Craft + Design Faculty

Degree MFA, glass, Ball State University
BFA, glass, Kent State University

Born in Cicero, Indiana, Benjamin Johnson earned his BFA in glass from Kent State University and his MFA in glass from Ball State University.

Johnson’s work is widely exhibited and held in the collections of the Indiana State Museum, the Evansville Art Museum, and the Glick Eye Institute. His work has received numerous best in show awards and he has been recognized as a Rising Star in contemporary glass at the Museum of American Glass in Millville, NJ. He has been the recipient of a Windgate Fellowship Grant Award, an Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, a Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Group Jerry Raphael Fellowship, a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship, and the Indianapolis Art Center Skip McKinney Faculty of the Year Award. Johnson has taught glass at the Herron School of Art, Indianapolis Art Center, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and lectured at many others.

An artist committed to sculpture, the design of contemporary glass objects, and the architecture of spatial installations, Johnson’s work explores pattern and texture to tell visual stories about our environment. Johnson wants the viewer to consider their presence in relation to intangible micro and macrocosmic realities. His work considers the impressions left from the connective interactions that affect and contribute to a visual history which tells a story of the natural cycles in our environment.

Degree MFA, Indiana University
BS, Ball State University

As a materials magician, Kathy Buszkiewicz creates multi-layered works from U.S. currency which explore themes relating to materialism, environmentalism, consumerism, socio-economic and cultural value. She enjoys enticing then provoking the viewer to question the nature of value and meaning.

Born in Indiana, she pursued part of her education in London, England traveling throughout the United Kingdom and Europe to study historic art and metalwork. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and an M.F.A. from Indiana University. For three years Kathy worked as a commercial jeweler and diamond setter in Indianapolis. Through a Murphy Foundation Grant she traveled to Indonesia in 1991. In that same year, she curated an ethnographic jewelry exhibition of over 250 works. As a result of her travels, various cultures have influenced her work. Since 1983, Ms. Buszkiewicz has been a Professor of Jewelry and Metals at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Kathy has received four Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council in 1992, 1994, 2002, and 2006 as well as others for work research. In 2005 she was the recipient of the Viktor Schreckengost Award for Distinguished Teaching as well as the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2016 she became a Community Partnership for Arts and Culture Creative Workforce Fellowship recipient.

Her work has been published in over 70 books and publications and is in the collection of several respected museums including the Swiss National Museum, Zurich, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as being represented in many private art collections in the U.S. and abroad. Through hundreds of exhibitions she has made a significant impact on her discipline both nationally and internationally.

Read her artist statement here.

Degree MFA and BFA, Kent State University

Gretchen Goss is a visual artist who works primarily in enamel, inspired by the natural world. Her work has been supported by the Ohio Arts Council and has been included in exhibitions nationally and internationally.

In 2003 she was co-curator for Metalsmith magazine’s exhibition, Enamel: A Current Perspective.

She was curator for three subsequent exhibitions and has been a visiting artist and lecturer, and has taught numerous workshops on enameling nationally and in the UK.

Her BFA and MFA degrees are from Kent State University in Jewelry and Enameling respectively.

Degree MFA, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Tyler School of Art, Temple University;
BS, Art and French, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Matthew Hollern has received research and professional development grants from the Society of North American Goldsmiths, Lilly Foundation, John and Maxeen Flower Fund, CIA, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture - Creative Workforce Fellowship, and two Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council. His work is included in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Design Museum Helsinki - Finland, the Vatican Archive, the Ohio Crafts Museum, the Cleveland Art Association, and others.

Degree BFA, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, CT; MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Seth Nagelberg is an artist and designer working in clay. He strives to close the gap between craft and design. Before joining Cleveland Institute of Art, Nagelberg was an assistant professor at Parsons The New School for Design. In 2015 Nagelberg published his first book, Batch Manufacturing for Ceramics: Models and Molds, Process to Product. He has done consultation work for Rookwood Pottery and fabrication for Calvin Klein Collection. Nagelberg says, “I choose clay for its properties. Whether working from ready-made objects or starting from a sketch, I strive to create a cohesive language of forms that inform and inspire new designs. My exploration of manufacturing techniques and technology enables me to connect the past and future of ceramics.”

His work has been published in Ceramics: Art and Perception and American Craft magazine. Nagelberg has taught workshops at Greenwich House Pottery, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Ceramic Supply Inc, Hartford Art School and Peters Valley School of Craft.

Alberto Veronica Lopez

Title Studio Manager | Adjunct Faculty
Department Craft + Design
Phone 216.421.7353

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Degree BFA, Kansas City Art Institute
MFA, Syracuse University

Alberto Veronica Lopez received his MFA at Syracuse University and his BFA at Kansas City Art Institute. His artwork centers on the various ways that compassion manifests itself—both his own and others. Ceramic objects and series that have been made so far include Daylight Cups, Daily Molds of Kindness, Dinnerware sets, Molds of Daily sympathy sculptures, Ceramic Bread, Trust Gimbals, and Levitation Experiments. His process is one of exploration and analysis of material, community, and education.

He currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio and is the Technical Specialist at Cleveland Institute of Art.

Degree BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art

Andrea LeBlond graduated with a BFA in Ceramics from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1995, and has taught in the ceramics departments of various colleges including Cuyahoga Community Colleges’ Metro and Eastern campuses and the University of Akron. She is also currently a member of TerraVista Studios, where she has been a working ceramic artist for the past 15 years.

She has been the recipient of many awards, grants and publications, among them an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, received in 2008.