Public-access glass studios take preventative measures to protect users from spread of coronavirus

As concern mounts about the spread of Covid-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus, glass studios in the U.S. are being proactive and hope to help stop the spread as the disease is just beginning to be detected. While the number of confirmed cases remain far lower than in global hot spots in China, Iran, and Italy, the lack of available testing in the U.S. has many worried that the spread of the virus has not been adequately tracked. With the Seattle and New York City regions emerging as locations where dozens of cases have been confirmed, glass studios there are taking steps to do their part in limiting the spread. In addition to UrbanGlass in New York, The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet reached out to the glass studios at Corning (Corning, New York), Espace VERRE (Montreal), Pittsburgh Glass Center (Pittsburgh), Pilchuck (Stanwood and Seattle, Washington), and Public Glass (San Francisco, California) to ask about what steps were being taken in the face of a potential outbreak of Covid-19, and whether they were still planning to attend the Glass Art Society conference in Sweden in May.

John Kiley, Halo, 2018. H 19 in. photo: ben vanhouten

Tuesday March 3, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Venice exhibition that traces the American-Murano connection and its influence on Studio Glass pushes back opening date due to Covid-19 virus

With officials ending Venice's annual Carnival celebration two days early, and a dozen towns in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto currently under quarantine due to multiple cases of confirmed coronavirus (Covid-19), it seems prudent that the organizers of the major exhibition "Venice and American Studio Glass" would push the opening forward a month. Originally set to debut on March 23, 2020, at Le Stanze del Vetro at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, the new opening date is April 26. Also extended is the end-date, as the exhibition will now run through August 2, 2020.

Wednesday February 26, 2020 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Spring 2020 edition of Glass (#158)

The Spring 2020 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#158) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a stained-glass light box by Judith Schaechter titled Murdered Animal (2019), at its centerpiece a mortally wounded feline creature rendered in a stack of stained glass images. The multiple layers allow a level of detail in the ripple of sinewy muscles or vertebral lumps on this animal body curled into a fetal position and cocooned in a womb-like refuge. The animal sports multiple wounds, defined by scarlet drops of blood that pick up the red-hues of the surrounding tapestry-like quasi-decorative field that also resembles a network of vein-like stems, perhaps umbilical connections between the victim and the fertility of the natural world. The richness of this work, and its central theme of nature under assault, make it as timely as it is visually compelling.

Lecturer Susie Peck (l) and assistant professor David Schnuckel (r), in the glass kiln room, lead the RIT Glass Studio and would work closely with the glass studio resident

Tuesday January 28, 2020 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: RIT glass-studio residency offers honorarium, facilities access, studio space, and paid teaching opportunity

Looking for an opportunity to pursue glass-related research, have unlimited access to a high-level glass studio, and be part of a unique community of glass artists and students? There's still time to apply to be the Glass Studio Resident at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. The position runs from August 15, 2020, through May 15, 2021, and offers access to the RIT hot and flame shops, cold-working and mold-making studios, as well as a wide range of kiln equipment.

Judith Schaechter, Lo, the Cow-Faced Maiden, 2019. Stained glass lightbox. H 26, W 29, D 3 in. courtesy: claire oliver gallery, new york

Tuesday January 14, 2020 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: Judith Schaechter exhibition opens in New York City on January 18th

Judith Schaechter's upcoming exhibition at New York City's Claire Oliver Gallery, which opens on Saturday, January 18th, borrows its title — "Almost Better Angels" — from a chapter in the 2017 Robert Sapolsky book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, a bestseller that dissects and analyzes the latest science on human behavior. The title reveals that Schaechter, a pioneer of contemporary stained-glass art and its most accomplished practitioner, is in a philosophical mood. No doubt this is because Schaechter will enjoy a major museum retrospective of her career that opens in Feburary 2020 at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York.

Charlotte Potter Kasic returned to the Hampton Roads area in January 2020 after three years in Vermont.

Saturday January 11, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Charlotte Potter Kasic returning to Virginia to take on newly created position at the Barry Art Museum

Charlotte Potter Kasic, the founding manager of the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio, left Norfolk, Virginia, in 2017 to move back to her native Vermont and start her family. Now she's returning to the Hampton Roads area to take a newly created position of manager of museum education and engagement at the Barry Art Museum, which is part of Old Dominion University, and houses the collection of Richard and Carolyn Barry, longtime benefactors of the Chrysler Museum.

Lino Tagliapietra pictured in front of his new "Totem" series works that debuted at the Schantz Galleries display at Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary.

Friday January 10, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Lino debuts two new freestanding "Totem" works at Palm Beach art fair this weekend

Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, a Florida art fair that kicked off on the evening of January 9th and continues through the 12th, is the venue where Lino Tagliapietra chose to debut a radically different type of glass sculpture. Known for his unique fusion of Muranese tradition and American innovation, Lino has spent his long career pushing the boundaries of glass forms. Recent decades have seen his boat assemblages, large kiln-formed wall panels, rows of brightly colored and richly textured shield elements, and installations of falling glass leaves, to name just a few of the new directions he's taken beyond his myriad blown-vessel forms. Though well into his 80th decade, Lino's new "Totem" series marks fresh terrain, as it uses a metal armature to create tubes of abstractly patterned glass elements rising into graphically striking vertical tubes that clearly reference Native American totemic forms, but in an entirely Muranese visual language.

Wednesday January 8, 2020 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Northeastern glass artists invited to submit to regional competition juried by Corning's Amy Schwartz

A community art center in the middle of coastal Connecticut is hosting an exhibition of contemporary explorations in glass juried by Amy Schwartz, director of The Studio at Corning. The Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut, will host the event from March 13 through April 5, 2020; and seeks submissions by artists who work in glass to create functional and non-functional works.

James Akers, Electric Blue Tumbleweed, 2019. Neon bending, 3D printing.

Friday January 3, 2020 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: A tribute to David Bowie in glass and other materials in Philadelphia

Every year since the cultural icon's death in 2016, Philadelphia has set aside a week to honor David Bowie, the persona-shifting rock star with a series of key connections to the City of Brotherly Love. Bowie's first concert album, titled David Live," was recorded at the area's live-music mecca known as the Tower Theater in 1974, and much of his seminal Young Americans album was recorded at Philadelphia's Sigma Studios. Timed to Bowie's January 8th birthday, the "Philly Loves Bowie" annual event ranges from musical concerts to art events, and this year, the National Liberty Museum has organized an entire exhibition in honor of the icon.

An aerial view of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the buildings nestled in the trees and overlooking the Atlantic ocean.

Thursday December 19, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Haystack wins $4 million Windgate gift to endow its campus preservation

An architectural landmark perched on a granite cliff on Deer Island, Maine, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts has played an outsize role in the history of glass art, hosting classes and workshops by Harvey Littleton in the early stages of Studio Glass. Dale Chihuly both studied and taught here, and clearly was inspired by the dramatic and rugged surroundings to start Pilchuck in the forests of Washington state. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, the Haystack campus was designed in 1960 by noted architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Using local materials such as cedar shingles, and with an extensive wooden walkway fostering a sense of connection, the design won the Twenty Five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1994, a rare honor shared by less than 50 buildings. Recognizing both the importance and the challenge of preserving the landmark campus in a wind-swept coastal environment, Haystack was recently gifted a $4-million grant by the Windgate Foundation. The largest gift in the school's history, the money will be "permanently restricted, generating operating support of the ongoing preservation" of the unique Haystack campus, according to the official announcement of the gift.

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.