Judith Schaechter is an established stained-glass artist who has been making work for almost forty years. Although she did not begin working in stained glass until college, Schaechter knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist. Her parents nurtured her love for art: her father took her on regular trips to the MFA Boston, while her mother frequently offered drawing and painting as antidotes to boredom. After high school, Schaechter enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) as a painting major. In her sophomore year, she took a stained-glass elective class and fell in love with the medium, switching her major to glass and designing a remarkably focused and intensive academic program for herself.

After earning her BFA from RISD in 1983, Schaechter moved to Philadelphia, where she currently maintains her studio. In addition to her artistic practice, Schaechter actively teaches and has taught workshops at the Pilchuck Glass School and the Penland School of Crafts. She has also taught courses at RISD, the New York Academy of Art, and The University of the Arts. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Schaechter’s work is featured in national and international public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia; The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and the Toledo Museum of Art.