Astronaut Cady Coleman spent six months on the international Space Station in 2011. Hear her talk about her career and the exciting world of space. Make connections with curriculum -- social studies, humanities, science, music, and more. (Recommended for grades K-4.)

Artist Josh Simpson and his wife, Cady Coleman, a renowned astronaut, provide a joint lecture. Simpson creates wondrously detailed imaginary "planets" and "worlds" in glass. Coleman spent six months on the International Space Station in 2011. They will discuss their unique experiences and share stories with the audience.

Astronaut Cady Coleman spent six months on the international Space Station in 2011. Hear her talk about her career and the exciting world of space. Make connections with curriculum -- social studies, humanities, science, music, and more. (Recommended for grades 5 and up.)

Enjoy a lecture by Klaus Moje, an artist whose work is based on traditional glass mosaic techniques that he has reinvented through kiln-forming. Throughout his successful career, he has pushed himself and glass beyond traditional technical skills into the realm of abstract art. Born in Germany, where he lived most of his life, Klaus moved to Australia in 1982, where he established the glass program at the Australian National University in Canberra. The lecture was a part of the Museum's popular Meet the Artist series.

This Meet the Artist lecture by Beth Lipman was recorded on June 11, 2007. Lipman creates hand-sculpted still lifes in glass, which most often take the form of sumptuous foods and/or fragile tablewares arranged on a base, in a frame, and later, on tables and other furnishings. Her works explore ideas about the immortalization of ephemeral things, such as perishable produce, brittle vessels, or personal memories.

This Meet the Artist lecture by Michael Rogers was recorded on March 29, 2007. Michael Rogers combines glass and found objects in his symbolically-charged work. There is a strong literary character to his vessels and sculpture, which are often covered in writing. The words are sometimes quotes from authors who are an inspiration to Rogers, such as James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov, or they are anonymous, such as the characters on the fragments of Japanese newspaper that enshroud Rogers' 13 Crows.

Jiri Harcuba, a renowned artist and educator, is known for his simple, yet elegant, portraits in glass. He treats all his subjects in a similar fashion, using spare sculptural cuts and subtle optical effects to create their individual profiles. His student and emerging artist, April Surgent, takes a photographic and painterly approach to engraving, using her own photography---many of urban environments---as her image sources.

Tom Patti is a widely respected artist who has devoted much of his career to researching different formulations of glasses and hot-forming techniques and to exploring industrial and architectural glass as a sculptural medium. Over the last 35 years, he has used glass to build and define spaces that transform surface, light, and color. In recent years, Patti has dramatically shifted the scale of his work from complex, small-scale objects to illusionistic environments made of architectural glass.

Dante Marioni's sophisticated and boldly colored contemporary vessels are inspired by ancient Greek and Etruscan forms that reflect the rich history of classical Mediterranean pottery and bronzes. The son of studio glass pioneer Paul Marioni, Dante learned traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques from some of the greatest masters in contemporary glass. He began blowing glass at the age of 19, and presented his first solo gallery show, in Seattle, four years later.

In this podcast, the 2010 Rakow Commission recipient, Luke Jerram, discusses his work on the "Glass Microbiology" project. Jerram describes himself as a "color-blind installation artist, who fuses his artistic practice with scientific and perceptual studies." He creates sculptures, installations, soundscapes, and public art projects that investigate how the mind works, particularly in connection with perception and reality.