The Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, takes ownership of the "transformative" collection of its patron, the late Leonard Leight (1922-2021)

With the death of Leonard Leight in March of this year, the collection he compiled with his wife Adele (1923-2018) has passed in its entirety to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Featuring works of ceramics, glass, furniture and other decorative arts, the collection totals over 450 works of art, of which 220 are contemporary glass. Decorative arts curator Scott Erbes considers the gift historic: "Like many passionate collectors, the Leights did not want to hide their collection and their passion for glass behind closed doors," Erbes said. "Rather, they wanted to share their joyful discoveries with others, generously promising their collection to the Speed and its visitors over the course of several decades. In doing so, they made one of the most transformative gifts in the Speed’s nearly 100-year history."

Grand Prize | Rui Sasaki, Subtle Intimacy, 2019. H 84.0 W 44, D 1.4 cm. photo: ryohei yanagihara. courtesy: toyama international glass exhibition.

Tuesday September 7, 2021 | by Lindsay von Hagn

The Toyama International Glass Exhibition is expanding awareness and appreciation of the range of contemporary glass art

The second iteration of the triennial Toyama International Glass Exhibition, a showcase of the latest achievements in the field of glass art from around the world, debuted mid-summer 2021. After a first winnowing of 1,126 entries submitted from a total of 756 international artists, a second narrowing took place by a 12-person judging panel consisting of directors and curators from glass-art institutions and academic programs around the world. The process ended up with 45 finalist works which are all on view at the Toyama Glass Art Museum through October 3, 2021.

Monday September 6, 2021 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: UrbanGlass seeks a Development Director

Do you have five or more years leading the fundraising for a non-profit organization? Familiar with a wide range of funding sources, including corporate partnerships and special events? Are you a fantastic communicator? Do you look for the big picture and approach your projects from a strategic perspective? Are you a Google suite expert who has also tamed the wild world of Salesforce or other CRM?

Monday August 30, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Hot Off the Presses: The Fall 2021 edition of Glass (#164)

The Fall 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#164) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a time-based work by David Schnuckel, an epic story told in 16 panels. Like a graphic novel, it records a decay sequence as an expertly created wineglass made by the artist is subjected to the intense heat of the kiln, which causes it to deform, collapse, and end as a shriveled silica mass. Rich with metaphor for the lifecycle, it was chosen as fitting for the season of harvest, and for its challenge to the tendency to fetishize technique in glassmaking. Schuckel's work is highly original, takes advantage of new technical opportunities thanks to a high-temperature camera setup at Corning, and revels in the artist's interest in provocation and deconstruction.

Tuesday July 27, 2021 | by Andrew Page

EXCLUSIVE: About to turn 87, Lino Tagliapietra announces his retirement from glassblowing, though not from teaching

Taking what he considers "the hardest and most important decision" of his life, glass maestro Lino Tagliapietra has announced his official retirement from glassblowing today. Citing the challenges of manual work at the furnace as he approaches his 87th birthday on August 10, the man widely acknowledged as the greatest glassblower in the world will put away his tools for the last time.

Saturday July 10, 2021 | by Andrew Page

THE GLASS QUARTERLY CONVERSATION #3: Alex Bernstein on the accidental discovery that changed his career

For our third installment of "The Glass Quarterly Conversation," we present Alex Gabriel Bernstein, who is the subject of an in-depth feature by regular magazine contributor Alexander Castro in the current edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (Summer 2021, Glass 163). In conversation with Glass editor Andrew Page, Bernstein shared the story behind his accidental discovery working in his father's studio while home for Christmas from grad school, when showers of steel sparks embedded themselves into a glass surface. Thus was born a technique that would come to be known as "Bernsteining," though its inventor shares all he knows about his technique openly in classes and demos, encouraging others to explore this fusion of glass and steel.

Thursday July 8, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Alison Kinnaird on the expansive possibilities of the ancient art of glass engraving

Copper-wheel glass engraving, an ancient technique that has defied forecasts of its imminent obsolescence, is a highly-expressive type of shallow rendering in glass that dates back to Roman times. The technique reached its peak of popularity in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which it was eclipsed by less labor-intensive processes such as cutting or etching glass. Though not as widely practiced as it used to be, the contemporary art of glass engraving is not only proving to be continually relevant, its artistic potential continues to be expanded by artists such as Alison Kinnaird. Aspects of the copper-wheel technique, such as its limits in scale as the glass must be small enough to handle precisely under the engraving wheel, have continued to push Kinnaird to find innovative solutions to challenges she regularly encounters, even after her own 50 years of experience in the process.

Friday July 2, 2021 | by Lindsay von Hagn

OPENING: Vermont Glass Guild's 10th anniversary exhibition

On Saturday, July 3rd, from 4 PM to 6 PM, the Southern Vermont Arts Center will host the opening reception of "2021˚F: 10th Anniversary Vermont Glass Guild Exhibition," a notable group show that will be on view through August 22, 2021. Established in 2010, the Vermont Glass Guild consists of over 40 regional artists working in various techniques of glassmaking, and the group has exhibited widely individually.

Benjamin Moore returned to Venini for the 2018 GAS conference in Murano, where he spoke eloquently about his time at Venini.

Sunday June 27, 2021 | by John Drury

IN MEMORIAM: Benjamin Moore (1952 - 2021)

Details are still emerging, but glass great Benjamin Moore died on Friday, June 25th, 2021, in Seattle. Moore is considered one of the most influential American glassblowers of the 20th century, not only for achieving a rare level of skill, but for helping to connect the nascent American Studio Glass movement with esteemed European masters via his influential role as the longtime creative director of the Pilchuck Glass School, a title he held until 1987. And the studio he established in Seattle, Benjamin Moore, Inc., quickly became an essential crossroads where a new generation of glassblowers learned their craft and connected with established elders.

Alison Grace Koehler in her Paris studio: photo: sabine dundure

Thursday June 17, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Paris-based Alison Grace Koehler searches for new ways of fusing poetry and stained-glass

Alison Grace Koehler, who's been seeking ways to fuse stained glass and poetry through innovative performances that use projected imagery during live readings, has recently published a book that brings together the word and ethereal image in printed form. An American expatriate, Koehler discovered stained-glass while walking along a winding street near the Gare du Nord in Paris and spotted a series of paintings and glass panels through a studio window. Out of curiosity, she knocked on the door and was invited in by the Kurdish artist, who for decades had been living in Paris, where he offered stained glass workshops. Koehler had experience cutting glass when she assisted an artist in Copenhagen, Denmark, after graduating with a BA from Macalester College in 2008, and so she signed up. She was so enamored by the stained-glass process, she would go on to get an advanced degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art, and would be admitted into a guild of emerging stained-glass artists. Based in Paris, Koehler now shares a studio space with another stained-glass artist from the guild. Since she began working with stained glass, she has sought ways to animate the form -- from manipulating glass components on an old-fashioned transparency projector to using a live video feed projected on her own figure as she reads her poems, using the sounds of breaking glass as rhythmic interludes of the performance. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently interviewed Koehler via email about her new book project, and her attempts to bring her various media together into a single work.

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.