FY26 Individual Artist Fellowship in Craft recipient Damon MacNaught
By Krishna Adams – Director of Visual Arts, Craft, Media, and Design –
Damon MacNaught, a hot glass artist and arts educator, has been awarded the FY2026 Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Craft. The award recognizes MacNaught’s decadeslong contribution to the state’s cultural vitality through his work in glass. This prestigious award supports Tennessee artists whose work contributes significantly to the arts in their communities and beyond. The award notification fittingly arrived on his birthday.
MacNaught plans to use the award to experiment with glass and invest in collaborative projects.
“There are so many directions for my work to explore,” MacNaught said. “Collaboration often yields unexpected and enriching results.”
The award will also support his research at the Appalachian Center for Craft.
“It’s not just recognition, it’s inspiration,” he said. “My students are watching, and it gives them a model of what it looks like to pursue a serious career in the arts.”
His advice for artists considering applying for the fellowship is to be tenacious. “I applied for years before receiving it,” he said. “If you don’t apply, you’ll never get it.”
MacNaught’s fascination with glass began at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sculpture in 1997. He enrolled in a glass class after being captivated by the color and form of a piece of glass gifted to a friend. He earned a master of fine arts in sculpture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005.
His piece “Closepack Paperweight” features colorful, hand-created canes forming a floral pattern that includes a hidden duck.
He founded Bareglass Studio in 1997. It is now located on his farm in Silver Point, Tennessee, off Interstate 40 near Center Hill Lake and Edgar Evins State Park. His studio is both a creative space and a classroom, reflecting his commitment to craftsmanship and community.
His specialty is creating millefiori glass paperweights, an art form whose name means “a thousand flowers” in Italian. Popularized in 19th-century Europe and the United States, the technique involves arranging colorful glass rods, known as murrini, under a glass dome, a process requiring precision and an eye for design.
“I find the technical challenges of this niche art form rewarding,” MacNaught said. “It speaks to the material’s inherent beauty and allows an outlet to practice my love of design.”
His “Rose Star Cluster Paperweight” includes roses, dogwood, star clusters and decorative cog canes encased in clear glass. His work honors the tradition while incorporating contemporary motifs and vibrant color palettes.
MacNaught is also an educator with more than 20 years of teaching experience. He is an assistant professor of glass at Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft and has held academic positions at Cumberland University, the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville and the University of Illinois.
“I view teaching as a two-way street,” MacNaught said. “Working with students continues to challenge and inform my own practice. It’s a collaborative exchange of knowledge.”
He has led workshops across the United States and abroad. MacNaught’s work has been shown nationally and internationally, with exhibitions at venues including the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Wheaton Arts and the Wayne Arts Center. His recent exhibitions have been in the Cotswolds, United Kingdom; the Wayne Arts Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania; a Paperweight Collectors Association convention in Rhode Island; and in Tennessee at the Fischman Gallery in Johnson City and the Silver Fern Gallery in Cookeville.
His paperweights are in private collections worldwide and in the permanent collection of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah, Wisconsin. He is an artist representative on the Paperweight Collectors Association’s board of directors and is active in numerous professional organizations.
This fall, MacNaught has an exhibition, “Celebrating American Craft,” at Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Gallery from Sept. 8 to Oct. 3 and a solo show in Los Angeles in October. He is also participating in a neon-inspired group exhibition with students in Nashville and will open his studio for the Off the Beaten Path Tour during the last weekend of October. You can find out more about MacNaught by visiting his website.
