Northwest Now | Hilltop Artists - Jan. 13 | Season 14 | Episode 15

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Tacoma has an international reputation for Glass art, and since 1994, Hilltop Artists has been a part of it.

The nonprofit Youth Development Program serves 650 students a year, providing tuition free glass, art instruction, mentorship and leadership opportunities.

Meet the Hilltop Artist next on Northwest.

Now.

Everybody knows who Dale Chihuly is, but what you may not know is that he was one of the founders of the Hilltop Artists.

Since 1994, thousands of students have come through the program, learning how to render their artistic visions in glass, but also finding a place to stay away from gang recruitment.

And the sometimes violent streets of the South sound.

The program operates out of hot shops located at both Hilltop Heritage Middle School and Silas High School.

Of course, each student and each instructor brings different skills and abilities to the program, but at its core, it's all centered around the mission statement using Glass art to connect young people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds to better futures.

We are at Hilltop Artists in the Hot Shoppe at Hilltop Heritage Middle School.

I started blowing glass in seventh grade.

Actually, it was an accident because I got switched out of a Spanish class.

So I landed in glassblowing and it stuck with me ever since and I haven't let go.

What really draws me in is the community here.

There's nothing else like it.

And the people that are here to support and teach you and help you grow.

Also, glass is just that cool.

So, you know, you can't really trade that in for anything else.

It's made me responsible.

It's made me mature.

It's made me have better people skills.

The teambuilding aspect is huge.

So I've learned how to care about my team and contribute to the team and make sure that everyone's doing well.

And I think that it just has a lot of really transferable skills.

The things that you learn here will stick with you for the rest of your life.

This place has affected me so much for the better, and I think that it has exponentially improved my quality of life.

And I feel so much more confident, so much more happy, so much more fulfilled and supported by the people that mentor me and the people that contribute to this program.

Joining us now are Hilltop Artists executive director Kimberly Keith, production and Hot Shot manager Trenton Kioko and program director Jessica Hogan.

Welcome to Northwest now, everybody.

Great to have the Hilltop artists.

And I've been a little bit familiar with this program over the years, but I'm really glad we were able to have you in and kind of take a deeper dive to let people know what's going on at the Hilltop here in Tacoma.

Kimberly, I want to start with you with an ice breaker that will ask everybody.

I know there's an organizational mission associated with Hilltop artists, but I want to get to know each of you a little bit.

What is how does your personal mission fit into that and what is some of the joy you get out of doing this?

Well, my personal mission is I've been in youth development since 1991.

That has been my wheelhouse.

And also museums.

I worked in museums for 20 years and so I help to start the Museum of Glass here in Tacoma back in 2001.

And that's when I first met the Hilltop Artists.

And so in terms of my art background, my glass background, and then my Ph.D. is in sociology and culture studies.

And so our mission of connecting diverse young people to better futures through glass arts.

It kind of uses every aspect of my experience.

And so I've told people, you know, I found my dream job.

I love Hilltop artists.

I'm not going anywhere because it really utilizes my skills in my home.

It's not even my hometown.

I'm I grew up on the hilltop and so I would have been a hilltop artist had it been around in the seventies.

You know, the word intersectionality gets thrown around a lot lately, possibly overused.

But I can really see it in your story.

Yeah, there's a lot of things that come together.

Trent And tell us your story a little bit, how you came to be involved with this organization.

And I think it's really cool that you're an alumni.

Yeah.

So I started in the program as a student 25 at Silas High School, which was formerly Wilson High School.

And just from the first day of of being in class, I was really engaged with the material and and pursued a career in glass and but I've always been rooted in Tacoma.

That's my community.

And so, you know, it came full circle.

And now I'm a full time staff member at Hilltop Artists.

And for me, you know, our main mission is to get youth and young adults to better futures.

And me personally, I try and give them from my lived experiences of being in the program like more like give them more resources and opportunities than what I had in the program.

And so we're always evolving and making the program better, I think, every year.

What's amazing about your story too, is, yes, you've come full circle, but you also came full circle into a place where you could actually make a living in glass, which I would say is probably pretty rare.

It's very rare.

And we're not here to produce glass artists per se, but it is a byproduct.

Yes, I'm always very proud of my students and it's very exciting for me as a teaching artist to see them excel in their own careers as artists.

Mm hmm.

Jessica, you're another alumni, which is really cool to have made that full circle journey.

Talk a little bit about how you got started and how you find yourself here today.

Well, and so I have a very similar story to Trenton.

I was a young kid going to Jason Lee Middle School, and I started in the Glass program and I stuck with it.

And I love working with young people and so that's how I feel, like I've been able to come back to the program and connect and stay working.

And so and I love Glass.

And so those two things combined really kind of like drew me in, right?

So I think having a chance to really, truly give back in your hometown is a very unique experience.

