Mary Shaffer
Sculptor and glass artist Mary Shaffer was born in Walterboro, South Carolina, in 1947. As a child she lived in South America and her first language was Spanish. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied illustration and minored in painting. Having a mother who believed strongly in the value of travel as education, she also attended the Ecole d’Humanite in Goldern, Switzerland, for several years.
Shaffer is recognized worldwide as one of the founding artists of the American Studio Glass Movement. In the early 1970s she adapted an auto industry technique for shaping windshield glass into a “mid-air slumping,” process which allowed her to move glass in a particular way as it was heated. She then began mixing glass and metal tools, casting, dipping and slumping glass from objects found in flea markets and junk yards, and innovatively extending her materials to include “light, bronze, steel, stone and glass, water and sound.”
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York NY
Museum of Modern Art; Kyoto Japan
Museum of Art & Design; New York NY
Smithsonian Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art; Washington DC
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Montreal Canada
Huntington Museum; Huntington WV
Museum Bellerive; Zurich Switzerland
Museum of Decorative Arts; Lausanne Switzerland
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo OH
The Detroit Institute of Arts; Detroit MI
Musee du Verre; Sars-Poteries France
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center; Charlotte NC
Corning Museum of Glass; Corning NY
Palm Beach Community College Museum of Art Palm Beach FL
Stadt Museum; Fraunau West Germany
Glas Museum; Ebeltoft Denmark
Frontrunner Awards for Sara Lee Corporation; Chicago IL
Berman Museum of Art Collegeville PA
The Pappajohn Pavilion; Iowa City Hospital Iowa City IA
U.S. Chancellery in La Paz Bolivia
Indianapolis Museum Indianapolis IN
Minnesota Museum of American Art Saint Paul MN
Grounds for Sculpture Hamilton PA
Rhode Island School of Design Museum Providence RI
Providence Park Department Providence RI
Lowe Museum University of Miami, Miami FL
Palmer Art Museum University Park PA
Katzen Museum American University Washington DC
Imagine Museum, Sarasota FL
Harwood Museum of Art Taos NM
Flint Institute of Art Flint MI
Ringling Museum Sarasota FL
Henry Ford Museum Dearborn MI
Racine Museum Racine WI
Columbus Museum of Art Columbus OH
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne IN
