Released June 4, 1999
Centre art alumni get country's top jobs
DANVILLE, KY- The Centre College art department is celebrating this week due to some phenomenal news. Centre graduates -- former students of hot glass artist and professor Steve Powell -- have been picked for the nation's only two openings this year in college/university hot glass programs.
Ché Rhodes, a 1995 Centre graduate from Cincinnati, will become head of the glass program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Patrick Martin, a 1987 Centre graduate, will head up the glass program at Emporia State University in Kansas.
Rhodes holds an M.F.A. from the Tyler School at Temple University and recently traveled to New York with Powell for a demonstration/workshop at Urban Glass. As an undergraduate, Rhodes perfected an unusual technique for combining blown glass objects with metal. His assemblages were featured in a show at the Marta Hewett Gallery in Cincinnati.
Martin holds an M.F.A. from Tulane and recently had a one-man show at Hewett's gallery. He also had a recent show at the Friesen Gallery in Seattle and has been reviewed in Glass magazine. Martin produces sculptural forms in cast and hot-formed glass, including some large installations.
Powell is an internationally acclaimed artist who, earlier this year, was one of eight Americans chosen for an international glass exhibition in Venice. That show seemed like the pinnacle of his career, but the successes of his students now get top billing. "This gives me more pleasure, more excitement, than anything else I've accomplished," Powell says. "I'm at Centre because I want to be a teacher as well as an artist, and I want my students to succeed."
Centre is a selective liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 1,050 students. The college is located in Danville, Ky., in Central Kentucky's bluegrass region.
In another recent honor, the home that Powell and his wife, Shelly, custom designed is featured on the cover of the current issue of American Style magazine (special issue, Summer 1999). The cover photo and eight-page story showcase the home's eye-catching use of blown and cast glass for everything from sinks to windows.
Coordinator of Public Information: Patsi Barnes Trollinger
Telephone 606-238-5719 · trllngrp@centre.edu