OPENING: Gene Koss debuts new work at Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

At his new exhibition "From a Distance," which opened on Saturday, January 9, Gene Koss unveiled a wide range of mixed-media work. The new glass-and-metal works at Arthur Roger Gallery in downtown New Orleans reference two very different environments — the majestic rural landscape of Wisconsin farmland where Koss grew up, and the more vulnerable Mississippi River Delta ecosystem, where man-made engineering vies with the unruly river and gulf waters that are held at bay, imperfectly, through an elaborate system of levees and dams.

The interior display area at JamFactory, Adelaide

Tuesday December 15, 2015 | by Andrew Page

JamFactory announces new juried prize for Australian and New Zealand glass artists

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Call for Submissions, News

When the Ranamok Prize was awarded for the final time in 2014, New Zealand and Australian artists lost the region's richest award recognizing the best work being done in glass. Today, JamFactory announced it would step in to fill the void with a new juried glass prize set to debut in 2016. Carrying an award of AU$20,000 (about $14,300 in U.S. dollars), the new biennial FUSE Glass Prize was born out of a lengthy discussion between the Adelaide-based art center and prominent glass collectors Jim and Helen Carreker. The couple are the founding donors for the prize in addition to six other individual collectors and a foundation.

Tuesday December 8, 2015 | by Andrew Page

GLASS magazine awarded National Endowment for the Arts funding for 2016

FILED UNDER: Award, News, Print Edition

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly $15,000 for 2016, part of $27.7 million in arts funding the government agency is distributing to 1,126 projects across the nation next year under its "Art Works" major funding category. The Art Works program has a "focus on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields," according to the NEA announcement.

Wednesday November 18, 2015 | by Andrew Page

CURIOSITIES: MIT’s Peter Houk interviewed about unearthed 1957 glass time capsule

FILED UNDER: Curiosities, Design, Education, Events, News, Video

Even before construction of the new nanotechnology lab at MIT has been completed, the facility is already yielding unexpected discoveries. Workers digging into the campus near Building 26 unearthed a sealed glass time capsule that had been buried in 1957 by students and their famous MIT professor Harold Edgerton (1903 – 1990), best known for his strobe photography that froze splashing liquid or the impact of bullets and explosions. The flameworked capsule stuffed with paper and scientific samples bears clear instructions not to open until 2957, or 1,000 years from its time of burial. In an official MIT video, director of collections Deborah Douglas talked about what remains enclosed in the sealed capsule. Whether it will be opened or not is unclear from the video.

Tuesday November 17, 2015 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: The new Glass Wheel Studio expands art offerings in Norfolk, Virginia

FILED UNDER: Events, Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

The Norfolk, Virginia, glass scene, dominated by the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio, just got bigger with last weekend's opening of a brand-new multi-media art center last Saturday evening, November 14. Unlike the museum's program of demos and performances, the Glass Wheel Studio aims to "serve as an incubator for extraordinary ideas and aim to encourage artists across all disciplines to pursue and elevate their craft." (Disclosure: Glass Wheel Studio is an advertiser in GLASS Quarterly magazine.) As its name implies, the organization puts a special emphasis on work in glass but is open to artists working in all materials. The 8,500-square-foot facility features two rotating galleries and affordable artist studios. Each year, it will provide 13 visual artists an immersive studio practice program, which provides opportunities "for research, experimentation, and professional development." The inaugural exhibition features the glass work of Philadelphia-based artist Jon Goldberg, founder of East Falls Glassworks. Also featured is work by Natalie Abrams and Liz Berk. The

Monday November 16, 2015 | by Andrew Page

Today is the 100th birthday of the iconic Coca-Cola bottle design

FILED UNDER: Design, Museums, News

Even though aluminum cans and plastic bottles predominate, there's something about an ice-cold Coca-Cola served in its signature voluptous glass bottle that never fails to impress. The thick glass, shaped to perfectly fit into the hand and with raised lettering, telegraphs ripeness in its organic hourglass form. The patent for this design was issued on November 16, 1915, making today the centennial of this celebrated product packaging that is known around the world. The original design is referenced today in a variety of packaging materials for the world's best-selling soft drink. But it is in the greenish glass blottle that the form is most powerful, providing a visual and tactile sensuality that retains its power despite the proliferation of sophisticated package design in the century since. The story of how this quintessential design came to be is little-known and quite amusing.

