Hank graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in Painting in 1978. Before graduating, he took courses from Dale Chihuly and then continued his master’s education at Tenessee Technological University. While working as an independent artist, Hank served in various roles such as a consultant and designer. He was the designer for the Blenko Glass Company for six years. Hank has also worked consistently over the years as an educator at schools and universities ranging from the Toledo Museum School in Ohio; UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY; the University of Hawaii; the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit; the Ox-Bow School, Chicago Art Institute in Saugatuck, MI; Pilchuck School in Stanwood, WA; and The Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, among others. Adams has been awarded three Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and is a recipient of a fellowship aware from the New York State Arts Council. He currently sits on the Creative Glass Center of America Advisory Board and in 2016 he was inducted into the American Craft Council as a Fellow.

His work has been featured in numerous one-man exhibitions ranging from the Contemporary Art Museum of Virginia; J&L Lobmeyr in Vienna, Austria; The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY; the Elliot Brown Gallery in Seattle; Dorothy Weiss Gallery in San Francisco; Heller Gallery in New York, NY; Marx-Saunders Gallery in Chicago, IL; and the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI. Adams’ work was also selected for “Creativity and Collaboration: Pilchuck Glass School at 30” in Seattle, WA, in 2000. Other groups show range from the triennial traveling exhibition, “Americans in Glass”, to “World Glass Now”, held in 1988 at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan; and “Glass Skin”, a traveling exhibit organized by the Corning Museum of Glass. He was awarded a fellowship at the Creative Glass Center of America in 2001. Hank joined the WheatonArts staff in 2003 as Studio Creative Director.

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