A lot of people kind of think about, it'd be nice to do, but to get to do, it's really got to be something.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's my favorite part about it is I feel like I am giving back and providing like great opportunities for young people to thrive in the arts.

Kimberly A little history lesson for us.

You know, Dale Chihuly is the big name that we all know internationally famous.

But talk a little bit about the founding of this school and how it came about.

Well, back in 1994, I don't know if you remember Tacoma back then, but we had a few problems with drugs and gangs and different things going on in our community.

A lot of youth were at a loose end.

And so Cathy Coppock, who was a gallerist at the time, and her friend Dale Tooley, they wanted to do something for those young people.

And so they talked to the school district and convinced them to let them use an old auto shop or no, it was a woodshop at Jason Lee and the auto shop at Wilson and turn it into a glass program.

And so at first it was Hilltop Artisan residence, which is our trading name, because Dale invited famous artists in to work with young people in the program.

So that first summer you had Algernon Miller and Charlie Perry, it and I can't remember the third artist at the moment, but anyhow, these famous ah, Italo Schanker came in and worked with our students and our student students learned about art by being assistants.

Now, over the 28 years that we've been around, the focus is now that the organization, which is a nonprofit 501c3 organization, works with young people from the Hilltop and turns them into artists.

So we're very much a youth development program that's working on 21st century and social skills with young people, and then that glass is the hook to get them in.

It's kind of like what Trenton was just saying.

Our purpose isn't to make these fantastic, you know, many to Julie's right.

It is to make those people that we want to live with in our neighborhoods, in our communities.

Right.

It's the mentorship you can provide along the way, the channeling of a focus and an attention, some creativity.

Talk to me a little bit about that, that Trent and I think there's such a powerful connection when you're doing something physical with with a medium.

You're you're learning by touch, by sight, by hearing.

It really ties it all together.

And I can I can I can envision why Glass is such a powerful mentoring experience.

How do you try to leverage that?

What are you thinking when you're working with young people?

Are you thinking to yourself, Man, I got to fix these kids?

Or are you thinking what's really trying to bring them out as creators?

I think our main focus is to create a safe environment and a welcoming environment for our students.

And so that's one of the first things I try to do is establish that.

And I think, you know, everyone needs a creative outlet.

And so I think glassblowing is a great way to do that for myself and for my students.

And it builds a lot of character and it takes a lot of teamwork.

And so it's just the byproduct of working with the material is they learn all these things, how to communicate, how to be a leader, how to work as a team.

And for me, I think it's done a lot for me in my career, obviously.

But me as a person and as an individual who has grown and been part of the program and working with the youth I like.

That's the biggest thing for me is just watching them grow because I'll get them as an eighth grader in middle school and watch them become, you know, an adult going off to college.

So, wow.

So you have some that go all the way through, all the way through.

And it's a it's a bond.

And when I was in the program where we were, we were pretty much a family, you know.

So I think that's the coolest thing that I get is the relationships that are built.

I always hesitate of calling youth programs, crime prevention programs because it assumes that the youth are who are participating would be criminals without it.

And I think that's very unfair and I don't want to go there.

With that said, is there a prosocial element to this, Jessica?

I guess could we go that far?

Help me put words to that and how this improves the community.

Well, I just feel like similar to what Trenton said, you know, we are providing a safe space and a space for kids to be after school and hang out, be creative, make art, and we try to make it fun and engaging for young people, too.

You know, we want them to want to be there.

And so that's sort of what we do.

MM You know, you mentioned safe space, and what's funny is you're thinking safe about, you know, socially safe.

When I think of glassblowing, I always kind of look at it as a little dangerous.

Yeah.

And I'm thinking to myself, too, What?

I really want to watch it.

Junior high kids running around in the glass.

How do you manage the safety part?

Because it's a it's glass be there's big, heavy, sharp tools.

C It's extremely hot.

There's molten lava running around that that, that to me seems like not exactly what I'd pick for an after school.

And it's like running with scissors after school.

How do you manage the safety piece of that?

Amazingly, I mean students there are there are risks involved in working with glass, molten glass, cold glass.

So there are burns and cuts that are involved.

But amazingly, there's never anything to like.

We haven't, knock on wood, haven't had any serious accidents happen.

I think that's a real credit considering the environment.

I think it has to do with youth.

Sometimes youth listen better than adults, as long as there's good instructors and and eyes on the floor, we try to prevent accidents from happening.

Kimberly, this is your chance to talk about the the the resources that you need.

But I but the question that is the genesis of that is that running the glass shop, is it cheap?

I mean, you've got the material, the glass you got to come up with.

You've got probably a pretty robust natural gas bill, I would think equipment, you know, wears out.

You got to fix it.

You've got to do this, you got to do that, you got to have safety gear.

