Seattle Culture
Beloved Artist Ginny Ruffner Dies
Ruffner was a longtime fixture in Seattle’s arts community
By Rob Smith January 23, 2025
Prominent Seattle glass artist Ginny Ruffner has died. She was 72. No cause of death was given.
Ruffner was a beloved member of Seattle’s arts community, and her work has been shown at the likes of the Seattle Art Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian and the Corning Museum of Glass.
Ruffner taught for years at the Pilchuk Glass School, where she was noted especially for lampworking and mentoring numerous glass artists. Her works included paint and metal with glass and, more recently, augmented reality. She founded SOLA (Support Old Lady Artists) in 2016 to help older artists gain recognition.
She taught her first glass at Pilchuck in 1984. An announcement from Pilchuk announcing her death noted that “her larger-than-life personality mimicked her work, which helped change the discourse on glass at that time. Ginny told her students ‘no swans, no ships,’ and if ‘you make it, I’ll break it.’ And she did!’”
Ruffner served on Pilchuk’s Board of Trustees for 10 years, receiving the Libenský Brychtová award in 1999. She also received an honorary doctorate from Cornish College of the Arts last year.
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