Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington. He received a Master's degree in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin and studied glass in Venice on a Fulbright Fellowship. In 1971, he founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. In 1976, he was in a car accident that left him blind in one eye. After recovering, another accident in 1979 left him unable to blow glass, so he hired others to do the work. He was the subject of the 1998 documentary Chihuly Over Venice.