Dorothy Hafner received her BA from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, where she also completed her post-graduate studies.Trained as a painter and sculptor, Hafner first tried her hand at ceramics, both functional and sculptural in 1973. In the ensuing 15 years she created over 12 lines of tableware, both hand crafted and industrially produced, for such firms as Tiffany & Co. in NYC and Rosenthal in Germany. At the same time she also actively created one of a kind sculptural objects which were exhibited internationally. Museums owning these works include the American Craft Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Mint Museum of Art to name only a few.

 Building layer upon layer of transparent cutouts, she began fusing them together to produce single multi-layered transparent panels, each rich with overlays of her diaphanous imagery.

Hafner’s glass works are in many major collections, including the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, NYC, the Brooklyn Museum, NY, the Musee des Arts Decoritifs, Montreal, the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, the American Crafts Museum, NY, and the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach.