Wednesday November 20, 2024 | by Sophie Faber

Carnegie Museum assistant curator Alyssa Velazquez pushes boundaries with Pittsburgh Glass Center project

Most of us are familiar, maybe even personally, with the term "glass ceiling." However, the concept of an invisible barrier in the workplace that prevents women and minorities from advancing professionally need not be simply accepted, however grudgingly. In fact, the metaphor can be recast, transformed from something that is scorned but widely accepted into something that becomes the change. The Pittsburgh Glass Center's new exhibition, Smash the ceiling, floor and walls; take the broken shards and blow it back, does exactly this, metaphorically speaking.

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Thursday November 7, 2024 | by Sophie Faber

After the hurricane, Asheville glass artists look to an uncertain future, seek to make up for lost sales

The late-September arrival of the remnants of Hurricane Helene, a slow-moving deluge of rain and destructive winds, killed 42 citizens of Buncombe County, which surrounds Asheville, North Carolina. This Western North Carolina city of less than 100,000 is a glassblowing center, where the steady flow of tourists on weekends, especially in the months from October to December, have supported multiple glass artists in their careers. The natural beauty of this mountainous region regularly drew weekend shoppers watching the leaves turn and stocking up on holiday gifts at the burgeoning galleries, artist studios, and craft marketplaces such as the Marquee, which opened in Asheville's River Arts District in 2021. But the trillions of gallons of rain that fell across the Southeast U.S. on September 27th as the hurricane made its way north caused catastrophic flooding across Buncombe County, and especially in downtown Asheville, where the French Broad River crested 24-feet above normal the waters, climbing to the soaring ceiling of the Marquee.

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Saturday November 2, 2024 | by Sophie Faber

New Zealand artist Te Rōngō Kirkwood awarded 2024 Rakow Commission

The 2024 Rakow Commission from The Corning Museum of Glass has been awarded for the first time to an artist from New Zealand. Te Rōngō Kirkwood, a mixed-media glass artist, is also the first indigenous Māori artist to be selected for this prestigious commission to make a work for the Corning permanent collection. Her pieces, made with both blown and fused glass in addition to other materials, bring the vibrancy and power of Māori culture to New York State this fall.

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