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courtesy: glassart.org

Tuesday August 15, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

HELP WANTED: Glass Art Society hiring for newly created position of operations and program manager

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Help Wanted, News

The Glass Art Society is looking for a new operations and program manager, a newly created position. This individual would report to the artist-organization's Seattle-based executive director, Pamela Koss, and assist her in all matters concerning the day-to-day operation of GAS. Additional responsibilities include managing and serving as a primary staff contact for work exchange and volunteer programs, ensuring office security and organization, and serving as a staff representative to certain board committees and preparing their reports, among other duties.

Friday August 11, 2017 | by Malcolm Morano

The late Ron Desmett’s legacy to be commemorated in new glass art award

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

When Kathleen Mulcahy and husband Ron Desmett founded the Pittsburgh Glass Center in 2001, Desmett, then a painter and ceramist, had never made glass work of his own before. That changed in 2002 when Mulcahy tasked artists from other materials to “think in glass,” as she told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, for a show at the Glass Center called "Artists Crossing Lines." Ron came back with the decision to blow opaque black glass vessels shaped inside hollowed out tree trunks, a body of work that would come to define his practice until his death in December 2016. “[Glass] changed his life,” she said, “and from that moment where he thought about that work in 2002 – that work is the work that is in the Tacoma Museum [of Glass], the Smithsonian, and the Corning Museum, and the Carnegie Museum. It’s unbelievable – that moment of saying guess what, nothing is impossible.”

Jen Blazina, Separation, 2016. Cast glass and bronze. H 15 W 15 D 1 in. courtesy: artist website

Wednesday August 9, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

Philadelphia glass-art museum to spotlight philanthropists, artist Jen Blazina at annual gala

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Auction, Events, Museums, News

The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia will feature Separation, a sculpture by Jen Blazina as part of its 18th annual glass auction and gala coming up on October 7, 2017. The museum fundraiser not only supports this unique institution that sees a linkage between the material of glass and the concept of freedom, but also calls attention to the work of community role models, as well as spotlights the philanthropic efforts of an individual artist. This year’s honorees are Sandy and Steve Sheller, who funded the Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple University Beasley School of Law, The Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services Center of Drexel University, and The Stephen and Sandra Sheller Commons of the South Philadelphia Free Library. This year’s "artist hero" is Pearl Dick, who co-founded Project Fire, an initiative to use glassblowing as a healing and mentoring, and job-creating tool for trauma victims and young victims of gun violence.

Phöebe Tan, Wunderkammer, 2017. Core cast gaffer glass. W 23 1/2 H 15 3/4 in. courtesy: the artist

Tuesday August 8, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

British glass art society announces 2017 recent-graduate prizewinners

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

The Contemporary Glass Society announced the winners of its "2017 Glass Prize," a contest conducted by the Society for recent glass-art graduates in the U.K. The first place winner, Phöebe Tan of University College Falmouth, will receive a £250 cash prize; £250 in warm glass vouchers; a feature article in the 16-page publication Graduate Review distributed to the entire CGS membership; a two-year membership to the CGS; and other benefits.

Daphne Farago. courtesy: kate elliott

Friday August 4, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

IN MEMORIAM: Daphne Farago (1924 - 2017)

FILED UNDER: Announcements, In Memoriam, Museums, News

When Daphne Farago, a lifelong benefactor and supporter of Studio Craft, died on July 23rd, 2017, she left her collection of over 100 pieces to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. During her lifetime, Farago donated almost 1,000 objects to the museum, mostly made up of jewelry and textile pieces, though she also donated a substantial amount of ceramics, glass, wood, metal, and folk art. In 2012, she gave the museum their largest donation ever, totaling 161 craft objects. “Mrs. Farago really collected across the spectrum of craft,” Emily Zilber, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. “Her gifts have transformed what we do, and have really made craft much more visible at the museum because we have them.”

