Dan Dailey's career in glass has spanned more than 40 years. Emerging from the Studio Glass movement initiated by Harvey Littleton, Dailey's work has branched out from the mainstream by the incorporation of metal into many of the sculptures. Additionally, he has worked with several glass companies, in particular as an independent artist/ designer for Crisallerie Daum, France for more than twenty years. He has taught at many glass programs and is Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art where he founded the glass program. Since 1971, Dailey's work has been featured in more than 90 solo exhibitions and included in over 300 juried or invitational group shows.

In 1970 Dailey received a teaching fellowship at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island where Dale Chihuly, was teaching at the time. Dailey became Chihuly’s first graduate student and along with other students, he assisted in building the RISD glass studio and began to develop concepts for illuminated sculpture. Dailey received a Fulbright Hayes Fellowship in 1972 and was invited by Ludovico Diaz di Santillana, the director and owner of the Venini Factory in Murano, Italy, to work as an independent artist/designer. Dailey created a series of blown glass and brass sculptural lamps while in residence at the factory. This industrial experience became a model for Dailey’s future work in several glass factories later in his career.

In 1976 Dailey was invited by Jacques Daum, nephew of August Daum, to work as an independent artist at Cristallerie Daum in Nancy, France. Between 1978 and 2003 he produced 7 editioned pate de verre sculptures. This experience created a working relationship that continues today.
The numerous works created at Cristallerie Daum were produced as limited edition, pate de verre works. Dailey is one of three Americans to have worked with Daum and holds the longest standing relationship of any artist after 32 years of work with the company.

In 1987 Dailey was honored with a solo exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Henry Geldzahler wrote an essay for the catalog including: Dan Dailey’s achievement is in the seamless marriage he effects in his work in every medium between the idiosyncratic convolutions of his inner landscape and the classic harmony and lucidity of the great tradition in glass, of whom Daum, Nancy and Lalique are giants. Dailey’s work joins in that tradition, but with a contemporary spin that causes the viewer to smile in complicity.[4]

Dailey was invited to work as an independent artist by Waterford Crystal, Kilbarry, Ireland, in 1998.  Dailey visited three times between 1998-1999 to create chandeliers, wall sconces, and seven engraved vases, using particular processes unique to the history and specialty of Waterford Crystal. In 2001 he received the Masters of the Medium Award, James Renwick Alliance, and the Art of Liberty Award, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Dailey is Professor Emeritus for the Glass Program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston.  He is notably humble and very generous with students. His work is included in over 50 public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA and the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

1969                BFA, Philadelphia College of Art

1972                MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

1975 – 2012     Professor Emeritus for the Glass Program, Massachusetts College of Art

2001                President’s Distinguished Artist Award, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2001                Masters of the Medium Award, James Renwick Alliance

1976- 2007       Independent Artist/Designer, Cristallierie Daum. Paris and Nancy, France

1989 – 2007      Faculty, Glass Program, Massachusetts College of Art

1996- 2007       Board Member, The Glass Art Center, Bradford College, Bradford, Massachusetts

Selected Exhibitions

Port of Seattle 1998 Glass Exhibition, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, WA

“Venezia Aperto Vetro”, Assorato alla Cultura, Venice, Italy

“Taipei International Glass Exhibition,” China Times, Taipei, Taiwan

 “Masters of Contemporary Glass,” Naples Philharmonic & Museum, Naples, FL

“World Glass Now ‘91,” Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan

“25th Anniversary Fellows Exhibition,” Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA

“Architectural Art,” American Craft Museum, New York, NY

“30 Years of New Glass,” Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY

“Drawn to the Surface: Artist in Clay and Glass,” Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA