Viewing articles by Andrew Page

Attendees at Expanding Horizons 2017 included (L to R) mentor Mark Morris with student Jeremiah Brown from YAYA, New Orleans; student Dantrell Blake with mentor Alex Krueger from Project Fire, Chicago; student Santiago Aquilera with mentor Josh Laabs from Ignite, Chicago; student Nia Fairley with mentor Joe Waropay from Ignite, Chicago; student Taquita Pendelton with mentor Tracy Kirchmann from After School Matters Program, Chicago; and student Tanner Martin with mentor Trenton Quicho from Hilltop, Tacoma.

Wednesday April 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Deadline Extended: Week-long, expenses-paid program for under-served glass students accepting applications through April 15th

Offering talented high-school-student artists from under-served communities the opportunity to experience glass art at a new level, the Expanding Horizons program will return in 2018. Applications will now be accepted through April 15th, 2018, for the expenses-paid week-long program designed to give high-school-aged students in after-school glass-art programs around the U.S. a chance to experience the wide world of glass art in greater depth. The project is a partnership between the Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass and the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation. (Disclosure: Glass Hot Sheet editor Andrew Page is also the Minkoff Foundation director)

Tuesday April 3, 2018 | by Andrew Page

The Museum of Arts and Design announces its new director will be Cranbrook's Christopher Scoates

The Museum of Arts and Design has selected Christopher Scoates as its next Nanette L. Laitman Director. Currently leading the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, Scoates will bring a diverse range of accomplishments in his four years at the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, art college including building an experimental media department, recruiting a more diverse board, and proven proficiency in fundraising, all of which were cited as highlights of his track record in the official announcement by the New York institution that has seen a parade of directors come and go. Glenn Adamson took over from MAD's long-serving director Holly Hotchner in 2013. He was replaced in 2016 by Jorge Daniel Veneciano, who served only five months at the post before resigning in January 2017. As a new search was underway, MAD board president Michele Cohen served as interim director, and she will be succeeded by Scoates when he officially takes the reins on July 1, 2018.

Thursday March 22, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: Ulrica Hydman Vallien (March 24, 1938 - March 21, 2018)

Prominent Swedish artist and designer Ulrica Hydman Vallien, whose dramatic painted glass designs of intertwined snakes and floral imagery, as well as expressive animal and human faces, became synonymous with the identity of the Kosta-Boda glass company for the past four decades, died suddenly just days before her 80th birthday, which would have been this coming Saturday. The news broke via her husband Bertil Vallien's brief but poignant Facebook posting yesterday: "My beloved ulricas warm heart stopped beating Tonight. An incomprehensible loss. Bertil"

Thursday March 8, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Spring 2018 edition of Glass (#150)

The Spring 2018 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#150) has hit newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. The cover article is devoted to the work of Hiromi Takizawa, who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years but remains in close contact with her family and friends in her native Japan. Teaching full-time at Cal State Fullerton, she is overseeing a complete rebuild of the glass studio as she continues to explore the metaphorical concept of distance. Contributing editor Victoria Josslin cites Takizawa's 2010 dissertation title from her MFA studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, which was "Duality and Parallel Lives," as the artist's primary preoccupation which "she has continued to explore, expand, and deepen" in the eight years since completing her degree.

Christopher Taylor led the Philadelphia-based Clay Studio for over seven years before accepting the position as Pilchuck's new executive director.

Wednesday February 21, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Pilchuck's new executive director, Christopher Taylor, is former head of prominent ceramics nonprofit

In the months since James Baker announced he'd step down as Pilchuck's executive director last August after eight years at its helm, the board of Pilchuck Glass School have been searching for a replacement to lead this international glass center. Tonight, Baker's replacement has been announced: Christopher Taylor, who has been leading The Clay Studio based in Philadelphia since 2011, will be relocating to Washington State. The official announcement by Pilchuck cites Taylor's success growing the ceramics organization, expanding its audience, and boosting fundraising power, as well as his potential in helping to grow the glass center's outreach to youth and underserved youth in the Northwest Coast area.