How do how do the resources come about for Hilltop artists and how are you doing?

Are you going up?

Going down?

How did COVID treat you?

What's going on with the organization?

Well, you're absolutely right.

I'm trying to ensure that I can keep everybody employed and keep the program going is a lot of work all day, every day.

We are very fortunate that initial relationship with the school district has something is something that has endured for these 28 years.

And so the Tacoma Public schools provide in-kind the space that we operate in as well as that natural gas you talked about and the electricity.

And we also have a contract with them for our some of our teaching expenses.

We have three teachers in the classroom at Hilltop Heritage and one at Silas.

And then we also do an after school program, an evening program called Team Production.

We have a secondary production team called Alumni Team.

We do summer programs and then we do arts connect with young women who have been adjudicated through Pierce County Juvenile Court.

So we have six different programs.

We serve 650 kids every year.

And so our one point almost $7 million budget goes for all the things that you were saying, the materials, the glass, the staffing, the equipment.

We are about to start a capital campaign so that we can get a new furnace at Hilltop Heritage and a few other pieces of equipment.

And so it's ongoing.

We have an incredible grant writer who writes to a variety of corporations, foundations, family foundations for grant funding.

We have our sales.

We do a big winter sale, which was just last Saturday, and then we do a spring sale.

We have an annual luncheon.

We rely on individual contributions.

We have a marina club where people can give monthly donations.

And people ask me, sometimes it's like, What if I just give you $5?

Is that really going to help?

And I always say every dollar helps.

Every bit of time you want to volunteer with us, Helps.

Any advice you want to give us?

It all helps.

Time, talent and treasure.

Help to create a sustainable nonprofit organization.

And we're very fortunate that over COVID, the two staff that you see here, plus our other seven instructors, created online curriculum for our students, and we sent out activity kits so students could make things hands on while working with the teachers and each other over the Internet.

You obviously have to limit this somehow.

Is it?

How do people do you have to get selected for this, picked for it, or is it a lottery?

How do how do people get a spot?

Well, it's first come first serve with the after school in the summer programs.

And so we put the applications online and it's first come, first serve.

And it's for any students in Tacoma, Pierce County, If you can get to the program, you can attend the program.

You don't have to go to Hilltop Heritage or Silas.

Now, those daytime elective classes, those are your art electives at those two schools.

Those are actual classes in.

Yes.

And so you need to be enrolled in those two schools to take those.

Gotcha.

Question for you, Trenton.

Have and you don't have to name names and be honest.

Have you had any students whose work you've looked at and you've said, now time out.

Wait a minute, I've got all this student work?

Yes, it's my 10th year now.

Or how many years?

You know, it's been a long time.

I see it coming.

I see it go.

I'm glad they're here doing their thing.

I appreciate their work.

But this guy or this gal.

Oh, yeah.

This is special.

Have you have you had that moment?

Kind of an aha moment with the student?

I think it happens every year almost, you know.

Really?

Yeah.

Truly.

And very fortunate that a lot of those students are seeking higher education and they're going to colleges and a lot of them are pursuing art degrees, for which I try to dissuade them from history.

And artists are is not easy in any way, shape or form, especially in the glass field.

It's it's not easy to make a living.

But if they can take those classes, I think it's another way, though, to help with completion when it comes to school and career and technical training is that if you have something, you know, no surprise here, I was a band nerd, but being involved in music kind of helped me get through college.

Um, just just to some extent.

Is there any validity to that?

Jessica, that idea, that.

GLASS Yeah, you may not be a glass artist, but it's something you can you do and it can keep you interested.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, because we're not just teaching glass, there's other things you're learning teamwork and design.

All sorts of things.

And so I feel like it just, it translates into so many other areas.

Same question for you.

If you had any students that you've looked at and have been blown away by every year, every year, I feel like there's always somebody who's just amazing.

There's tons of students.

So yeah, it's hard to pick.

Yeah, I'm really I'm surprised that you that they're that frequent.

Yeah that that that that kind of high level of having that I hope moment comes comes that quickly especially in the arts right right definitely you've got some interning returning instructors obviously who work with the program at Hilltop Artists.

Kimberly any of your students who have gone on to other Glasswork that are working and I know you have an internship and a relationship with Pilchuck and whatnot, but anybody actually working in Glass and other places, doing their own arts, having their own exhibits?

Well, Trenton is my shining example and star of that in terms of he has worked for two, he's worked for a number of studios.

He curated an excellent exhibition this year called Gather that was at the Tacoma Art Museum.

And I would argue that everybody that you selected to be in your show was an exceptional student in our program.

They might not have been your students because some of them are your peers, but I think they were incredible.

And then I've been with the organization since 2017.

Yeah.

And so I'm a newbie compared to Jessica and Trenton.

But I can tell you we've had a few students go to Alfred University and Major in Glass.

