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A most influential faculty member was Glen Lukens, a Missouri-born ceramist, jewelry designer, and glassmaker. Lukens taught at Fullerton Union High School and Fullerton College in the 1930s. While at Fullerton College, Lukens developed an elusive copper blue glaze that received well-known attention. Lukens was enticed to teach at the University of Southern California in 1936. He contributed to the development of the California School of fine art ceramics and curated the first exhibit of California ceramic artists. His work was praised for its innovative use of glazing and forms and was actively exhibited during his lifetime and posthumously. At a time when American pottery production was dominated by design and decoration, Lukens forged new rough clay designs and discovered and promoted new glazes and glaze techniques. His influential innovations heavily influenced the California dinnerware industry of the 1930s.
Lukens throughout his lifetime worked with the people of Haiti to develop ceramics to both improve quality of life and as a form of economic stimulus for home industries. Before Lukens worked with Haitian people, Haiti had no cultural ceramics. One of Lukens students was Frank Gehry, a well-known international architect whose design includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Lukens introduced Gehry to architecture in a ceramics class at the University of Southern California.
1887–1967
1930’s
Founder, Professor, Chairperson, Department of Ceramics, University of Southern California, 1933-1952
Ceramic and Jewelry Instructor, Fullerton College
Founder, Art Department, Fullerton College