New York's Museum of Arts and Design announces Tim Rodgers will take the helm as director in September 2021

Since Holly Hotchner's departure as director of the Museum of Arts and Design in 2013, three directors have come and gone -- Glenn Adamson (2013-2016), Jorge Daniel Veneciano (2016), and Christopher Scoates (2018 - 2020). Today, the New York City museum announced its next leader -- the seasoned director of the Phoenix Art Museum, Timothy R. Rogers, who will be moving to New York this fall to take over as MAD's Nanette L. Laitman Director starting September 15, 2021.

Saturday May 29, 2021 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2021 edition of Glass (#163)

The Summer 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#163) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a public art installation by New York-based contemporary artist Jim Hodges -- his homage to the city that shaped him so profoundly, and the perfect image to acknowledge our emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic. When the MTA invited Hodges to create an an artwork for the stairwell leading down from the Grand Central's terminal to the utilitarian 4/5/6 subway platform, he set out to mediate the architectural whiplash from the soul-stirring Beaux Arts grandeur of the famous constellation ceiling to the gritty cacophonous underground below -- and Hodges turned to glass mirror to do it.

Thursday May 20, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The Glass Art Society kicks off second virtual conference (this time with tickets required)

The Covid-19 pandemic travel bans and widespread closures precipitated a massive shift to digital, and we're all still sifting through the explosion of content that resulted as gallery openings, art fairs, and gala fundraisers went virtual. One year ago, as the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 were unsuccessful and the cancellations spread like wildfire, the organizers of the annual Glass Art Society conference pivoted from their extensively planned in-person event in Småland, Sweden, to the artist organization's first-ever online conference in May 2020. In a generous and much-needed gesture of support in uncertain economic times, GAS threw open the gates and let people watch and participate online at no charge. Fast forward to 2021, and this morning's launch of the conference with a 5 AM (Pacific Time) demo by the British-based team of James Devereux and Katherine Huskie as part of Joseph Rosano's "Salmon SCHOOL Project". Unlike the 2020 virtual event, the price of admission to this year's three days of demos, lectures, panel discussions, and numerous online networking events is $100, or $50 if you are an active member of GAS.

Thursday May 13, 2021 | by Andrew Page

THE GLASS QUARTERLY CONVERSATION: Christopher Day discusses how his work engages historic racial brutality (from the pages of Glass #162)

For our second installment of the "Glass Quarterly Conversation" series, editor Andrew Page speaks with British glassblower Christopher Day, the subject of Emma Park's feature article in the Spring 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#162). A relative newcomer to glass, Day turned his decades of experience as a tradesman to quickly gain a distinct vocabulary in hot glass -- and develop a powerful voice. Embedding copper pipe and wires into mottled and gnarled blown-glass forms, the artist explores his own racial identity and the brutal histories of slavery and lynchings of Black people in works of raw expressive power.

Friday May 7, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The UrbanGlass Gala, taking place May 12th, will showcase glass in a contemporary art frame

UrbanGlass, the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet, is holding its 2021 Gala and Auction on May 12th, where it will celebrate glass as a medium for contemporary art. A virtual event, this year's fundraising gala will be unique for its distinctly New York flavor with contemporary art stars such as Kiki Smith, a co-chair, and honorees such as arts philanthropist Barbara Tober and artist Deborah Czersko who will share their personal takes on the material and how it is used by contemporary artists.

Wednesday April 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

"The Glass Quarterly Conversation" debuts with a discussion from the pages of the magazine on how the pandemic accelerated the digital shift in glass art

Monday April 12, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Curator, critic, and author Tina Oldknow will discuss the Venetian influence on American Studio Glass in virtual lecture April 13th

Fresh from co-curating the Stanze del Vetro exhibition "Venice and American Studio Glass," Tina Oldknow will be discussing the cross-pollination between two distinct glass cultures in her upcoming Art Glass Forum: New York lecture, which will be taking place on Zoom at 6:30 PM EST on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. Oldknow, a former curator of modern and contemporary glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, will trace the import of Venetian traditions and techniques to American glassblowers, who had been taking an experimental approach to freeing glass from the industrial facilities and ecosystems that defined the material. She and co-curator William Warmus assembled over 150 works by American and Venetian artists and designers to document how the creativity flowed both ways in the exchange as both Americans and Venetians benefited by the renewed creativity and vibrancy of a historic craft language.

The glassimpact.org website features a glassblowing demonstration at STARworks in North Carolina.

Saturday April 10, 2021 | by Andrew Page

"Glass Impact" coalition's online fundraiser celebrates diverse voices in glass, and seeks support to sustain outreach

In glass-art studios across the country, a more diverse community of artists is being forged thanks to the work of nonprofit arts centers around the U.S. that are reaching out to younger artists of diverse backgrounds as part of their mission. From GlassRoots in Newark, New Jersey, to Firebird Community Arts in Chicago; from Public Glass in San Francisco, California, to FOCI Minnesota Center for Glass Arts, these organizations banded together during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic to launch a collective fundraising effort they have named "Glass Impact." (Disclosure: UrbanGlass, which publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet is among the member organizations of Glass Impact). The remaining organizations in the coalition are Hilltop Artists in Tacoma, Washington; North Carolina Glass Center in Asheville, North Carolina; and STARworks NC in Star, North Carolina.

Friday April 9, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Dante Marioni on his shimmering vessels debuting at Montague Gallery

Dante Marioni is widely acknowledged as one of the top virtuoso glassblowers in the U.S., and was perhaps the first American to learn through an informal apprenticeship with Lino Tagliapietra, the Muraese maestro. Marioni has never been content with simple mastery of traditional techniques but has spent his career seeking new ways of applying them. The goal is to make something never before realized in glass, and he's spent past decades locked in a competition to outdo himself. Case in point is the new body of work he developed over the course of the pandemic in which he takes complex cane patterning to a new level. Walking around one of the flattened vessels, each close to three feet in height and perfectly on center, a viewer is entranced by the active shimmering of the intricate canework on the surfaces. Because of the flattening, the vessel's front and back walls are in close proximity to one another, creating a vivid moiré effect that dazzles the eye. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet discussed this bold new body of work with Marioni on the eve of his April 9, 2021, exhibition opening at San Francisco's Montague Gallery, where the aptly titled show "Intersections" will remain on view through May 22, 2021. A virtual Zoom opening will take place with the artist present at 12 noon PacificTime (3 PM EST) on Friday, April 9, 2021, which you must register for in advance.

Thursday April 8, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR ENTRIES: San Francisco museum offers $1,000 prize for best work at intersection of activism and craft

The Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco has issued a call for entries for an exhibition entitled "Call & Response: Craft as a Tool for Activism," which will be juried by curator and writer Glenn Adamson; sculptor and designer Ebitenyefa Baralaye; and artist, educator and Public Glass executive director Nate Watson. The top three submissions will be offered prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250 respectively.

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.