A shining instance of an engaged faculty member who has also created an global track record for her glass art, Katherine Gray has been named Cal Point out San Bernardino’s 2020-21 Exceptional Professor.
In getting chosen for the honor, Gray, a professor and affiliate chair of the Division of Artwork and Structure, also turns into the John M. Pfau Endowed Professor, named for the university’s to start with president. Grey is also a distinguished glass artist, whose function has been on display in a selection of museum exhibitions and is the resident evaluator on the Netflix strike exhibit “Blown Absent,” now in its second year.
Grey was amazed with information of the award on April 12 when CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales and about 40 colleagues had been at a Zoom meeting she experienced been invited to less than the guise of a faculty department conference.
“We’re here to existing the 2020-21 Outstanding Professor Award to you, Katherine Gray, for your enduring excellence in teaching, in analysis, in scholarly things to do and your service to our learners, to our university and to the local community, but most importantly your motivation to our students is next to none,” Morales explained to the professor, who was beaming from the shock.
“One of the very first points I’m heading to do when we repopulate is obtain you and get your autograph,” Morales claimed of Gray’s work on the Netflix collection. “My wife and I genuinely get pleasure from seeing you and our alumna (contestant Nao Yamamoto). It is really fantastic.”
In a extended-standing university custom, award recipients discover they’ve been named CSUSB Exceptional Professor in the course of a surprise go to to their classroom or lab designed by the president, earlier award winners, college leaders, college and staff. Just as most campus exercise requires put remotely for the duration of the pandemic, award announcements, far too, have been sent almost.
Morales reported as the Excellent Professor, Gray will acquire a $1,000 test and a $3,000 Faculty Improvement Grant. She will be honored at the Faculty of Arts & Letters digital graduation ceremony and at a school recognition party.
Provost Shari McMahan joked that she far too would seek Gray’s autograph.
“Congratulations on this well-deserved award. Your get the job done as an artist, instructor and mentor has introduced substantially worth and focus and enjoyment at CSUSB. It’s also touched the lives of plenty of men and women worldwide no matter if as a result of solo or group exhibitions, shows in museums or on tv,” McMahan explained. “Thank you once again for your general excellence, the status you have introduced to our campus and the special options you carry to all of our pupils.”
Rueyling Chaung, dean of the College or university of Arts & Letters, mentioned she really appreciated Gray’s operate and her contributions to the college or university and the department. Chaung praised Grey for her “wonderful, extraordinary, incredible work and contribution as a scholar, as an artist, as an educator, as a good promotor of glass artwork in the specialist industry and I just want to salute you for your wonderful contribution and your excellent perform. Incredibly nicely-deserved.”
Matthew Poole, chair of the CSUSB Section of Artwork & Style and design, termed Grey “an exemplary colleague.”
“It’s just an absolute enjoyment doing work with you Kathy,” he said. “You’re so reliable, so considerably fun, so variety.” He also said Grey has an astounding profession and actually is regarded a person of the greatest – if not the greatest – glass artist in the United States and undoubtedly throughout the environment.
He extra that she was also a focused educator and college member who had labored on a number of complicated jobs that provided the university’s Quarter to Semester challenge. “We just couldn’t hope for a improved colleague,” Poole said.
When it was Gray’s flip, she said she was “completely overwhelmed.”
“It’s been really astounding functioning with the learners at Cal Condition. It is so energizing. I beloved training. It is undoubtedly been a small much more challenging for the duration of the pandemic and we have perhaps been doing significantly less of the definitely interesting glassblowing portion of it, but we’re continue to executing that, but genuinely just since of COVID and social distancing, we have accomplishing tons of other things … learners are trying a lot of distinctive things and we’re checking out new terrain collectively so that is been really exciting,” Gray claimed. “I sense tremendous fortunate to be component of this neighborhood and have this work that I certainly like. I would do it even if I wasn’t having compensated. I appreciate having paid, but it is actually, genuinely an complete joy. Thank you all for giving me the prospect and acknowledging my enthusiasm for it.”
Grey teaches glassblowing and glass artwork at all amounts. As one particular interviewer observed of her, “Katherine does not make fairly objects, she offers us a lens to look at the world by the magical lens of glass.” As a dedicated educator, she deftly guides and mentors learners as they discover to perspective the entire world as a result of a identical lens, and as required she crafts and recasts curricula to assistance them on their journey.
She has played significant roles in developing the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in studio arts degree, the bachelor of great arts in art diploma, as properly as the quarter to semester conversion (Q2S) of the BA in Artwork degree. Her educating-connected company includes chairing office and school curriculum committees for the duration of the Q2S changeover. Also, Grey has supervised a lot of independent analyze college students and master’s venture college students, and she has served on MFA applicant committees, frequently as chair.
In university student scoring, her programs receive regularly high marks and her instruction excellent is routinely described as “amazing,” with numerous learners reporting that they study “so substantially in these kinds of a very little time.”
In a nomination letter to Morales, 2020-21 University Awards Committee co-chairs Kimberly Cousins and Dany Doueiri observed: “What definitely sets Professor Grey aside from the numerous other proficient school at CSUSB is her national and worldwide popularity as a glass artist, not only amid specialists in the field, but also the standard general public.”
Museums highlighted Gray’s perform in nine solo exhibitions concerning 2000 and 2020, when showcasing her artwork in team reveals across the country at a fee of just one to eight each year since 1996. She has been given 30 scholarships, residencies and awards, from election to the Higher education of Fellows for the American Craft Council (2020) to residencies at the Tacoma Museum of Glass (2017, 2019). Teaching and visiting artist invitations have taken her to at the very least nine nations, together with South Korea, Denmark, Estonia and Australia, and 14 states.
In addition to generating seven posted articles or blog posts herself, her artwork has also been reviewed in publications these kinds of as the New York Periods, LA Occasions and Glass Magazine. Her glass art resides in nine leading glass museum collections, and 6 personal collections. She has also performed various roles in supporting RAFFMA. Lay audiences significantly have occur to know her — and her medium of option — by the Netflix series “Blown Away,” a contestant-elimination display for which she has served as resident choose and advisor for the earlier two seasons.
In the text of the awards committee co-chairs, “Professor Gray’s overall body of work and track record carry focus and prestige to our university in a way that is exemplary.”
Together with Cousins, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry
and chair of the CSUSB Section of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Doueiri, a world languages and literatures professor, members of the 2020-21 College Awards Committee are: Thomas Girshin, associate professor of English Jay Fiene, professor of Instruction Leadership & Technological know-how and former dean of the Faculty of Instruction Crystal Huang, affiliate professor of management Christopher Gentry, associate professor of kinesiology and Richard Samuelson, affiliate professor of background.