Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. Chihuly went on to earn his MS through Harvey Littleton's glass program at the University of Wisconsin in 1967. In 1968, he was awarded an MFA for his work at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he later established the glass program and taught for over a decade.

In 1968, Chihuly was granted a Fulbright Fellowship to work at the Venini factory in Venice, Italy, where he observed the team approach to blowing glass, which is critical to the way he works today. In 1971, Chihuly cofounded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. He focused the next several years on developing many well-known series of works, among them the Baskets, Persians, and Seaforms. In 1995, he embarked on the international project Chihuly Over Venice, which involved working in glass factories in Finland, Ireland, and Mexico, and installing the resultant sculptures over the canals and piazze of Venice. In 1999,