Dale Chihuly and Leslie Jackson Chihuly pledge $2 million to Pilchuck, which the artist co-founded in 1971

In 1971, Dale Chihuly, two teachers, and 16 students traveled to Pilchuck Tree Farm, a 54-acre parcel of forested land in Washington State, where they held an experimental summer workshop in glass funded by a $2,000 grant. Sixteen days in, the team had set up a crude but functional hot glass furnace and a glory hole, and cobbled together primitive housing. The event would not only lay the foundation of the Pilchuck Glass School's first half-century, it was also the site of an important early artistic exploration of glass installation in a natural setting in the form of Chihuly's Pilchuck Pond Installation, in which he floated clear blown glass forms in a pond like oversized organic bubbles, among the first of his career of interventions in botanical settings. It was a fitting, if surprisingly generous gesture, when on May 15th, 2022, Dale and Dale and Leslie Jackson Chihuly announced a $2 million gift to Pilchuck to support the continued role of Pilchuck as a place of experimentation and discovery in the material of glass.

Monday May 30, 2022 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2022 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#167)

The Summer 2022 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#167) is arriving in subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands. On the cover is a majestic white Raven by Preston Singletary, whose work is currently featured in a multimedia exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Based on extensive research Singletary did into his native culture, and specifically Tlingit creation myths, the artist sought to advance the legends of his Native American forebears by depicting them in contemporary materials. The resulting high-profile exhibition "Raven and the Box of Daylight" stands as one of the successful artist's most widely viewed exhibitions and advances his stature as a Tlingit representative to the wider world.

Sunday May 22, 2022 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Toyama Institute of Glass Art 2022 Artist Residency

The Toyama Institute of Glass Art (TIGA) has opened up applications for its “Artist in Residence” program for 2022, open this year only to artists who already live in Japan due to the country's strict COVID-19 restrictions. The TIGA artist residency has been on the forefront of glass art and cultural development since it launched in 2010. Founded with the mission of enriching the city’s cultural scene, the selected artist will have the opportunity to learn from and interact with Toyama’s community and education resources alongside producing their own original work. If chosen, the artist will be invited to stay at the Toyama Studio guesthouse for the duration of the residency and be given access to the Toyama Glass Studio facilities, including the hot shop, kiln shop, and cold shop as well as studio assistants upon request.

Tuesday April 19, 2022 | by Sadia Tasnim

Tacoma readies itself to host the first in-person GAS conference since 2019

In just about one-month's time, the Glass Art Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary at its first in-person international conference in two years. For the first time since 2019, the international glass tribe will be convening in Tacoma, Washington, for an event themed “Between Here and There”. The concept is to honor the past half-century since the organization was founded (technically it kicked off 51-years ago with a 19-person gathering at Penland in 1971 [see the feature article "Power in Numbers" in the Spring 2022 edition of Glass #166]), but the pandemic has been pushing big anniversaries a year ahead (see Pilchuck's 50th anniversary, for example). The conference will not only be looking backwards, but in presentations and spirit, it also seeks to peer ahead into what the next 50 years might bring. Running from May 18 through the 22nd, the event packs lectures, demos, and various panel discussions in to three days of events divided between the main venues of the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, Area 253 Glassblowing, and the Greater Tacoma Convention Center.

Sunday April 3, 2022 | by William Ganis

Does the first work of glass art depicted in a Lego set mark how widespread and accepted glass sculpture has become?

Lego recently released its Boutique Hotel building kit (10297), the latest entry in its Creator Expert: Modular Buildings line directed to adult audiences. The designer Anderson Ward Grubb and illustrator Ashwin Visser have embodied in this miniature the increasing ubiquity of hotels in art districts as well as those such as 21C Museum Hotels or the Conrad Hotel in NYC, which have art collections and galleries. The great glasswork surprise is found in the model gallery in this kit -- a cube comprised of several small, transparent bricks -- the sole sculpture among four tiny artworks.

Thursday March 31, 2022 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell's exhibition at the Mesa Contemporary Art Center in Arizona makes personal observation public

Titled "Head in the Clouds," Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty's museum exhibition at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Center offers a range of narrative glass collaborations, including many that mix neon with cast, sculpted, and blown-glass to explore personal observations including ruminations on pandemic life. Their signature porthole forms are there, as are 1,000 cast-glass cranes, which reference a story the artists recall from their childhood of the Japanese idea that folding 1,000 origami cranes would bring good luck. Another work presents neon rain clouds with cast-glass raindrops, each featuring a diver's image inside. There's a gumball machine, and even a beekeeper with built-in wifi. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with Caldwell and Chakravarty to ask them about new directions and how their collaboration has been evolving.

The Ceramics + Metal Arts Building which houses the 3D4M program at the University of Washington.

Tuesday March 29, 2022 | by Sadia Tasnim

HELP WANTED: Unique 3D4M program at U Washington is hiring a glass lecturer

The University of Washington is looking to fill a full-time glass teaching position at the School of Art + Art History + Design, at the 3D4M glass studio in the Division of Art. A one-year commitment, the position begins September 15, 2022, and runs through June 15, 2023. The deadline for applications is April 25, 2022.

RBC Award-winner Jared Last is known for his intricate patterning and highly graphic glassworks such as this work entitled "Sphere"

Monday March 28, 2022 | by Sadia Tasnim

Jared Last wins 2022 RBC Award for Glass, will receive $10k grant

Jared Last has been awarded the 2022 RBC Award for Glass by the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario. Alongside this prestigious title, Last will receive a $10,000 grant in support of his residency and continued explorations into glass art. A 2016 graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Last has studied widely, attending classes at the Corning Museum of Glass and the Pilchuck Glass School as well as Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Last combines his experiences and interest in architecture, pattern, and color into functional and sculptural pieces. His work will be featured in an awards exhibition with works by his fellow awards finalists, Charlie Lauche-Potvin, Jeanne Létourneau, and Jérémie St-Onge.

Monday March 28, 2022 | by Urban Glass

The Bead Project, a long-standing UrbanGlass program, celebrates 25 years of transforming lives

On April 27, 2022, UrbanGlass will honor Bead Project founder Annette Rose-Shapiro and the unique outreach program she founded in 1997, with an evening cocktail reception and fundraiser to celebrate the 25-year anniversary. The Bead Project is a 10-week scholarship program designed for creatively inclined women (including ciswomen, transwomen, and femme-identified non-binary folks). Students learn the art of glass beadmaking as well as entrepreneurial skills to provide new economic opportunities and a powerful outlet for creative expression.

Schema. Installation of seven glass wall panels. H 64 1/2, W 93 in. courtesy: montague gallery

Thursday March 24, 2022 | by Sadia Tasnim

CONVERSATION: Nancy Callan on capturing fleeting moments in new work now on view at San Francisco's Montague Gallery

Nancy Callan, one of the most accomplished American glassblowers taking the Venetian tradition in bold new expressive directions, is amused by the urban legend that's sprung up about how she got started in glass. It goes something like this: Lino Tagliapietra walked into a pizza shop and, so amazed by Callan's expert handling of the long-handled pizza paddle as she whisked pizzas in and out of the oven, immediately offered her a job working the pastorelli in his own studio. Nancy’s actual road to her decades as a core member of Team Lino, and her burgeoning solo artistic career, is just as fascinating (read about it in the "Lessons from Lino" feature in our Winter 2021 print magazine, Glass #165). The true story of how she got the coveted position on the maestro's team involves a degree from MassArt and proving herself in a class with Lino at Corning. But she really did work for a time at a pizza restaurant, which she says helped her master timing and high-temperature working conditions, both of which jump started her glass education.