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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.

Monday June 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Prize-winning documentary, an epic tale of near-disaster in stained-glass fabrication, available for free screening and discussion

Holy Frit, a harrowing tale of the near-disaster when Judson Studios, artist/designer Tim Carey, and the famed Narcissus Quagliata teamed up to create a massive glass window. A fast-paced documentary by director Justin Monroe recreates the seat-of-the-pants story of how an extremely ambitious Carey took on the job of creating the world's largest stained-glass window for the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, and struggled to turn the concept into reality, eventually bringing in stained-glass maestro Quagliata for emergency assistance. With a lighthearted take on what was no doubt a gut-wrenching process, director Monroe follows Carey as he defies several potential disasters along the way of pioneering new fusing techniques to realize the outsized vision. The film's trailer captures the zany energy of a project repeatedly just missing going off the rails with a sense of humor only possible in hindsight, though much of it was filmed as it unfolded.

Thursday June 10, 2021 | by Andrew Page

New York's Museum of Arts and Design announces Tim Rodgers will take the helm as director in September 2021

Since Holly Hotchner's departure as director of the Museum of Arts and Design in 2013, three directors have come and gone -- Glenn Adamson (2013-2016), Jorge Daniel Veneciano (2016), and Christopher Scoates (2018 - 2020). Today, the New York City museum announced its next leader -- the seasoned director of the Phoenix Art Museum, Timothy R. Rogers, who will be moving to New York this fall to take over as MAD's Nanette L. Laitman Director starting September 15, 2021.

Saturday May 29, 2021 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2021 edition of Glass (#163)

The Summer 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#163) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a public art installation by New York-based contemporary artist Jim Hodges -- his homage to the city that shaped him so profoundly, and the perfect image to acknowledge our emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic. When the MTA invited Hodges to create an an artwork for the stairwell leading down from the Grand Central's terminal to the utilitarian 4/5/6 subway platform, he set out to mediate the architectural whiplash from the soul-stirring Beaux Arts grandeur of the famous constellation ceiling to the gritty cacophonous underground below -- and Hodges turned to glass mirror to do it.

Thursday May 20, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The Glass Art Society kicks off second virtual conference (this time with tickets required)

The Covid-19 pandemic travel bans and widespread closures precipitated a massive shift to digital, and we're all still sifting through the explosion of content that resulted as gallery openings, art fairs, and gala fundraisers went virtual. One year ago, as the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 were unsuccessful and the cancellations spread like wildfire, the organizers of the annual Glass Art Society conference pivoted from their extensively planned in-person event in Småland, Sweden, to the artist organization's first-ever online conference in May 2020. In a generous and much-needed gesture of support in uncertain economic times, GAS threw open the gates and let people watch and participate online at no charge. Fast forward to 2021, and this morning's launch of the conference with a 5 AM (Pacific Time) demo by the British-based team of James Devereux and Katherine Huskie as part of Joseph Rosano's "Salmon SCHOOL Project". Unlike the 2020 virtual event, the price of admission to this year's three days of demos, lectures, panel discussions, and numerous online networking events is $100, or $50 if you are an active member of GAS.

Thursday May 13, 2021 | by Andrew Page

THE GLASS QUARTERLY CONVERSATION: Christopher Day discusses how his work engages historic racial brutality (from the pages of Glass #162)

For our second installment of the "Glass Quarterly Conversation" series, editor Andrew Page speaks with British glassblower Christopher Day, the subject of Emma Park's feature article in the Spring 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#162). A relative newcomer to glass, Day turned his decades of experience as a tradesman to quickly gain a distinct vocabulary in hot glass -- and develop a powerful voice. Embedding copper pipe and wires into mottled and gnarled blown-glass forms, the artist explores his own racial identity and the brutal histories of slavery and lynchings of Black people in works of raw expressive power.

Friday May 7, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The UrbanGlass Gala, taking place May 12th, will showcase glass in a contemporary art frame

UrbanGlass, the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet, is holding its 2021 Gala and Auction on May 12th, where it will celebrate glass as a medium for contemporary art. A virtual event, this year's fundraising gala will be unique for its distinctly New York flavor with contemporary art stars such as Kiki Smith, a co-chair, and honorees such as arts philanthropist Barbara Tober and artist Deborah Czersko who will share their personal takes on the material and how it is used by contemporary artists.

Using pre- and post-consumer glass recycled from their community, Bicycle Glass Co. creates sustainable lighting fixtures. courtesy: smithsonian craft optimism.

Thursday April 29, 2021 | by Lindsay von Hagn

Smithsonian's "Craft Optimism" virtual marketplace puts the focus on craft and sustainability

When Covid pandemic hit just over one year ago, cancellation of events of all kinds followed. The organizers of the 2020 Smithsonian Craft Show were determined not to cancel its annual craft showcase. Although the show had to be postponed for about six months, the Smithsonian successfully shifted to a virtual format that combined the Craft Show with Craft2Wear, the Smithsonian’s annual wearable arts program. This year, the Smithsonian Women’s Committee (which has sponsored the Craft Show Since 1982) collaborated with non-profit arts organization Honoring the Future to launch a brand-new crafts market in the virtual space that addresses climate-change. Titled Craft Optimism, this show features 100 artists selected by experts in the craft community and highlights work that either “helps to address climate change or reflect on the impacts of climate change in some way,” according to the show’s mission statement. Handmade works in a myriad of craft mediums divided into four categories - Jewelry, Wearable Art, Accessories, and Art/Home - are for sale through Saturday, May 1st, and can be viewed in the online catalog.

Dr. Robert Brill (1929-2021). courtesy: the corning museum of glass.

Tuesday April 20, 2021 | by Lindsay von Hagn

IN MEMORIAM: Dr. Robert Brill (1929 - 2021)

Dr. Robert H. Brill, a research scientist who became the director of The Corning Museum of Glass, passed away at home on April 7, 2021 in the company of his wife, daughter, and cats. Dr. Brill founded the Corning Museum's scientific research department when he joined the staff in 1960. He retired in 2008 after having served the museum for five decades. During his long tenure with the museum, he conducted chemical analysis on historical glass objects to determine where and how they were made, their uses, and how they were traded. Much of his research culminated in the museum publication “Chemical Analysis of Early Glasses”, three volumes of site reports, analysis, and conclusions based on the study of over 3,600 pieces of historical glass from around the world. He later turned his focus to Asian Glass found along the Silk Road trade route, and was one of the first Western scientists to study Chinese glass.

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.