User:Victory1031/Owen Pach

Biography
Growing up in his parents landmark Tampa restaurant "Pachs Place", Owen veered away from a career in food and chose instead cabinetry and furniture making in the heart of Tampas Cuban district, Ybor City. Here Pach had a well established woodworking studio with permanently installed pieces throughout the United States and Canada.

In 1985, at the age of 30, Pach met Dean James at his studio in Ybor. His fascination with glass was instant. "It was clear from my first gather, that glass would dominate the rest of my life."

By 1988, he received his first teaching assistantship at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina with Stephan Dee Edwards, now the head of the program at Alfred University in New York. In the years following, Owen worked closely with Leon Applebaum, leaving to take the first glass residency at University of the Arts (Philadelphia). Following that, he spent several years with Thames Street Glass in Rhode Island.

In 19xx he began a two year apprenticeship with Murano glass masters Richard Ritter and Jan Williams while also assisting at Penland School to Paul Stankard, Mark Peiser, Herb Babcock, John Littleton and Kate Vogal, Vince Olmstead and others. In 19xx he was assistant to Harvey Littleton at a master’s workshop sponsored by the Gulf Coast Museum of Art.

Pach began fabricating glass studio equipment with the construction of the Bill Brown Glass Studio at Penland. and worked on Lino's team at the 25th GAS conference. For the next several years, Owen did shows all over the country, winning countless awards including back-to-back “Best of Show” awards at Spoletto in Charleston, the top sculpture prize at Virginia Beach, and the top glass prize at St. Louis. But even with such a busy schedule, Owen made time to teach whenever possible. He has a long history with Jacksonville University dating back to the days of Dr. Bill Persig, when the school’s hot shop was an area between two old military barracks.

Shortly after his return to Florida, in November of 2008, Owen became a consultant to The Morean Arts Center for their glass studio. Soon after Owen was named as the designer and builder of the studio and will stay on after to help develop the teaching and demonstration program. The project is soon to be fully engaged and the hot shop up and running by June.