Born in New Orleans, Eric Hess began his training with sand casting Glass Artist Mitchell Gaudet.                                                         After training with Gaudet, Eric enrolled in the glass program at Tulane University in 2012, under                                                           internationally known glass artist Gene Koss. Eric won a Joan Mitchell Scholarship to train during the                                                   Summer of 2012 with Ben Write  at YA YA Glass Studio in New Orleans. After two years of advanced                                                     course work at Tulane he was excepted into the MFA Glass program at The University of Texas at                                                           Arlington. Eric receive his MFA in Glass and Sculpture in May of 2018. In 2016 Pilchuck Glass School                                                     awarded him a scholarship to study with Aesa Bjork. He has completed an artist-in-residency program at                                             the Washington School of Glass with Tim Tate. He also received the 2016 Art Alliance for Contemporary                                               Glass’ Visionary Scholarship. In 2019 Eric received the Bess and Harvey Littleton Scholarship and studied under Dave Walters at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. Eric was the only American to be the recipient of the international Stanislav Libensky Award in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 2019. Eric’s work has appeared at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma Washington, National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, The Alexandria Museum of Art, The New Orleans Museum of Art, Nave Museum of Art in Victoria, Texas and The Louisiana State Museum’s Capitol Park Museum. Eric also curated an exhibit on the works of Texas contemporary glass artists for the Nave Museum in Victoria, Texas in the Summer of 2017, which was later exhibited at ArtSpace in Shreveport, Louisiana. Recently his work was acquired by the Museum of Glass for their permanent collection. Eric has exhibited extensively and has taught Sculpting, Glass Sandcasting and 3D Designer at the University of Texas at Arlington. Eric is member of the Glass Art Society, Arts Council of New Orleans and Shreveport Regional Arts Council. Prior to his career as an artist he was the Executive Director of the Ballet in New Orleans and wrote grants for the New Orleans Symphony and New Orleans Opera. He owned Hess Marketing and advertising in New Orleans for 20 years and has served on over 20 nonprofit Boards of Directors. Eric is also the Curator for SAS Gallerie.