Exhibit Opening Reception of Carla Melander and Chad Holliday

Chad Holliday received a BFA from Emporia State University, Kansas, and an MFA in glass sculpture and metal fabrication/jewelry design from the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. After completing his graduate work, Chad accepted an Artist in Residence at the Grand Crystal Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. Holliday’s extensive career in glass, sculpture and three-dimensional design has seen him as the Lead Hot Shop Technician for the Museum of Glass, teaching at the Pratt Fine Arts Center; as Adjunct, Assistant and Associate Professors at several Colleges and University including the University of Washington, Tacoma; Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska; and West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. He was also the Director of Studio Operations at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Art; a Fulbright Award recipient who performed research and taught classes at The Secondary School of Glass Making - Kamenicky Senov, recognized as the oldest his pieces can be seen in museums around the world.
      Holliday has now returned to his studio practice in Saint Paul, MN. He says, “My process is a holistic immersion, a symphony of charcoal sketches, clay models, and the transformative melding of glass. What sets my work apart is the profound connection I cultivate with the material as it undergoes its metamorphosis. It's not just about shaping the exterior; it's about predicting the interplay of light, color, and space within and around the form.” Chad Holliday’s work will be on display from June 6 through July 25.
 
  
Carla Hanson Melander was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she developed an early passion for art as a child. She found any opportunity she could to create; whether it was sculpting with clay, designing her own clothing, or painting. Her lifelong influence has been the beauty of the natural world, especially the intense power and moodiness of Lake Superior. Melander is prioritizing finding her artistic voice again after a decades-long career in the banking sector and raising her three children, now adults. Melander is pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the College of St. Scholastica where she is planning to graduate in 2027. She plans on creating, exhibiting, selling, collaborating, connecting and never stopping the momentum. Her artist statement reads, “I create vivid oil paintings on canvas that tear the façade off anger and division and expose beauty in truth and nature at its most basic level; most often in relation to the equalizing power of water and our human connection to it.” Carla Melander’s work will be on display from June 6 through July 25.