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Thaddeus Wolfe has developed a signature method of casting geometric forms using a unique process involving sytrofoam forms. photo: joe kramm. courtesy: r & co, new york

Thursday August 25, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Thaddeus Wolfe awarded 2016 Corning Rakow Commission

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Museums, News

Brooklyn-based artist Thaddeus Wolf has just been named the recipient of The Corning Museum of Glass’ 2016 Rakow Commission. Awarded annually to an emerging artist whose work has yet to be represented in the premier glass museum’s collection, the $25,000 award is designed to encourage “emerging or established artists to venture into new areas that they might otherwise be unable to explore because of financial limitations,” according to the official commission announcement. Wolfe's geometrically intricate mold-blown vessels will present many technical obstacles as he expands in scale. The choice of Wolfe for this honor provides some insight into the sensibilities of newly installed curator of modern and contemporary glass Susie Silbert, who has taken over this prominent role from recently-retired predecessor Tina Oldknow.

Carrie Fertig, Film still from La Sireneuse picturing Fertig's glass instruments. Photo: Rob Page. Image courtesy: Carrie Fertig.

Thursday August 18, 2016 | by Ana Donefer-Hickie

Flameworker Carrie Fertig’s Torcher Chamber Arkestra to make second U.K. appearance in September

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, New Work, News

Reprising its 2012 performance at the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge, England, the collaborative multi-media group Torcher Chamber Arkestra that combines flameworked glass, fire, and percussion-heavy musical performance is being brought back to England for another audience-interactive, glass-centric appearance. On September 2nd and 3rd, 2016, the Birmingham arts center known as mac birmingham will be filled with the sights, sounds, and spectacle that is an Arkestra performance in an event put on by Craftspace Curates, a craft-development organization that works "to push boundaries and perceptions of crafts practice, presentation and learning" through programmes of touring exhibitions, research, and participatory projects. "Pushing boundaries" is certainly something that the Arkestra, currently featuring artist Carrie Fertig, composer Alistair MacDonald, and percussionist Stu Brown, is intimately familiar with. Best described as an interdisciplinary collaborative performance group, the Arkestra defies traditional categorization by merging craft production, performance, and audience participation to create musical soundscapes produced through the manipulation of glass.

Hot glass being shaped in a block at the North Carolina Glass Center. photo: jacob biba.

Tuesday August 16, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Glass art on the rise in Asheville as nonprofit buys private facility, plans new studios in 2017

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News, Opening

North Carolina has multiple connections to glass art, from the remarkable residencies and classes at Penland to the glass supplier Spruce Pine Batch, run by the son of Studio Glass pioneer Harvey Littleton, who relocated to the state in 1977. Now the city of Asheville, North Carolina, which the state art council cites as home to "the third-largest number of craft artists in the United States," will get a boost for glass artists with the recently formed North Carolina Glass Center, a nonprofit art center gearing up to move into a brand-new facility in spring of 2017. NCGC will occupy state-of-the-art studios at River Arts Makers Place (known as RAMP), a multi-use 50,000-square-foot facility that will house facilities from a variety of institutions, including the University of North Carolina Asheville. The new glass center aims to offer studio rentals, glass classes and workshops, as well as gallery space. But even before the new building comes online next year, the new nonprofit is already in business, having purchased the assets of the privately-held Asheville Glass Center as of June 1, 2016. NCGC's executive director Kari Rinn, formerly the director of creative arts at Haywood Community College, told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet that the nonprofit plans to vastly expand the glass education programs while keeping the public access that Asheville Glass Center offered.

An image of the harbor at Lybster, the fishing village where North Lands Creative Glass is based.

Tuesday August 16, 2016 | by Andrew Page

North Lands fills new position of chief executive, names next artistic director

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

North Lands Creative Glass, located on the rugged Northeast coast of Scotland, has filled its newly-created position of chief executive, hiring the executive director of RUA RED, a multi-faceted contemporary arts center in Dublin, Ireland. Karen Phillips will leave behind the Irish nonprofit that provided artist studios, art galleries, performance spaces and workshop facilities, to take the helm at North Lands on August 24th, 2016. In partnership with the artistic director, Phillips will be charged with building "upon North Lands reputation as an international centre for creative glass as well as a vital community facility for the people of Lybster and Caithness," according to a statement from Eleanor Hargrave, North Lands marketing officer, issued in response to a query from the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. "This should build on existing activities and relationships and integrate and develop new ones," according to the statement. Phillips will have a new artistic director to work with this fall, as Emma Woffenden's three-year term in that role will end, and artist and educator Jeffrey Sarmiento will take over starting on October 1st, 2016.

Dale Chihuly, Golden Amethyst Persian Wall, 2016. Blown glass. H 35, W 74 in. courtesy: chihuly studio.

