FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 26, 2003

CONTACT: Mark Fleisher

Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129

Internationally Renowned Artist Toots Zynsky Exhibits Recent Works at Festival Ballet Providence and Elliot Brown Studios.

Providence, RI - Elliott Brown Gallery and Festival Ballet Providence present an exhibition of fourteen recent works in glass by internationally renowned artist Toots Zynsky.

The public is invited to view the collection on Sunday, December 7th, 2003, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Festival Ballet Providence studios, 825 Hope Street in Providence.

Proceeds from the sale of works from the exhibition will benefit Festival Ballet Providence’s Capital Campaign “Providence en Pointe” and the Festival Ballet Providence Dance Center for Education Scholarship Program.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Ms. Zynsky was among the original team of artists who founded The Pilchuck Glass School, north of Seattle, in 1971. Among other awards, she has been a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants.

Known internationally as one of the original innovative voices in the modern American Studio Glass Movement, her unique sculptural vessels made of glass threads are in the collections of more than fifty of the world’s finest public institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Louvre.

Ms. Zynsky’s work was described by Jennifer Opie, Curator of Ceramics and Glass at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London as “a joyous living sculpture -balancing on its tiny foot, flourishing outwards to balletic frills that sing and dance.”

An active supporter of the Arts in Rhode Island since her return to the U.S. after living in Europe for sixteen years, Ms. Zynsky is presently on the Board of the Festival Ballet Providence. She also is a member of the UrbanGlass Advisory Council in New York City as well as the International Advisory Council at the Glasmuset Ebeltoft, Denmark.

“The new facility on Hope Street offers ever-expanding classes, scholarship programs and interactive learning performances to public school children. When I was young, if there had been a dance program in my school system – or a dance school or company anywhere in the vicinity – I would surely have become a dancer. Oddly enough, it was my love of dance that attracted me to glass,” says Ms. Zynsky.

The works from the exhibition may be previewed beginning December 1st at the Elliott Brown Gallery.

The Festival Ballet Providence and the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education are together a not-for-profit arts organization whose EIN is 05-0377245 and whose Rhode Island Corporate ID number is ND-27-137.