Thursday January 11, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass seeks full-time assistant curator

FILED UNDER: Help Wanted, Museums

The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah, Wisconsin, is seeking a graduate-degreed candidate with museum experience to fill the open position of assistant curator. With a wide range of responsibilities -- from maintaining exhibit records to assisting in their organization, from overseeing exhibit installation to managing the museum's collections database, from maintaining donor records to engaging visitors through tours and written materials -- this full-time position that reports to the museum's executive director, Jan Smith, requires a masters degree in art, art history, museum studies, or related experience, as well as demonstrated ability in the Past Perfect museum collection management software.

A sought-after instructor, Signoretto was a regular at Pilchuck, and also taught in Japan. Here he is at Corning, where he was filmed for a documentary by Robin Lehman for his "Glass Masters at Work" series.

Thursday January 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: Pino Signoretto (1944 - 2017)

FILED UNDER: In Memoriam

One of the most famous and widely hailed glass masters in the world, Pino Signoretto, known for his incredible facility in sculpting from hot glass, died at the age of 74 on December 30th, 2017. Equally comfortable fabricating for international artists such as Salvatore Dali, Kiki Smith, and Jeff Koons, he never abandoned the traditional clowns and other classic Murano figures, which he rendered at larger scale and with greater fluidity than anybody else. A funeral service was held at the church of Santa Maria e San Donato, one of the oldest churches in Venice, on January 3rd, 2018, to honor the man Alfredo Barbini once called the rare type of maestro who comes along once in a century.

Tuesday November 28, 2017 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Winter 2017-18 edition of Glass (#149)

The Winter 2017-18 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#149) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. In the cover article, contributing editor William Warmus considers the provocative work of Matthew Szösz, who has refined his experimental inquiries to create glass objects that function as artifacts of a dual nature that values raw spontaneity when executed after meticulous research and disciplined technical execution. To understand what Szösz is up to, Warmus cites Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and silent-film anti-hero Buster Keaton, before presenting a detailed catalog of the artist's most important series.

Clifford Rainey among the heat-twisted remains of his former Napa, California, studio.

Thursday November 2, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Clifford Rainey, who lost everything in Northern California wildfires, to make drawings out of a charred landscape

On Sunday night, October 8th, at 10:30 PM, artist and former chair of the glass program at the California College of Art Clifford Rainey and his partner, Rachel Riser, were awakened by a neighbor's frantic telephone call warning them that a wind-driven wildfire had kicked up and was blazing toward their shared Napa, California, residence. They needed to get out immediately. "We were very close to where the fires started so there had been no warning. We could see the wall of flames on the next hillside so we just threw whatever we had into the car to get out of there," Rainey told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview from the hotel room he was staying in the weeks after evacuating. "The next day we found out the house had gone totally but were still hoping my studio would survive, which was down the hill a bit from the house. A couple days later, a neighbor called to tell us it was gone."

Tuesday October 17, 2017 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Images from the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass

The 2017 edition of the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass concluded on Sunday, October 15th, with a field trip to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, that included an exclusive advance preview of the largest retrospective to date of the glass and fiber work of MacArthur Fellow Joyce J. Scott, as well as an artist-led tour of Dan Clayman's "Radiant Landscape" exhibition. But the main events took place on Friday and Saturday, with a program of 18 lectures and panel discussions by leading glass faculty from around the world. The keynote presentation was delivered by Rachel Berwick (RISD Glass). Among the highlights were presentations by other heads of glass programs such as Helen Lee (UWisc, Madison), Justin Ginsberg (UTexas, Arlington), Kim Harty (College of Creative Studies, Detroit), Sharyn O'Mara (Tyler), and Li Wen (China Academy of Art). A panel discussion of contrasting international approaches to curriculum was moderated by UrbanGlass education director Ben Wright. Other highlights included a curator panel of Susie Silbert (Corning) and Samantha DeTillio (Museum of Arts and Design), and presentations y independent artist Dan Clayman ("Rainfield at MassArt"), writer Alexis Clements ("Myths of Success in the Arts"), and art history professor Mary Drach McInnes (Alfred). The event began with a Thursday night gallery tour on the Lower East Side that included a presentation by Betty Cunningham about Christopher Wilmarth.

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.