Monday November 16, 2015 | by Andrew Page

AWARD: Therman Statom named as 2015 United States Artists Fellow, receives $50,000 prize

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

Therman Statom has been named as one of 36 United States Artists Fellows for 2015. With the honor, which includes an unrestricted $50,000 award, Statom joins the ranks of artists working with glass such as Beth Lipman, Sibylle Peretti, Judith Schaechter, Mary Shaffer, Joyce Scott, and Einar & Jamex de la Torre, all of whom have been honored by the organization since it was founded in 2006. The purpose of the fellowship is to identify "the most accomplished and innovative artists working in the fields of Architecture & Design, Crafts, Dance, Literature, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts and Visual Arts." Though the organization identifies Statom as a "sculptor, glass artist, and painter" who is "most notably known as a pioneer of the contemporary glass movement for his life-size glass ladders, chairs, tables, constructed box-like paintings, and small scale houses; all created through the technique of gluing glass plate together," he, like the other artists working in glass who have won the award, is listed in the "Crafts" category.

The Rakow Commision work Tantric Object (2015) by Swiss studio jeweler Bernhard Schobinger features glass skulls crafted from the bottom of antique poison bottles.

Thursday November 12, 2015 | by Andrew Page

MUSEUMS: Corning to unveil subversive jeweler’s Rakow Commision work today

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Exhibition, Museums, New Work, News

Today, The Corning Museum of Glass will unveil its 30th Rakow Commission, the first to be awarded to a jeweler and the first new work to be added to the collection of the museum's Contemporary Art + Design Wing since the March 2015 opening. The work is titled Tantric Object by the avant-garde Swiss jeweler Bernhard Schobinger. It is a necklace of tiny skulls made from the bottom of green poison bottles. Gold laquer adds a decorative flourish to this provocative neckwear, and the word "GIFT" is evident in one of the glass pieces -- which in German means "posion." In a provocative 45-year career, the artist-jeweler has built his reputation on his use of castaway materials such as broken glass and ceramic shards, worn-out erasers, and even the elastic that once kept underwear from falling down.

Jeff Mack, who managed the studio at the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, will join the Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Programs team in December.

Saturday November 7, 2015 | by Lindsay von Hagn

MUSEUMS: Jeff Mack moving from Toledo to Corning in December 2015

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

UPDATED: 11/8 11:50 AM -- Artist and educator Jeff Mack, after seven years as the manager of the studio at the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, will be joining the The Corning Museum of Glass in December as the Hot Glass Programs and Projects Supervisor. This position, created in light of the recent museum expansion and the rapidly evolving hot glass programs at the Corning institution, will involve managing the daily operations of the popular Hot Glass Show, scheduling the team of glassmakers and guest artists, and managing hot shop maintenance and supplies. Though he will be doing some travel with the Hot Glass Roadshow and GlassLab Design Program, Jeff will not be heading out to sea with the cruise ship glassblowing programs, primarily facilitating recruitment and deployments from the home base in Corning. "I hope to realize the potential of the CMOG's incredible new space," he says, referring to the renovated Hot Glass Show amphitheater.

The Glass Guillotine, where unsold works are smashed, adds to the free-wheeling atmosphere of this unconventional fundraiser.

Thursday November 5, 2015 | by managingeditor@glassquarterly.com

Texas glassblowing studio hosts Steampunk fundraiser Saturday

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Auction, News

Steampunk is alive and well in Grapevine, Texas, where it’s the theme of an annual fundraiser put on by Vetro Glassblowing Studio and Gallery. Featuring a “twisted version of a live auction,” Glass On The Tracks will take place Saturday, November 7, from 7–10 pm.

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.