Wednesday July 20, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Gallery exhibition in the Berkshires offers Chihuly at a human scale

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

Dale Chihuly is best known for his monumental glass sculptures that transform museums, botanical gardens, or even cities where they are installed, remaking and forcing new ways of seeing well-known spaces. This summer offers a unique opportunity to see new site-specific Chihuly works in a more intimate setting. Through August 28th, Schantz Galleries is presenting its first-ever exhibition of Chihuly’s work, and it's a rare chance to see Chihuly work at a relatively more modest scale. That said, three site-specific installations are on display, a Persian Wall and two Chandeliers in addition to many smaller works, such as work from his "Venetians" and "Black Cylinders" series.

Connor Garton Specimen Series Photo Dave Williams

From the "Specimen" series by Connor Garton, first prize winner. photo: dave williams

Wednesday July 20, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

AWARD: Glass art association identifies top emerging artists in the U.K.

FILED UNDER: Award, New Work, News

The British organization known as the Contemporary Glass Society has announced its annual glass prize winners for 2016. A special 16-page publication entitled "New Graduate Review" featuring all the winners of 2016, as well as runners-up, will be published as part of the award, that includes a top cash prize of £ 250 (about US $329). Connor Garton of the University of Sunderland took first prize, Jade Tapson also of the University of Sunderland took second, and Becky Dennis of Nottingham Trent University took third. The full list of winning artists can be seen here. Judge and CGS board member Karen Murphy stated that the work made by these young men and women "represent a snapshot of the best of British art glass coming out of our educational establishments this year."

Dr. Christopher Maxwell will take his place as curator of European glass at The Corning Museum of Glass in October 2016. courtesy: corning museum of glass.

Tuesday July 19, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

After two-year vacancy, The Corning Museum of Glass welcomes new curator of European glass

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, News

Filling a position that was vacated when Audrey Whitty left for a position at the National Museum of Ireland in 2014, the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) has appointed Christopher Maxwell as its new curator of European glass. Currently working as a European associate at the U.S.-based art dealer Travis Hansoon Fine Art, Maxwell will be responsible for cataloging and exhibiting the Corning’s extensive collection of European glass works that date back to the early medieval period, when he assumes his new post in October 2016. Maxwell has worked in various roles including curator at the U.K.'s Royal Collection Trust, and as an assistant curator of ceramics and glass at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow in 2014.

'Strike while the iron is hot' by Richard Meitner

Friday July 15, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

OPENING: “Strike While the Iron’s Hot” with newly minted Dr. Richard Meitner

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

Richard Meitner's "thesis exhibition" just opened in the Gallery at the University of Lisboa, where he has been a visiting professor since 2008. His employer is also now his alma mater, thanks to Meitner's pursuit of a doctorate in glass. In his PhD exhibition, Meitner "sets out to define what he believes art really is and is about, and how we should be teaching it and thinking about it", as he explained in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. It's Meitner's personal belief that there are "quite a few glaring and highly consequential mistakes in how we currently think about and discuss art, and how we teach young people what art is and how to make it". The exhibition is tied in with his thesis for his newly achieved doctorate in art, specifically focused, unsurprisingly, on sculpture.

Ron Desmett and Kathleen Mulcahy, co-founders of Pittsburgh Glass Center. courtesy: pittsburgh glass center.

Wednesday July 13, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

An improbable success story, Pittsburgh Glass Center’s 15th anniversary is indeed a celebration

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

Pittsburgh Glass Center will celebrate its 15th anniversary this month, marking an important milestone for a glass institution that seemed like a long shot when it opened in 2001 in a run-down part of a small, economically stagnant city. Fast forward to today, and it has become a destination for some of the world's most famous glass artists, a respected exhibition venue, and a source for high-level master classes. The Pittsburgh Glass Center is an improbable success story; and, in many ways, its story is the tale of renewal that is Pittsburgh's in the 21st century. PGC and the city will celebrate the milestone on Saturday, July 16th, with an event called “Ignite + Imbibe: Handcrafted Beverages by the Fire.” From 6 PM to 9 PM, those in attendance can drink beverages from local distilleries and watch glass artists give vessel-themed glass blowing “pourformances,” while toasting this scrappy center for glass art that has willed itself into the upper tiers of public access studios in the country.

Skyslide

Thursday July 7, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

CURIOSITIES: Slide 1,000 feet above Los Angeles latest architectural glass gimmick

FILED UNDER: Architecture, Curiosities, News

Following a top-floor renovation, The U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles has just opened a unique and tourist-friendly architectural feature called "The Skyslide," an unusual way to access the expansive new observation deck on the building's 69th floor (which can also be reached by elevator). More dramatic (and somewhat silly) is to slide down from the 70th floor, enjoying the sights via a glass chute 1,018-feet above ground. The transparency of glass heightens the views from highest public vantage point in Los Angles, and the tallest building west of the Mississippi. While a ride on an empty sack down to the outdoor observation deck is not the most elegant way to get there, the glass slide is a headline-seeking way to get publicity, at which it has been quite successful. The official website of the OUE Skyspace deck and Skyslide can be found here.

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.