Doreen Balabanoff is an architectural glass artist & architectural designer living/working in Toronto, Ontario. She currently teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design and is the Assistant Dean, Faculty of Design, First Year. She has a B.A. (Art) from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and a professional Master of Architecture from UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Balabanoff studied stained glass with reknowned key figures in ithe international glass community, British stained glass artist/educator Patrick Reyntiens and German glass designer Ludwig Schaffrath in the 70’s. She worked for Reyntiens as Studio Assistant/Fabricator, and traveled extensively in Britain & Europe augmenting her art and architectural education. Her first exhibition of work in glass, 'Fresh Steps in an Archetypal Art', took place in London, England in 1976.

Since arriving in Canada in 1977, Balabanoff has been working w/ architectural glass, for exhibition as well as commissioned works. In 1981 (w/ S.Reid & D.Pearl) she organized the national competition/exhibition, 'Personal Image for Social Space' (on the use of glass in architecture, open to all visual artists in Canada., juried by Greg Curnoe, France Morin and John C. Parkin. In 1990, she organized “The Burleighfield Experience" at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery - an exhibition/symposium honouring mentor Patrick Reyntiens' significant international contribution to the development of contemporary glass and its current practitioners.

Upon completing a Masters Degree in Architecture at UCLA in 1985, Balabanoff worked in the Design Department at WZMH Architects in Toronto, and later in the offices of Eugene Janiss and Warren Grossman. In 1990 she & partner S. Reid won a national competition for an urban artwork for the City of London, Ontario. In 1992, "People and the City" was erected at the intersection of Queens Ave. and Wellington St. - a bronze & limestone monument honouring John Graves Simcoe and other outstanding citizens from the city’s past.

In 1991, her light installation, “Colour Chords”, in a Toronto warehouse space exposed/investigated the architectural/spatial possibilities of coloured light projection. ‘Aspects of Light’, a solo exhibition at Artspace, Peterborough (1993) continued this exploration.

Balabanoff was the guest editor of Leadline Magazine in 1993-94. "Colour + Light, Image + Emanation" focused on the meaning and manifestation of light & colour in architecture. Her article on Joseph Albers work in glass appears in this issue, and is cited in the Guggenheim’s catalogue accompanying a major exhibition of his work in glass (1994-5)

In 1997 she co-curated 'Six Voix/Six Voices' an exhibition at the Centre International du Vitrail, Chartres, France, which presented the work of six contemporary Canadian architectural glass artists to over 20,000 visitors at this major glass gallery, directly adjacent to Chartres Cathedral. 'Six Voices' showed in Munich & Halifax before coming to the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, Waterloo, in 1998-99.

Balabanoff's commissioned work, "Eight Tone Poems", for the Freeport Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, was recognized by the Canadian Health Care Association as the Outstanding Donor Recognition Project of 1999. The piece involved the selection & use of over forty poems by Canadian poets, in a contemplative set of eight ‘colour chord’ windows.

In 2000 she created a light projection piece for the Alderwood Centre in Etobicoke, and was one of four international artists invited to propose a major light sculpture for the roofscape of the Bay-Adelaide Centre in Toronto. In 2002 she completed a set of 14 Stations of the Cross in glass for the chapel of St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Guelph. Her Lake Huron house/studio, designed with partner S. Reid, is nearing end of construction.

Memberships: OAA, OCC, CARFAC, GAAC, Board of Directors OCC, Women’s Glass Network (international group of 21 glass artists). She has served as a juror for the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council, has been an invited visiting critic (architecture) at SCI-ARC, Washington University and University of Michigan, has lectured and written on architectural glass.

Born: Sept. 12, 1952..dual citizen Canada./U.S.A.

HONOURARIES
1995, 1993,1992	CANADA COUNCIL AWARDS travel grants, Chalmers Award research grant
1994-1988	ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS
1985	DEAN'S AWARD Graduate School of Arch. & Urban Planning U.C.L.A.
1970-74	CALIFORNIA STATE SCHOLARSHIP Studies at Pitzer College and C.C.A.C.
1974-75	MICHAEL HATTRELL AWARD stained glass studies, Burleighfield House, England

EDUCATION
1985	MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE DEGREE Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, U.C.L.A. (Studies w/ Frank Israel, Charles Moore, Charles Jencks, Robert Mangurian)
1974-76	STUDIES w/ PATRICK REYNTIENS and LUDWIG SCHAFFRATH Burleighfield House Studio, Bucks., England
1974	BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE Pitzer College, the Claremont Colleges, Claremont, Ca¬lifornia (Studies w/ Carl Hertel, David Furman, Yando Rios, James Turrell)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1992- pres.	ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN Toronto, Ontario ASSISTANT DEAN, FACULTY OF DESIGN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FACULTY OF DESIGN
1996	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE St. Louis, Missouri VISITING PROFESSOR Graduate Studio "Light and Colour"
1991	HIGH PARK ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL Toronto, Ontario ARTISTS IN THE SCHOOLS Ontario Arts Council Program "Colour and Light" (grades 4-6)
1980	NEW YORK EXPERIMENTAL GLASS FOUNDATION, N.Y.C. Summer Institute, Naples, N. Y. Advanced Architectural Glass Design