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Viewing articles by Kinshasa Peterson


Wednesday May 24, 2023 | by Kinshasa Peterson

The 2023 Glass Art Society conference (coming up soon!) celebrates Detroit's creative community

The Glass Art Society's 2023 conference in Detroit, scheduled for the rapidly approaching dates of June 7th through 10th, will present a full slate of lectures, demonstrations, exhibitions, and student meetups, all of which will kick off with a fundraiser, Firestarter, on the evening of Tuesday, June 6th. Now in its 52nd year, the annual GAS conference is one of the main sources of revenue for this artist organization, and it brings together artists, collectors, and suppliers for opportunities to learn from one another; exchange wares and knowledge; and generally revel in a shared passion for the medium whether sculptors, designers, pipemakers, or engravers. As has become customary, the conference is packed wall-to-wall with events at multiple venues, and this iteration sees venues throughout the Motor City, including at the Russell Industrial Center, a former industrial building that has been converted into studio rentals and has become known as the biggest arts hub in the Midwest. In addition to the fundraising Firestarter event, the GAS Conference will feature a slate of collector-focused activities including day trips to historic sites in Detroit and the surrounding region in the days before the conference with curator-led experiences at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Henry Ford Museum, and demonstrations at local glass studios, among other venues.

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Tuesday May 16, 2023 | by Kinshasa Peterson

Virtual Glassblowing becomes a reality (sort of) at Pittsburgh Glass Center through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University

The Pittsburgh Glass Center is billing a brand-new interactive program as "the first virtual glassblowing experience," which the arts nonprofit developed in partnership with Carnegie Mellon graduate students from the university's Entertainment Technology Center, which teaches gaming design and digital animation. The result of the 15-week collaborative project, which saw the Carnegie Mellon students coming to study the glassblowing process, is a simplified first-person simulation of some of the basic steps of glassblowing, which immerses a single user in a virtual glass studio where gathering, picking up frit, blowing through a hose, and knocking off are pictures on screen, and apparently controlled by motion-capture technology that tracks the headset-wearer's movements.

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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.