Dr. Tracy Kirchmann
Tracy Kirchmann, PhD is a Glass Artist, Educator, and Community Psychologist with over 20 years of experience in the fine arts and arts education. She is the Head Glass Instructor at Punahou Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the founder of Tracy Kirchmann Glass, an independent glass art studio she has operated since 2005.
Tracy is an experienced Glass Sculptor, Certified Art Teacher, K-12 Arts Integration and STEAM education specialist, and nonprofit arts leader. She is recognized for blending glass art with sustainability, social justice, and entrepreneurship, and for championing the advancement of women in the male-dominated glass art field.
As Head Glass Instructor at Punahou Academy, Tracy leads the glass program at the institution that hosts the country’s longest-running high school glass art program, founded in 1972. She joined Punahou’s Academy Art Faculty in 2021, bringing her passion for sustainability and diversity to the program. At Punahou, Tracy has introduced innovative sustainability initiatives, including recycling littered glass into new glass in the school’s studio. She also helped start a mobile glass unit for public schools in New Jersey, where students could generate income by teaching.
Tracy is paving a path for up-and-coming women glass artists and has received positive feedback from parents for serving as a role model for their daughters in the glass studio. Read Shapeshifters and Celebrating 50 Years of Glassblowing at Punahou.
Between June 2014 and June 2019, Tracy served as an Executive Board Member of the Glass Art Society (GAS), the leading international nonprofit organization connecting, inspiring, and empowering the global glass community. During her tenure, she served as Vice President of the Executive Board and was active on the Education Committee, Print Committee, and Membership Committee.
She also founded the GAS Green Committee and the At Risk Youth Committee, reflecting her commitment to environmental sustainability and arts-based youth development. Earlier, Tracy served as the GAS Student Representative from 2009 to 2010. Read Glass Art Society History.
Tracy has a deep history of using glass art as a tool for community transformation, particularly in Chicago. As the Director of Glass at the Little Black Pearl Workshop from January 2011 to March 2015, she led glass programming at the 40,000-square-foot arts and education facility on Chicago’s South Side, serving the Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, and Woodlawn neighborhoods.
At Little Black Pearl, she taught students from some of the city’s highest-crime areas, using glass art to engage youth affected by gun violence. Her students created powerful commentary pieces, including a performance installation called “Bang Bang”, in which they cast glass guns and allowed them to explode from thermal stress. Tracy’s work at Little Black Pearl was featured on PBS NewsHour and CBS Chicago. Watch Special arts academy helps Chicago teens transcend tough streets.
Between June 2015 and July 2016, Tracy served as the Educational Programs Manager at Ignite Glass Studios and Ignition Community Glass in Chicago’s West Loop. There, she oversaw all educational programming, including community glass classes, public school programs, at-risk and therapeutic glass programming, university-level classes, and internship and apprenticeship development programs.
During this period, she contributed to Project Fire, a program created in partnership with a University of Chicago clinical psychologist to help teenage survivors of gun violence recover through glass making. Watch Project Fire Ignites Passion for Glass Making.
From August 2016 to July 2017, Tracy was a Visual Art Teacher at Foundations College Prep in Chicago, where she taught grades 6 through 12 in all visual arts programming during and after school in the Roseland community, focusing art activities on socio-emotional learning, arts, and entrepreneurship.
Tracy’s early career was shaped by her work at the Jackson County Green Energy Park (JCGEP) in Dillsboro, North Carolina, where she served as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at Western Carolina University from August 2007 to December 2010. The JCGEP captures methane gas from an old landfill and uses it as fuel for artisan studios, including one of the only glass hot shops in the world powered by landfill gas.
While a graduate student, Tracy consulted and built the glass studio and worked with the JCGEP and sculptor Christian Benefiel to build the world’s first landfill gas foundry. She then used the facilities to teach classes and workshops to the university and community, as well as to produce her own art. Between July 2006 and May 2008, Tracy was the Studio Manager at Fruit of The Fire Glass Studio in Fairview, North Carolina.
Tracy earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Community Psychology from National Louis University in 2022. Her research interests include art as social practice and community psychology. She earned her Master of Fine Art in Glass, Sculpture, Foundry, and Alternative Energy Studies from Western Carolina University in 2010. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art in Glass, Sculpture, Foundry, and Alternative Energy Studies from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2004.
She also studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in 2001, the internationally renowned center for glass art education in Stanwood, Washington, founded by Dale Chihuly. Tracy’s media appearances include features on PBS NewsHour, CBS Chicago, and WTTW Chicago Tonight, showcasing her work at the intersection of glass art, education, and community development. She has been described as a “noted eco-artist” for her commitment to environmentally sustainable glass practices.
Visit her LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar page, and Instagram.