Her studio destroyed in a massive fire, Christina Bothwell looks ahead to rebuilding and recovery

First came the raging fire that obliterated her studio building on August 8th, and then, just four days later, the flood that extinguished the smoldering embers but went on to inundate her basement, washing away a nearby bridge and the long dirt driveway to her home. Because the studio structure in rural Pennsylvania wasn't insured as a commercial property, Christina Bothwell was told she'd get no compensation for the total loss of her workspace and all the work she and her husband had stored there. Though the summer of 2018 was one of disaster at an almost biblical scale, Bothwell has emerged, a month later, ready to rebuild and get back to work to overcome the significant financial challenges ahead. As the main earner in her family of five, her loss of her longtime studio is a devastating blow. But being Bothwell, an artist whose glass and ceramic figures populate a dreamworld of her own personal mythologies, she prefers to look at it with gratitude. None of her family were injured in the inferno, and the artwork she lost gives her an opportunity to remake the pieces with all the improvements she thought about as they emerged from the kiln. Even in the intensity of the fire, and the desperate wait for the volunteer fire brigade, she never lost her appreciation for aesthetics, awestruck by the vision of her oldest daughter framed against the backdrop of angry flames, berating the late-arriving firemen in profanity-laden curses as a marvelous and breathtaking moment of beautiful intensity she will never forget.

Tuesday September 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Dan Clayman talks about his new faculty appointment at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia

In accepting a faculty position at the University of the Arts last month, artist Dan Clayman became the first endowed chair of glass in the history of the Philadelphia institution that has one of the oldest glass programs in the U.S. (Harvey Littleton's student Roland Jahn built the first glass furnace there with the help of then-student Dan Dailey in the 1960s when it was called The Philadelphia College of Art). The program has a reputation for being under-resourced, but glass seems to be enjoying a renewed focus there. The hiring of Clayman as the newly created "Effron Family Endowed Chair in Glass" seems to be part of that larger initiative. Though this will be his first full-time faculty position, Clayman has of late been increasingly involved with education as a visiting instructor at the Masachusetts College of Art and also at Tyler, which happens to also be in Philadelphia. (Disclosure: Clayman is also a key advisor to the biannual Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass.) The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with the busy artist who now divides his time between Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island, where he maintains a large studio, to talk about his latest move.

A veteran of Seattle's Pratt Fine Art Center, Brandi Clark was most recently the executive director of a museum devoted to Northwest Coast artists.

Thursday July 12, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Glass Art Society announces appointment of seasoned non-profit administrator as interim executive director

The Glass Art Society announced today that Brandi Clark, who had served as executive director of the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, Washington, has stepped in to fill the position of executive director recently vacated by Pamela Koss after 14 years. A native Texan Clark has worked at a range of nonprofit organizations in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Washington, including a 7-year stint as events manager and then director of community initiatives at Seattle's Pratt Fine Arts Center.

At the 2018 UrbanGlass gala, executive director Cybele Maylone is flanked by honorees real-estate developer David Picket and artist Amber Cowan.

Tuesday July 10, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Cybele Maylone, executive director of UrbanGlass since 2013, moving on to lead regional contemporary art museum

Cybele Maylone, who has served as executive director of UrbanGlass (the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet and Glass magazine) since May 2013, has announced she will be leaving the position to take on a leadership role at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Maylone will depart in the middle of August and, in September, plans to begin her new position as executive director of the Aldrich. Since 1967, the Connecticut institution has been devoted to interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs, and it remains the state's only museum dedicated to contemporary work. The board of directors of UrbanGlass will soon begin the search for Maylone's successor, with details on the executive director hiring process to follow.

As Pilchuck's artistic director, Tina Aufiero brought her expertise in emerging technologies, such as 3-D printing, to update the experimental spirit of this glass school. She is pictured in the BotLab she built during her tenure.

