Clothed in jeans and a T-shirt, with dreaded hair and sporting shades, Che Rhodes by first impression assures that his classroom is not the average stuffy lecture hall. It’s a space where the barriers between teacher and student become fluid — a reflection of the subject under study, glassblowing. The collaborative setting is partly due also to the cooperative nature of the work and to the fact that the workspace in the Cressman Center for Visual Arts really is one the students can call their own — they, with Rhodes and other faculty, built the ovens and equipment used to create their art. “I’m really proud of that,” says Rhodes. “It’s going to take a couple years before I can fully absorb what happened. As recently as September we were fighting construction crews to get in here and be able to work.”
Opened in November 2006, the center houses the University of Louisville’s two-and-a-half-year-old glass program, for which Rhodes, 34, is the only professor. Its location at First and Main streets offers students a learning experience set in two environments: the safety net of university-encouraged creativity set against the backdrop of a bustling business district, with giant street-level windows.
An open-door policy connects the two worlds — a juxtaposition that delights Rhodes. “The students are having a comprehensive experience in that they can come here for the experimental and walk east or west and get exposure to the professional world, or studios in town. They are starting to understand the differences between local studios and how that’s really a microcosm of the glass world in general.”
Rhodes’ own path into glass was created by a similar push and pull of internal and external forces. After some turbulent teen years at a prep school and later a Cincinnati arts high school, his parents took him to visit Centre College, an opportunity he realized he couldn’t let pass. He took a sculpture course, followed by glass, and says he fell in love with the medium. He attributes much of it to renowned sculptor Stephen Powell, his teacher and mentor. “I don’t think he intentionally or consciously did it, but Steve helped me refocus my energy into something more constructive,” Rhodes says. “He taught me how to learn, how to teach by example, how to acquire a skill set and be successful.” Upon graduation, he went on to study at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and was tenure-tracked at Southern Illinois University when U of L lured him.
Since beginning the glass program in 2005, Rhodes has found little time to work on his own art, but doesn’t view that as a negative. Instead, he sees the past two years as laying the groundwork for later creations. “In the long run, it’s like making an investment,” he says. “We’ve been building the equipment, creating the space to work with. Now we have a home, an identity, and the luxury to be creative.”
