Shameless Courage: Tatara Siegel and SiNaCa Studios

The team of visionary artists and teachers at SiNaCa Studios School of Glass and Gallery is small but mighty. One member of this team of five passionate artists and educators is Tatara Siegel. She is the granddaughter of longtime Fort Worth gallery owner, artist, and art teacher Evelyn Siegel. Art runs through her blood, but it’s that heart of hers that pulses for all to hear from the studio, located in an old service station on Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside.

Tatara is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington and holds a master’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Crafts in New York. Using her undergraduate degree in ceramic and glass and her graduate degree in Fine Art with a concentration in glass, she has not only written, developed, and launched art programs, but she also teaches them, records data, writes reports, applies for grants, and then starts the process all over again. In a nutshell, she develops community outreach programs that change people’s lives.

Photo courtesy of SiNaCa Studios

During a chance meeting at one of their Veteran Days (the studio offers a free day to veterans and their families to come create glass works), she met a veteran who, while in school to become a doctor, was interested in developing art therapy programming at SiNaCa. Together, they had the idea to develop an art therapy glass program to address the needs of veterans with PTSD. During a 12-week course called Identify and Ignite your Creative Voice, six veterans of the United States Armed Forces participated in the program and were transformed just as the elements silicon, sodium, and calcium (the Si, Na, and Ca of the studio’s name) are when they are put through extreme heat to become beautiful works of glass art.

While traditional art therapy has been proven to be successful in treating veterans with PTSD, working with a medium like molten glass can be very cathartic. According to Tatara, this cathartic work is very apparent in those who have moved through the program and found healing. When Tatara speaks of her personal journey as a facilitator, you understand that she is not only driven by this work, she is guided by it. It almost feels divine when you hear her talk about her role and the relationships she has built through this program. These are men and women who sought out a new healing path through art. As well as learning how to create beautiful works of art, they found themselves intertwined with each other, and now their stories of healing have been joined – fused.

Photo courtesy of SiNaCa Studios

A similar program to Identify and Ignite Your Creative Voice was called A Million Tears. Unfortunately, many women in the armed forces are survivors of sexual assault. A Million Tears was a collaborative project to represent the struggles of these women. In an 18-week program in partnership with The Art Station, these women created a visual representation of their struggles as survivors of sexual assault in the military. The glass tears, hanging purely by tension, represent the years of abuse and the weight of these veterans’ tears. The tears are connected to each other with paracord as these women are connected to each other. The few pink strands amongst the dark green strands signify the way women in the military are outnumbered by men. The creation of this haunting work of art allowed the women to connect to other survivors and heal.

Unfortunately, due to the always uncertain and often unjust nature of public and private funding, SiNaCa has been unable to keep these programs going. However, Tatara informed me that when the time comes and Ignite Your Creative Voice can continue, the same men who participated in one of the programs are ready to step up and help the next crew move through the program. A new team, a new community, a growing connection for those who have fought valiantly and bear the scars for our nation will result – it’s just a matter of time and resources.

Fortunately, a program SiNaCa continues to offer is Courage Through Fire. This program is a 10-week (40-hour) course designed for veterans and active-duty members of the armed services, introducing several hot and warm techniques of glass art creation, providing amazing introduction to the work of the studio which fosters a new appreciation of glass as an artistic medium. It’s not an art therapy program, but rather, it’s a place where veterans and active-duty military can meet and learn to create works of art in glass. The members of this program find community through shared experiences, both past and present. The members of the program make the same type of item; the beauty lies in the fact that each member’s work is completely unique, reflecting the artist and their experiences.

Started in 2008 by a group of glass artists and teachers from the University of Texas at Arlington, SiNaCa’s purpose is to be a safe place where people in the community can come and discover a new and exciting art form. While we are fortunate to have SiNaCa in our community, it is difficult to find the funds to keep the studio creating. Private and public funding keep the kilns hot and the lights on. Grants help defray the costs of programs like Ignite Your Creative Voice.

Photo courtesy of SiNaCa Studios

The studio is divided into three parts which correspond to different glass techniques. Classes are offered for people to learn these techniques. Kiln forming is a process which works with glass in its solid state, cutting and layering glass sheets with frit (ground bits of colored glass) and stringers (thin filaments of glass in varying colors) to create designs. Flame working uses a gas torch to form glass into beads and other shapes. Glass blowing is what you most likely thought of when you first started reading this article. Glass blowing is an art form that uses one of our most basic human functions to breathe life into molten glass.

Anyone interested in taking a class can visit their website and sign up. As for Tatara, she is committed to the mission of this nonprofit and is determined to continue with programs that serve Fort Worth. She’s committed to our community, and she’s committed to the lives she has changed and will continue to change. Anyone lucky enough to know her knows her courage and her shameless commitment to making this world a better place, one glass bead and one heart at a time.