Friday July 6, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Tina Aufiero to step down as artistic director of Pilchuck in December, will focus on personal art practice

At the end of 2018, Tina Aufiero will step down as Pilchuck's artistic director to focus on her own artistic practice. In her six years in this leading role, Aufiero has expanded the techniques taught at the Pilchuck Glass School to include emerging digital technologies such as 3-D printers, robotics, and scanners. She's also redefined the institution's relationship with the glass pipe-making world, embracing its technical innovations and their application to art-making, as well as initiating partnerships to offer glass art programs to underserved communities. Aufiero will not only stay through the end of this year, she will be planning the courses for 2019 as well.

In appreciation for her 14 years of service to the Glass Art Society, board vice president Stephen Rolfe Powell presents outgoing executive director Pam Koss with a Veronese Vase by Cesare Toffolo at the Murano conference. photo: manuel silvestri

Thursday June 28, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Longtime executive director of the Glass Art Society Pam Koss reflects on her 14-year tenure and her marvelous Murano send-off

One thing the outgoing executive director of the Glass Art Society wants everyone to know is that she is not retiring. On Friday, June 29th, after 14 years at the helm of the artists' organization whose annual conference is a must-attend event for artists, collectors, and suppliers to the field, Pamela Koss is moving on, eagerly looking forward to starting the next chapter of her career. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with her during the closing night party of the 2018 conference, a historic event in Murano, Italy — a longtime dream Koss finally realized last month. Still keeping a vigilant eye on the proceedings around us, and occasionally breaking away to direct staff and volunteers, Koss was able to sit down for a chat after the fashion show, in which artists wearing heavy glass costumes had all safely disembarked from gondolas. A raucous Italian party band was playing note-for-note renditions of American R&B dance classics while the attendees danced away in a historic churchyard that had been outfitted with a high powered sound system and massive video screens. The shiny new technology was a sharp contrast with old world architecture and this mix of old and new permeated the historic conference and seemed to help break through some of the centuries-old traditions of secrecy about glass process and technique.

Laura Donefer and Dave Hickie wear designs by Nancy de Du Bois.

Wednesday June 6, 2018 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Images and a conversation with Laura Donefer on the historic Murano Glass Art Society fashion show

In 2017, artist Laura Donefer's phone rang. It was the executive director of the Glass Art Society gushing about the idea of having one of Donefer's signature glass fashion shows on boats during the 2018 Murano conference. She loved it, a definite "yes!" There was only one problem: Donefer says she'd never proposed it. The concept had been pitched by the artist and conference steering committee member Lucio Bubacco. "I was like WHAAA?" Donefer said in an exclusive interview with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. "It usually takes me three years to organize one of my big events, and this gave me very little time. And I was totally unsure of how this all would unfold…."

The cover of the new issue of Glass.

Tuesday May 29, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2018 edition of Glass (#151)

The Summer 2018 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#151) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. Bundled with the summer 2018 edition of GLASS is a copy of the completely redesigned exhibition-in-print, New Glass Review (#39), which is produced by The Corning Museum of Glassand bundled with each summer issue of GLASS magazine at no extra charge to subscribers (newsstand copies carry an increased cover price for the special bonus issue)

Wednesday May 23, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: UrbanGlass seeks education coordinator

UrbanGlass, the Brooklyn, New York, non-profit art center that publishes the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, is seeking a full-time education coordinator to be responsible for the day-to-day logistics of the various types of education programs. The successful applicant will work in close coordination with the director of education, the registrar, and the youth coordinator, and will be responsible for logistics for workshop, youth, and university programs at UrbanGlass.

Pam Koss pictured during the 2016 Glass Art Society Conference in Corning, New York.

Tuesday May 8, 2018 | by Andrew Page

After 14 years, Pam Koss will step down as executive director of the Glass Art Society

Following next week's ambitious 2018 Glass Art Society annual conference in Murano, Italy, the artist organization's long-serving executive director Pam Figenshow Koss has announced that she will step down. Though she plans on staying on through the end of June 2018, the announcement issued late last night brings the curtain down on her 14-year tenure.

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.