Matthew Szösz, Ouroboros, 2017. Fused glass. H 24, W 24, D 15 in. courtesy: traver gallery

Wednesday August 2, 2017 | by Stella Porter

OPENING: Traver Gallery turns focus to boldly experimental work in two new exhibitions

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

Traver Gallery in Seattle is honoring its historical lineage with its 40th anniversary group exhibition this month, but the focus of its two upcoming exhibits in August is decidedly forward-looking. Straying from its long history as a premier gallery for top-tier glass artists such as Lino Tagliapietra, Traver Gallery will open two exhibits by experimental artists this evening, timed to the opening of the Seattle Art Fair. John Kiley, known for his intense style of breaking glass, will open alongside artist couple Matthew Szosz and Anna Mlasowsky, who push the limitations of the material through the unconventionality of their work. This is the couple's first exhibit at Traver Gallery.

Mia Hall. courtesy: penland school of crafts

Tuesday July 25, 2017 | by Stella Porter

Penland’s new director, artist and educator Mia Hall, sees craft as critical to contemporary culture

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

Artist and professor Maria “Mia” Hall will bring her respect for the importance of craftmaking in contemporary culture when she takes over for the retiring Jean McLaughlin as director of the Penland School of Crafts in January 2018. “This is a lifelong dream. I couldn’t ask for anything better,” she told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet by telephone. “I’ve always been struck by everything there. It’s such a concentration of talent and innovation, and that has always been really fascinating for me,” she added. The craft school, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, has selected Hall to become the director at the start of 2018. She will succeed longtime director McLaughlin who made many important changes to the institution, including a large studio renovation project and an endowment increase from $2 million when she started in 1998 to $17 million today.

Jeff Zimmerman, Unique crystal vessel in hand-blown glass with mirrorized interior, 2017. L 14.5" W 9" H 8" courtesy: R & Company

Monday July 24, 2017 | by Stella Porter

OPENING: Jeff Zimmerman’s signature fluidity evolves into new chiseled forms

FILED UNDER: Design, Exhibition, New Work, News

Glass artist Jeff Zimmerman continues to skirt the line between art and design with his work included in a summer group exhibition at design gallery R & Company. The exhibit will remain on view through August 17 and is notable for some strikingly fresh geometric work for an artist known for fluid, kinetic forms.

Todd Beaty, casting supervisor, demonstrates how to handle a ladle while casting. photo: mary kay nitchie, bullseye glass

Saturday July 22, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

Bullseye Glass offers first-ever sheet-casting class, a chance to participate in the process

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

Bullseye Glass Company,the innovative company that developed a wide palette of sheet glass suitable for fusing in a kiln, is now giving the public a chance to participate (to an extent) in its creation. On Thursday, July 27 at noon, Bullseye’s Portland, Oregon location will be holding a class for 20 students to assist in the casting of two separate sheets of colored glass, some of which will be doled out to students. This is the first time that Bullseye had opened the floor for students to take a class in creating the product that Bullseye innovated almost 40 years ago in the form of a public class.

Verena Schatz, Bundle, 2015. borosilicate tubes, slumped. H 53 1/2, W 14, D 14 in. courtesy: Hans-Martin Lorch

Thursday July 20, 2017 | by Sarah Thaw

OPENING: Berlin gallery devotes summer to exhibition of high-level student work in glass

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

Jens Gussek, an accomplished artist in his own right and a winner of the 2015 International Glass Prize in Lommel, Belgium, has also worked steadily as a university professor throughout his career. He currently holds the title of Head of the Institute of Ceramic and Glass Art (IKKG) at the University of Applied Science in Koblenz, Germany. A unique exhibition of work by 11 of his former students is opening at a commercial gallery in Berlin this summer, a testament to the caliber of work Gussek has helped his students achieve. Entitled “subtext glas(s),” the exhibition opens July 22 and will run through September 2, 2017, at the lorch+seidel contemporary gallery in Berlin, Germany.