was born in the USA. He graduated from high school in Tacoma and enrolled at the College of Puget Sound in 1959. A year later, he transferred to the University of Washington at Seattle, where in 1965 he received a BA in interior design. In 1967, he received an MA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied under Harvey Littleton who is considered to be the father of the American studio glass movement. In 1968, he studied glass in Venice on a Fulbright Fellowship and received a MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1971, with the support of John Hauberg and Anne Gould Hauberg, Chihuly founded the Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Washington, now considered as an international glass communications center. It attracts students and teachers from around the world. Chihuly has been the recipient of many awards including honorary doctorates from the University of Puget Sound, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. He is a Fellow of the American Craft Council and has received the Governor's Art Award from both Rhode Island and Washington. He has also been honored with two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Council for the Arts Visual Artist's Award, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. His work is included in over 170 museum collections from New York to Kyoto. In 1986, he became the fourth American to be honored by a one-man exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. His works has been shown in Tokyo, Prague, Goteborg, Denmark, New York, London and Venice. In 1999, Chihuly mounted an ambitious installation, Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem. More than one million visitors attended the Tower of David Museum to view his installations. In 2003, he completed designs for the sets of the Seattle Opera's production of Pelleas et Melisande (Debussy), and then in 2007 for Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Bartok). Chihuly describes his role as "more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor." This is his first work for the Israeli Opera.