Started working in glass in 1968 at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) in Oakland, CA.
Mary B. White is a California Bay Area sculptor/arts educator, co-head of The Crucible Glass Department in Oakland and serves as Chair of the board of the Women Environmental Artists Directory. She headed the San Jose State University’s School of Art and Design Glass Program from 1985 to 2005 and served on the Board of the Glass Art Society. 2009-10 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. Her focus is to link art making and environmental issues.
Although she began her formal education at Earlham College in Indiana, Viola Frey’s sculpture work compelled her to move west where she got her BFA in Ceramics and Teaching credential from CCA. During that time, in 1968, she began studying glass with Marvin Lipofsky and Ruth Tamura. After graduation in 1972 she helped Michael Cohn and Randy Strong build a cooperative hot glass studio. She was the first woman in the East Bay to set up her own glass blowing shop (1974) and taught graphics at an inner city Oakland high school half time. In 1982 she earned a MFA in Glass at the California College of the Arts, studying with Marvin Lipofsky. She headed up San Jose State University’s School of Art and Design Glass Program from 1985 to 2005. She served on the Board of the Glass Art Society, and co-organized the 1995 Oakland GAS conference, and the 2002 Californina Glass Exchange.
Upon retiring from SJSU, she refocused her energies at The Crucible. In 2009-2010, on the Fulbright, she co-taught a seminar on The Landscapes of Aesthetics and Design, with 19 graduate students and Irish Crafts Council members, utilizing glass, ceramic and textile, with the aim of sharpening their critical thinking skills and linking crafts and community action.
“Gilbert White Memorial Flood Level Marker”
Mary White
2011
Glass, Steel, Stone, Concrete
24” x 24” x 18′
“Living on Fault Lines and Pacific Currents”
Mary White
2006
Recycled Float Glass and Steel
40” x 30” x 68”