Rïse identifies as gender fluid and queer, with their gender expression often evolving. This image, taken in September 2024, shows how they expressed themselves at that time. Rïse is standing within Spencer Finch’s glass and light installation, The Secret Life of Glass, at the Corning Museum of Glass [2020.4.1]. Glass chain necklace by Jeri Warhaftig.
[Image description: A person with curly hair styled in a top knot stands before brightly colored glass panels in pink, green, yellow, and blue. They wear a dark floral button-up shirt, earrings, and a chain necklace, smiling softly toward the camera as colorful light reflects across their face and clothing.
TLWR: Rïse Peacock is an artist with a passion for Craft. Their practice encompasses writing, drawing, assemblage, mixed media, and zines. They are driven by a deep belief that artists and makers can change the world! They reside on the ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the so-called Southern Finger Lakes of New York State and currently serve as the inaugural Curatorial Fellow of Postwar and Contemporary Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass.
I HAVE TIME: Rïse Peacock (pron. Reese, they/she) joined the Corning Museum of Glass in 2022 and was appointed inaugural Curatorial Fellow of Postwar and Contemporary Glass in 2024, a donor-funded, three-year role supporting the vision, direction, and management of the Museum’s Postwar and Contemporary Glass collection.
During their tenure, they have served as a contributing curator for Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass, Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective, and Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio. They also served as the curatorial assistant for the exhibition Dig Deeper: Discovering an Ancient Glass Workshop.
Before joining the Museum, Peacock held educational appointments at Alfred State College and Alfred University, where they received the 2022 Fiat Lux: Exceptional Teaching Award. In 2021, they collaborated with a cohort to strategize curatorial approaches in response to the 2020 global pandemic as a curatorial fellow with the Stay Home Gallery (Paris, TN). They also served as the nominated curator for the 2019 Women Create Biennial, featuring works by women and gender-expansive artists across the Southern Tier of New York State.
In 2025, Peacock presented their case study “Power, Politics, and Representation: Challenges in the Material Community of Glass” through the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program with Creative Time. They are also an honorary “sibling” of She Bends, a neon arts organization dedicated to advancing education and equity in neon arts. In 2018, the Friends of the Cuba Circulating Library awarded Peacock a Community Development: Artist Grant to co-create a book collection and after-school programming for the queer and at-promise youth of Allegany County, New York.
Peacock holds an MFA in Glass and Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, where they received a Visionary Scholarship from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass to complete their graduate research, and a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. They are a proud alum of Jamestown Community College and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.