Staff Biographies
Learn more about our team! Organized alphabetically.
Victoria (Tori) Hansen has been working with glass since 2015, with a BFA from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. She is knowledgeable in a variety of glass processes including flameworking, glassblowing, kiln, casting, glass screen printing, and coldworking. Tori has been a staff member at Foci MCGA since 2019, filling a variety of positions - mostly administrative. You can almost always find her either in the studio office, flameshop, or home playing video games with her partner and their cats.
Mitchell Kile was born and raised in Minneapolis and first discovered glass art at Foci MCGA when he was a teenager. He found glass again at the University of Wisconsin- River Falls where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in glass. After school he moved to Pittsburgh to work as an apprentice at the Pittsburgh Glass Center and lived there for three years working for several different artists as well as teaching classes. Most recently he was a part of the Hollywood Hot Glass team where he spent two years teaching classes and doing glass blowing demonstrations aboard the Celebrity Cruise line. He now lives in Minneapolis and works at Foci MCGA as an instructor and a studio assistant. His work involves several different glass studios and processes. Mainly the hot glass studio, the cold glass studio, and the lost wax kiln casting studio.
Emily McBride’s love for glass began with an introductory class in glassblowing as an undergraduate at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. After receiving a BFA in Glass, she began her career traveling to various glass schools and centers around the country to work as an assistant for professional glass artists. Continuing her own artistic practice, McBride received her MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, after which she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Introduced to Foci MN Center for Glass Arts, she quickly became immersed in the Foci MCGA community fulfilling roles such as Time-trade assistant, Programming Chair on the Board of Directors, and Instructor. Her favorite volunteer run project that she led was the Foci Focus Group, a group open to community members that emphasized teamwork and collaboration in the Hot Shop and provided time for artists to realize larger scale projects requiring multiple assistants. In 2019, McBride was hired at Foci MCGA as the Program Coordinator and fulfilled this role until 2023 when she entered her current position as the Gallery Coordinator. She maintains her artistic practice, designing and creating functional and sculptural glassware using glassblowing, coldworking, and flameworking processes.
Julie Strand-Blomgren has worked at arts nonprofits for over twenty years. She started her work at literary arts centers, working with professional writers and teachers in the community. In 2016, she began to work with artists of all kinds at COMPAS where she was the Arts Program Director for 8 years. She joined Foci MCGA as Executive Director in 2024.
Isaac Theobald has been working with glass since 2012, and has probably worked in most hot glass studios in the state since then. He has done a little bit of just about everything we offer at Foci MCGA, but focuses on the hot shop and flame shop. He volunteered with Foci MCGA at the Minnesota State Fair for many years before coming on staff full time in 2020. He maintains an artistic practice based mostly out of Foci MCGA’s studios.
Abegael Uffelman is a glass and mixed media artist, who connects optical illusions to societal disparities within identity, politics, and social interaction. Uffelman earned her BFA with a minor in art history from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2019. She presented at the 2024 Glass Art Society's International Conference in Berlin, Germany, as a Saxe Emerging Artist Award Recipient, has been awarded first place in Bullseye Glass' Tg: Transitions in Kiln Glass Exhibition, and completed the Better Together Residency at Pilchuck Glass School. Aside from art, she enjoys spending time cooking and playing with her orange cat, Biscuit.
