Dorothy Hafner received her BA from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, where she also completed her post-graduate studies. Trained as a painter and sculptor, Hafner first tried her hand at ceramics, both functional and sculptural in 1973. In the ensuing 15 years she created over 12 lines of tableware, both hand crafted and industrially produced, for such firms as Tiffany & Co. in NYC and Rosenthal in Germany. At the same time she also actively created one of a kind sculptural objects which were exhibited internationally. Museums owning these works include the American Craft Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Mint Museum of Art to name only a few.

In 1991, following a long held desire, Hafner allowed herself respite to travel, paint and write. While scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef she was so taken with the colors of the sea, its diversity of flora and fauna, and its captivating reflections, that she returned to her studio intent on celebrating this beauty in her art. This search led her to glass with its brilliant colors and sparkling transparencies. In glass she found the perfect medium for her painterly and sculptural expressions.

As Hafner's flat glass mosaics evolved they began to acquire a unique beauty of their own, apart from the vessel onto which they were rolled. In 1997, Hafner shifted her focus solely to the flat glass, as painter to canvas. Building layer upon layer of transparent cutouts, she began fusing them together to produce single multi-layered transparent panels, each rich with overlays of her diaphanous imagery.

Hafner's glass works are in many major collections, including the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, NYC, the Brooklyn Museum, NY, the Musee des Arts Decoritifs, Montreal, the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, the American Crafts Museum, NY, and the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach.

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Brooklyn Museum, New York Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY Gracie Mansion, New York, NY J. Patrick Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL Los Angeles County Museum Victoria Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada, (Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection)  Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Berlin Museum of Arts and Design, New York Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, Washington DC Victoria & Albert Museum, London

HONORS & AWARDS

Fellissimo Design Award, NY Foundation for the Arts, l997
First Prize, First International Tabletop Award, Natl Tabletop Assn., Dallas, l988
Design Excellence, Stuttgart Design Center Award, Stuttgart, l988
Design Excellence, Stuttgart Design Center Award, Stuttgart, l987
Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, l986
Honorable Mention, First International Ceramics Contest, Mino, Japan, l986
First Prize, Westerwald Prize for Industrial Design, Germany, l985
Juror's Award, Small Works National, Zaner Gallery, Rochester, l985
Artist in Residence @ Fabric Workshop, New York State Council on the Arts, New York & Philadelphia, l984
Salute to Achievers Award, National Home Fashions League, l984
Certificate of Honor, Women in Design International, l983
Artist in Residence @ ArtPark, Lewiston, NY, l977 and l978

 SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

2008

“Contemporary Glass: Chihuly and Beyond”, New Britain Museum, New Britain, CT “New and Never Shown Before”, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI

2007

“Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America, 1950-2006, 1950-2006, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA “Women Ceramists from the Permanent Collection, 1900-2006”, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn , NY

2006

“Contemporary Glass Masters”, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA

2004

“The Italian Influence in Contemporary Glass”, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY and NYC

2003

"Masters of Contemporary Glass" Berkshire Museum of Art, Pittsfield, MA
"Trial by Fire: CONTEMPORARY GLASS", Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL

2002

"US DESIGN, 1975-2000", Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (traveling)

2000

"Women Designers in the USA, l900-2000: Diversity and Difference," Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts, New York, NY
"Alan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection", Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC
"Tabletop to TV Tray: China & Glass in America 1880-1980", Dallas Museum of Art, TX, and Newark Museum, NJ (traveled)

l999

"Clearly Inspired; Contemporary Glass and Its Origins", Tampa Museum of Art, FL, (traveled)

l996

"New Glass Review, l996", Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York 1995
"Wit and Delight," Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Montreal (traveled)

1992-4

"More Than One: Contemporary Studio Production," American Craft Museum, NY (traveled)

1990-3

"Art That Works: Decorative Arts of the '80s, Crafted in America," traveling exhibition org. by Art Services Intl., Alexandria, VA (traveled)

1989-91

"Design USA," traveling exhibition org. by U.S. Information Agency (traveled)

1987-89

"American Ceramics Now," Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse (traveled)

1989

"Fragile Blossoms, Enduring Earth: the Japanese Influence on American Ceramics,"   Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse (l989), traveled to American Craft Museum, NY

"Surface and Form," National Museum of Ceramic Art, Baltimore
"Third National Ceramic Invitational," Canton Art Institute, Ohio "Contemporary Cups," Univ. of Oregon Museum of Art (traveled to l2 venues in U.S.)
"Surface and Form, A Woman's Perspective," Muchenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA 2