Collectors of Tomorrow: Inspiring Young Collectors in Glass
Date & Time:
Friday, July 18, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location:
PURE Insurance Theater at Seattle Art Fair
As the current base of collectors in glass matures, the field faces a critical question: how do we cultivate the next generation of passionate collectors? This panel will explore the challenges and opportunities involved in engaging younger audiences—from shifting cultural values and evolving aesthetics to the role of education, access, and community. Through lively conversation, we aim to spark new ideas and offer actionable insights for ensuring a vibrant future for the field.
Chloe Dye Sherpe, Curator for The Lumiere Group, Moderator
Chloe Dye Sherpe is a curator and art historian based in Skagit Valley, Washington. Chloe is the curator for The Lumiere Group, an art consulting company based in Seattle, and manages strategic planning, acquisitions, exhibitions, and loans for clients. In her previous role as curator for the Museum of Northwest Art, Chloe exhibited the artwork of over 150 artists and led the museum’s Surge exhibitions in partnership with the Skagit Climate Scientist Consortium. An enthusiastic collaborator, Chloe lectures and consults on a variety of topics, including the history of Northwest art, contemporary art, collecting ethics, and curatorial studies. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Whitworth University and a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Florida.
Donna Davies, Executive Director of Pilchuck Glass School
Donna Davies is Executive Director of Pilchuck Glass School, where she leads the strategic priorities, financial management, external relations and staff leadership for the organization located in Stanwood, Washington, and Seattle, Washington. Pilchuck Glass School was founded by co-founders Dale Chihuly, John Hauberg, and Anne Gould Hauberg in 1971 as an international center for glass art education. From May through September every year, Pilchuck’s Summer & Fall Program offers a series of courses as well as residences for established artists in all media. Pilchuck has become the most comprehensive educational center in the world for glass artists.
Prior to Pilchuck Glass School, Davies was the Director of SOFA CHICAGO, Art Palm Springs, and Art Aspen, where she led the management of the portfolio of art fairs. As an art historian and former art dealer, Davies was sensitive to the curatorial aspects and needs of an art fair where she led the fair management of the art fair portfolio for nearly ten years. She was also Director of SOFA NEW YORK and SOFA WEST: Santa Fe, two successful locations for the fair until pulling the focus of the fair back to its roots in Chicago.
Prior to SOFA CHICAGO, Davies was Director of Marx-Saunders Gallery in Chicago, where she oversaw the gallery’s program and curated exhibitions for artists, including Lino Tagliapietra, William Morris, and Dante Marioni among many others. Previously, she was Assistant Director of Contemporary Art at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she managed a department of nearly 50 contemporary artists and curated exhibitions, including those for Magdalena Abakanowicz, George Segal, and Wendell Castle, to name only a few.
Davies received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and her Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Oklahoma, Norman. She has written for numerous publications, her most recent being the author of the Erivan and Helga Haub Family Collection of Western Art, Volume III, as well as a contributing author of The American West: Out of Myth, Into Reality with Peter H. Hassrick.
Katie Buckingham, Curator, Museum of Glass
Katie Buckingham is the curator at Museum of Glass, where she develops exhibitions, researches collections, and coordinates MOG’s vibrant Visiting Artist Residency program. Through her research, Buckingham aims to establish dynamic connections between glass past and present, including “Hindsight is 1920: Reflecting on Glass a Century after René Lalique,” for the Museum of Glass exhibition publication René Lalique: Art Deco Gems from the Steven and Roslyn Shulman Collection (2020).
Buckingham is active within her local museum community, most recently serving as past president of the Washington Museum Association. Prior to Museum of Glass, she worked at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. Buckingham received an MA in Museology from the University of Washington and a BA with Honors in Art History from Whitman College.