earned a BFA in Fibers from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2011, where her work is also represented in the permanent collection. Based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, she is heavily involved in education, serving as the Fiber Arts teacher and Chair of the Craftsmanship Department at Martin Saints Classical High School. Her work has been showcased in exhibitions at venues including the 20*20 House Gallery, Gallery 26, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and has been featured in major publications such as Surface Design Journal, Dappled Things, Colossal, and Business of Home. Additionally, she collaborated with Anthropologie in 2019 to create Fall Home Goods and Holiday Decor collections inspired by her unique artwork.

To learn more about Holly and her work, please visit https://hollyguertin.com/

Judith A. Laise (August 12, 1942 – May 26, 2024)

Bio

Judith Laise was born in Hartford, Connecticut, raised in Manchester, Connecticut, and attended Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, before withdrawing in 1962 to marry Terrance, whose career as an auto racing engineer for General Motors took them to Michigan, where they raised their family. Inseparable throughout their marriage, Judith and Terrance lived in Michigan for forty-two years—during which Judith focused on quilting from 1972 to the mid-1980s before moving to Salisbury in 2004, always sharing in each other's interests and vocations by participating in art exhibitions and attending auto racing activities together. In the mid-1980s, Judith began attending school at night for her art studies at Macomb Community College, graduating with an Associate Degree in Applied Science in December 1990 and an Associate Degree in General Studies in December 1994, both summa cum laude, alongside participating in the 1994 Macomb Community Student Show and holding an individual show there in 2003. She then graduated as valedictorian and summa cum laude from the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture in December 1997, featuring her work in the 1997 University of Michigan Senior Show. She continued to create art on a full-time basis until illness curtailed it. Deeply influenced by her dissatisfaction with women's place in the world, Judith did not frame her work because she wanted it to be seen as an object rather than as a window. Judith is survived by her husband Terrance and her two children.