We have one that's at Virginia Commonwealth University too, over at Salem Community College, which is a scientific glass program doing borrow glass.

A lot of people don't know everything in a science lab is handmade.

Oh, okay.

So it's just speakers and test tubes and everything.

And so that's a really exciting program that a few of our students are in and that is fantastic.

But a lot of students have gone on to be, you know, firemen.

Sure and sure and other things.

And I think one of the things that you really learn in glass is resiliency, because stuff breaks all the time and you don't get it right the first time.

And so those things breaking mean that the team have to talk to each other about how to do it differently next time so it doesn't break.

And so their problems solving and they're working together and you need that team.

And so you can't just go cussing somebody out or, you know, making enemies.

And that team because you're going to need them tomorrow and the next day and the next day to do your work.

And so that ability to bounce back and to use your words and your skills and everything, I think that is one of the amazing aspects of class and I want to build on that with both Trenton and Jessica Trent.

Without naming names, of course, or anything, any identifying features, have you had some kids or work with some students where you've said to yourself, if they weren't here, trouble this, this, this kid I just know would be going down there?

I mean, have you had that feeling as well?

You've had some stars that come out.

Have you also had some people you feel like you've almost kind of to some degree saved?

I would hope so.

I think myself in the program was one of those students, and I believe anyone that doesn't have a place like Hilltop Arts or a community center or an after school program is at risk to to get into trouble.

You know, And that's why places like Hilltop Bars are important in the community.

And I believe there should be more spaces like this.

Um, and yeah, we've totally had gang members in the program and, you know, I think it's helped turn their lives around.

Yeah, Yeah.

Jessica, same question for you because you were nodding your head.

So.

Yes, So vociferously.

Yeah.

And I don't think that we're like, we only work with gang members and I don't think that was is like a direction that we go in.

But it's we have worked with principals before and done work plans for students who've been expelled from schools and just letting the student know that we trust you around glass and giving them that opportunity to work in glass is something that kind of helps rebuild, sort of that I trust an adult sort of relationship rebuilding that so then they can return back into school.

So that's I don't know.

That was one of the things that we worked on a few years ago with some students pre-COVID, and it was successful in getting those students back into school and giving them a second chance.

And I guess the underlying question is that I infer from that then you feel like the program, if not yourself, but it has been a real difference maker in individual lives.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

100% agree.

Yes.

And Tom, I would add to that, I mean, even this summer I had a parent call and say, you know, you saved my child's life.

Wow.

Yeah.

If your program hadn't been here, I don't know where they would be now because we had a student that came in lots of extra time.

You know, even when our studio was closed, we had some students that came in and just helped Trent to like, build the new doors for the reheating chambers and to clean whatever needed to be deep so they gravitate.

It's their place.

Yeah.

And they had a space and they're like, you know, they didn't say this, but they're like, We'll be here even if we're cleaning up, you know?

And, and I thought that was really amazing.

And to have a parent, you know, pick up the phone and say that I was really touched by that.

Yeah.

Do you have much interaction with parents?

I mean, and teachers.

You talked about doing an IEP for students and whatnot.

So that that interface, how much of that is there?

There's a lot.

We have a life and social worker on staff who does outreach in the community and with the schools.

And so when we have young people who are homeless or need food or other resources, we have this person on staff who can connect them to those resources.

Good.

So that's wonderful to have on staff.

Last 60 seconds here.

How do people you mentioned this briefly, but I want to make sure we end on it.

How do people get involved if they want to learn more, if they want to do this, if they want their kid or the grandkid to do this, what do they need to be doing?

Hilltop Artists dot org.

Look at our website, read about our programs, and then there's links to the special events that we do.

And then our programing you can sign up for afterschool or summer is there are tours or a way to come down and take a look.

You can call the information line and we can arrange that for you.

Another thing I will share is that on third Thursdays, our students and usually Trenton, are down at the museum of Glass doing free demonstrations for the public from 5 to 8 p.m.. And another thing I just want to say really quickly is thank you, Tacoma, for passing Tacoma creates, right?

Because Tacoma creates has been really important for supporting Hilltop for the last couple of years as well as so many other cultural and heritage partner organizations.

I'm glad you brought that up.

Good point.

And we'll leave it with that.

Thank all of you for coming to Northwest now.

Great discussion.

Good to get to know you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hilltop Artists offers a variety of programs at a variety of times.

The bottom line to learn more and get involved, just go to hilltop artists dot org.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking and watch this program again.

Or to share it with others.

Northwest now can be found on the web at kbtc dot org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Northwest.

Now a Streamable podcast of this program is available under the Northwest now tab at kbtc dot org and on Apple podcasts by searching Northwest now that's going to do it for this edition of Northwest Dow until next time I'm Tom Layson and thanks for watching.

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