Yelle, Richard Wilfred

Glass artist and designer Richard Winifred Yelle earned his BFA in 1974 from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and his MFA in 1976 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied glass with Dale Chihuly. The following year, Yelle cofounded the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (later UrbanGlass) in New York City. In 1983 Yelle earned an MA in arts administration from New York University. Yelle first led the crafts program and later the Product Design Department at Parsons School of Design from 1986 to 1998. He stayed as a faculty member at Parson until 2005, when he joined the University of Bridgeport. Yelle is director of the Shintaro Akatsu School of Design at Bridgeport and remains on the board of directors at UrbanGlass.