Cynthia Williams

Critic - Glass

Bachelors, Pace University-New York
Doctorate, University of Glasgow
Masters, The New School

For more than two decades, Cynthia Williams has been active in the field of the history of decorative arts and design. In 2015, after 15 years as director/assistant professor of the MA program in the History of Decorative Arts offered through George Mason University in partnership with The Smithsonian Associates, she returned to the New York area. As project director for a major real estate firm, she curated The Power of Discovery, a permanent exhibition including landscape design documenting the history of the Boyce Thompson Institute, a pioneering plant science research institute whose 1920s site in Yonkers, NY has been saved and meticulously readapted as a multipurpose healthcare, retail, dining and community center.

Prior to her academic career, Williams held corporate communication and human resources assignments at Fortune 500 companies including Nestle Foods, Avon Products, Xerox and Sony Corporation. She has a BA from Pace University, an MA in Corporate Communication from Fairfield University and an MA in the History of Decorative Arts from Parsons School of Design/Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum, and she is currently pursuing her PhD in art history at the University of Glasgow with a specialism in history of glass. She has served on the board of trustees at The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass since 2009 and began serving as board president in 2014.

Courses

Fall 2024 Courses

LAEL 1006-01 - HISTORY OF GLASS
Level Undergraduate
Unit Glass
Subject Liberal Arts Elective
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LAEL 1006-01

HISTORY OF GLASS

Level Undergraduate
Unit Glass
Subject Liberal Arts Elective
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: M | 9:40 AM - 12:40 PM Instructor(s): Cynthia Williams Location(s): Design Center, Room 210 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Since its chance discovery millennia ago, glass has developed into an integral and ubiquitous part of daily life. Through lectures, student presentations and field trips to the RISD museum and/or local glass studios, this course is designed to introduce students to the various ways this quixotic material has been made, used, and thought about across time. This survey course employs a chronological format and methodologies of art history, history of science, and material culture to investigate the range of glass objects, formulae, and production methods in use since glass' earliest manufacture through the mid-twentieth century. We will also examine the broader social and cultural contexts in which glass was made and explore the following themes as they relate to the history of glass: mimesis, clarity, innovation, reflection, light, and science.

Major Requirement | BFA Glass


Bachelors, Pace University-New York
Doctorate, University of Glasgow
Masters, The New School