Tommie Rush, a native of Mobile, Alabama, is a glass artist who lives and maintains a studio, Tomco Inc., in Knoxville, Tennessee. She began her early studies in ceramics which ultimately lead her to working in glass. By 1980, Tommie Rush began to share a studio space with renowned artist Richard Jolley, of whom she married several years later. Through tireless experimentation and the development of custom blended glass mixed in the studio, Tommie Rush has created a unique and identifiable style which has been celebrated in over 75 exhibitions and will be honored in a retrospective exhibition at the Mobile Museum of Art in the spring of 2011. Her work can be found in numerous private and museum collections throughout the United States including the Sheldon Art Museum and Sculpture Garden in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee, among others. Most recently Tommie Rush completed a glass and welded steel site specific commission for the headquarters of Scripps Networks in Knoxville, Tennessee. As a tireless supporter of the arts, Tommie Rush has served on several national boards including the Glass Art Society in Seattle, Penland School of Craft, Asheville, North Carolina, and currently with the American Craft Council located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is very active with her local arts community.

Education                               

1972-1976       BFA, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

1975               Arrowmont School of Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

1976               Arrowmont School of Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

1976-1981       Northshore Pottery, One-person clay studio, Knoxville, Tennessee

1986               Galerie Angela Hollings, Hameln, West Germany

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS    

Bank of Nashville Corporation, Nashville, Tennessee

Boatmen's Bank, Memphis, Tennessee

McDonald's Corporation, Oakbrook, Illinois

Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama

Morgan Keegan and Company Inc., Memphis, Tennessee

North Carolina State University Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh, North Carolina

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana

Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Scripps Networks, Knoxville, TN

Sheldon Art Museum and Sculpture Garden, Lincoln, NE

Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2011        Mobile Museum of Art, Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush: A Life in Glass, Mobile, AL

2008        Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, The Art of Giving, Group Show, Louisville, KY

2007        The Glass Menagerie, Fire & Form, Group Show, Corning, NY

2006       Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Group Show, Colorado Springs, CO

2003        Kentucky Museum of Art and Design, The Glass Vessel, Louisville, KY

2001       American Craft Museum, Objects for Use, New York, NY

   Reston Arts Center, Art of Glass, Reston, VA

2000       Lighthouse Center for the Arts, Glass Masterworks, Tequesta, FL

1999       Gallery W.D.O., The Nature of Things, Charlotte, NC

1998       Tennessee State Museum, Celebrating Tennessee Women Artists, Nashville, TN

1996       Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery, Spotlight '96, Louisville, KY

1995        Fellow's Choice Exhibition, ACE, Juried show, Baltimore, MD

1994       Museum of New Mexico, Romantic Modernism, Benefit Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM

1993       Spirit House, Sculpture Center, New York, NY

1992       Hunter Museum, Benefit Auction, Chattanooga, TN, Juried Invitational

1989       Smithsonian Museum Shop, Holiday show, Washington, DC

1987-89   Yamaha Galleries, Group exhibition, Japan

1988       Mobile Museum of Art, Two-person exhibition, Mobile, AL

               American Craft Museum, Benefit Auction, New York, NY, Invitational

                Alliance Museum, Two-person exhibition, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

1987       Galerie Angela Hollings, Two-person exhibition, Hameln, Germany

1986        Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., Group exhibition, Winston-Salem, NC, Invitational