NEW YORK.- UrbanGlass is pleased to announce the 2005 – 2006 recipients of the UrbanGlass Visiting Artist Fellowship Awards: Jerome Harrington and Valentin Manz received Emerging Artist fellowships and David Taborn received the Established Artist fellowship. The Emerging Artist Fellowship is designed to provide recent graduates with a bridge between the academic and professional world. The Established Artist Fellowship is offered to working artists with established careers. Both fellowships afford artists the opportunity to develop a new body of work and explore new techniques. The fellowships are for a period of eight weeks and provide recipients with access to the comprehensive glass working facilities of UrbanGlass, materials and technical support.

The Selection Committee was comprised of artist Walter Zimmerman, author, art critic and dealer Garth Clark, art dealer Mark Del Vecchio and Dawn Bennett, Executive Director of UrbanGlass.

Valentin Manz, born in Germany’s Bavarian Forest, is the son of a prominent German ceramicist. Trained as a stage designer, his works incorporate painting, drawing, and film and often involve mechanical sculpture. Manz brings a particular interest in events and performances. His current work is inspired by a long-term relationship with villagers in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Jerome Harrington was educated in the glass departments of the Edinburgh College of Art and Design and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. His work spans the areas of installation and sculpture. While he employs many materials, glass is often the most significant, playing a vital and pivotal role in the final interpretation of the piece.

Abstract artist David Taborn studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London, and was a fellow in fine art at Nottingham University. He showed in numerous solo and group shows at the influential art gallery Factual Nonsense, the catalyst behind the 1990s Shoreditch art scene explosion. In 2002 Taborn was awarded a three-year Fellowship at NESTA, the United Kingdom’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.