Micheal Nourot was one of the original 16 students at the acclaimed Philchuck Glass School during the summer and winter of 1971. As part of this group working with Jaimie Carpenter and Dale Chihuly, Micheal designed and built the first furnace and structure at Philchuck. In the summer of 1995 Micheal attended the 25th Anniversary Celebration in Stanwood, Washington where the school is located.

Nourot graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California College of Arts & Crafts in June 1971. His teachers there were Ruth Tamura and Marvin Lipofsky. At the time the school’s glass studio was off campus. CCAC now has one of the best teaching facilities for hot and cold glass working. After graduation Micheal Nourot worked at the famed Venini Factory on the island of Murano near Venice. There he was on a team which included Checho Ongaro who later went on to acclaim as a symposium leader in America at Philchuck and elsewhere. The glass works which Mr. Nourot founded upon his return to the States in March 1973 was based largely upon the techniques used in Italy.

Micheal’s Light Opera in Ghirardelli Square, in San Francisco began operating in the Spring of 1973. At this time the glass pieces made by Micheal were given over half for the rent and the other half went into storage. Pieces from that era are included in the studio collection. See the What's New page about our virtual auction.

Later that year, Ann Corcoran joined the studio. Ann Corcoran was new to California when she began glass studies at CCAC. Ms Corcoran had attended the Rochester Institute of technology’s School for American Crafts from 1970—72. There she received an A.A.S. degree in Weaving and Textile Design. At CCAC Ann studied under Marvin Lipofsky and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in August 1974. In the winter of 1973-74 Ann Corcoran began working with Micheal Nourot in the San Francisco studio.

During the summer of 1974 the pair decided that the studio in the rear of the gallery owned by Mr. Eric Sinizer was proving too restrictive to allow further experiments in colored glass. Furnaces there were limited to ones which simply melted "cullet" or previously used glass. In Benicia, a small California town on the periphery of the metropolitan Bay Area, Mr. Nourot secured a large industrial space to build a larger glass works.

Benicia became the new home of the Nourot Studio in August 1974. In November of that year the partners were married. Business flourished and soon new workers were added. The first hired was Charles Correll, a native of Virginia who had worked at the Williamsburg Glass House, where period costumes and period glass work were featured. Mr. Correll is now located in Massachusetts where he still creates beautiful glass work. About 1977 a third person was put onto the team. David Lindsay came to the studio at age 18 with a desire to learn this fascinating trade. Mr. Lindsay left the studio at the end of 1997.

From 1974—1987 the studio was in a formative phase. The craft shops and galleries in nearby Northern California were the primary outlets for the works produced by the trio. In 1987 an important commission provided a great deal of publicity and spurred growth. Pope John Paul II’s commission for 1,200 “ciboria” for the Mass at Candlestick Park in December 1987 came at a time when the studio wanted to move to a larger building. The move was just across H Street in Benicia, but the 1954 vintage Yuba Research and Development Building was a move into the next century for the glass works which previously was housed in a metal sided warehouse. In the new space at 675 East H Street, together with Smyers Glass, a sparkling new gallery space was built in addition to new furnaces and blow room.

Nourot Glass Studio now enjoys many distinguished and notable clients from Presidents, Film makers and Corporate Clients. The United States Air Force commissioned Nourot to create the Solano Trophy in the spring of 1998. This perpetual award is presented to the most efficient unit within The 15th Air Force, a supply wing covering over one half of the world.

In 1999 the California State Assembly, on their sesquicentennial meeting in Benicia, California, commissioned Nourot Art Glass Studio to produce a piece for each of the Assemblymen and Assemblywomen. Benicia was once the capitol of California and houses the first California State Capitol building.

These projects which can often be for pieces which require months of research and trials have been a source of inspiration and design growth.

Each and every piece of Nourot Glass is always made by one of the two partners, no molds are ever used. The signature on every piece of studio glass is the same now as it was in 1974: two letter code for the series, piece number, year and artist’s initials.