This spring, support Hilltop Artists and the growth of the next generation

David Rios with his mentor Greg Owen, 2017

David demonstrating during Arts Night Out at Hilltop Heritage Middle School, 2022

At Hilltop Artists, we’ve been connecting young people to better futures through tuition-free glass arts education since 1994—during that time, thousands of students have shown us that the most important thing we offer isn’t the glass. It’s belonging.

David Rios was nervous the first time he stepped up to a furnace full of molten glass at Hilltop Heritage Middle School. Anyone would be. Years later, what he remembers most about that moment isn’t the heat or the nerves—it’s what a Hilltop teaching artist said to him as he hesitated: “Don’t be afraid of it. You have to get closer.”

That advice was about more than glass.

David found his way to Hilltop the way a lot of our students do: sideways. “I was getting in trouble a lot,” he admitted, “I was just trying to survive, and I really needed mentorship.” A visit to the school counselor led to a conversation with our team, and an invitation: “come on over.”

“Hilltop showed me that I was beautiful as a kid,” he reflected. “I wasn’t talented, or even good, back then. But they let me be part of it—even if I was only holding a paddle–and I just kept coming back. That was totally new to me… being invited, being wanted.”

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Not every part of David’s path was smooth. After losing his grandmother, he pulled back from the studio and from the community he’d built. Then a staff member found him outside behind the school and said simply: “I really think you should come back. Right now.”

He did. And it changed everything.

For David—a second-generation Mexican-American navigating two cultures with very different ideas of how to belong—the studio became a place where he didn’t have to choose. “Make something you want to see,” an instructor suggested, and suddenly his identity wasn’t something to quiet down; it was something to pour into the glass. Through Hilltop’s Student Ambassador Program, that creative instinct eventually carried him to France to study alongside a master glassmaker—and to European museums where he saw his own artistic ambitions reflected in the wider world for the first time.

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Zane, Jack, MiShawn, and David, 2016

Those experiences grew into Ofrenda, a monumental installation inspired by the ancestral altars he’d grown up with that was acquired by the Tacoma Art Museum in 2023. This spring, David will become the first in his family to earn a degree; and like so many Hilltop Artists alumni, he’s already giving back, returning between semesters to teach young people who sat where he once did. “I’ve got kids calling me ‘Unc’ now,” he laughs. “I used to get mad about that—I’m still young! Now I realize it’s a signal to always do better, they’re looking up to me.”

The affection in David’s voice as he talks about younger students is a physical force, and what strikes me most about his story is that this kind of transformation doesn’t stay personal. It ripples outward. Glassblowing demands partnership, and David calls that one of the most important things Hilltop gave him: “It’s compassion. Learning to not just focus on yourself, but to always think about your partner.”

That’s what we’re really growing here. Young people who understand that what they do affects everyone around them; who not only look toward their own futures, but remember those behind them and reach a hand back through the door.

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David’s story exists because supporters like you kept showing up. Thank you so much for believing in this work deeply enough to return to it, year after year, the same way our students do.

This spring, I’m asking you to renew your commitment to our young people. And as another student steps up to the furnace, I want you to know that your gift is the quiet voice beside them saying: You can do this. Get closer.

With gratitude,

Dr. Kimberly F. Keith
Executive Director, Hilltop Artists