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Artist and professor Helen Lee at the 2015 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium.

Thursday September 7, 2017 | by Andrew Page

A salary survey seeks insights into compensation levels in the field of glass art and design

FILED UNDER: Art Market, News

What's the average starting salary for a glass professor at a private art college? How about someone starting at a state school? How much debt is incurred on average to earn an MFA in glass? Until now, these questions, and more basic ones such as the going rate for a glassblowing assistant in the hot shop, have simply been unavailable. Now, artist and assistant professor Helen Lee, who heads the Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is trying to crunch these numbers as part of an ambitious confidential research project she is undertaking to collect and analyze data on how much people are paid for their work in the glass art arena. Lee will share a summary and analysis of the results of her survey at the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass. As an incentive to participate, those who take part and include an email address will receive a detailed report on the project's findings. Over 100 responses were received in the first two days, so this project promises to provide a significant sample size.

Julie Conway designed this pendant light, called "Tuffo" wth a clear crackle to cast a dramatic shadow pattern that has been incorporated into the Motif Seattle's logo for the 2017-18 artist residency period. courtesy: julie conway

Friday September 1, 2017 | by Andrew Page

DESIGN: Julie Conway wins visiting-artist competition at Seattle hotel

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Design, New Work, News

Seattle-based artist and designer Julie Conway has been named "visiting artist" for the Motif Seattle, a hotel that, true to its name, blends its identity to the vision of an area artist on a rotating basis. The recently redesigned hotel works with the artists to create a unique design "motif" that is incorporated into everything from the hotel's business cards to the room keys to elements of staff uniforms, and the collaboration is promoted on the hotel's social media presence. Conway was chosen from 20 applicants, and will receive a $2,000 honorarium. As part of her role as Motif Seattle's 2017-2018 visiting artist, Conway will be listed as the hotel's visiting artist throughout the hotel, and her work will be featured in the relaunched Website for the Motif Seattle later this month. She will also be running private glassblowing events for the hotel's clients throughout the term of the residency.

Albert Paley in collaboration with William Carlson, Arc, 2010. Formed and fabricated steel and stainless steel, cast glass. H 22 1/2, W 31, D 22 in. courtesy: the artist. photo: chuck lysen

Thursday August 31, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

OPENING: Museum exhibit explores Albert Paley’s two-decade wrestling match between steel and glass

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, Museums, News, Opening

At the intersection of architecture, steel forging and glass casting lies the work of Albert Paley. This convergence is explored in an exhibition entitled "Complementary Contrasts: The Glass and Steel Sculptures of Albert Paley" opening at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, on September 9th, 2017. Running through September 2018, the year-long exhibit aims to view glass and its applications through the eyes of artists who may not work in the medium exclusively.

Friday August 25, 2017 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Fall 2017 edition of GLASS (#148)

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News, Print Edition

The Fall 2017 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#148) will hit newsstands and subscriber mailboxes next week. The issue marks a major upgrade in paper quality to better showcase our recent total redesign. The result is superior photo reproduction with richer colors, deeper saturation, and sharper details, all of which make the cover image of a tautly furled thread vessel by Toots Zynsky even more striking. In the featured article, regular magazine contributor Alexander Castro spends time in Zynsky's Providence, Rhode Island, studio, where he learns of the creative ferment spurred by the artist's recent Specialty Glass Residency at The Corning Museum of Glass and Corning Incorporated. Access to new materials have rekindled Zynsky's passionate interest in experimentation, which Castro investigates as he also considers her established, and much-coveted, sculptural vessels made through a process of fusing thousands of delicate glass fibers that are hand-formed into complex objects that display "tidal movement," which Castro writes "isn't superfluous but integral to their being."

Landau (right) mingling with clientele during Glass Vessels and Tools of the Trade at Studio 211 at the Bemis Building during April 2017. courtesy: jessica landau photo: ian lewis

Tuesday August 22, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

CONVERSATION: Jessica Landau, on team Chihuly, finds time for own work and promoting other artists

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, News

If Seattle’s Jessica Landau could be in two places at once, she would be. Her “alternative” gallery space in Seattle’ Bemis Building, Studio 211, just hosted an event displaying the works of Greg Owen, Amanda McDonald-Stern, Alix Cannon, Dan Friday, and Tony Sorgenfrei. She also teaches glassblowing two days a week at Wilson High School in Tacoma, and works as a glassblower for Chihuly Studio, full-time. Somehow, she still finds time to create whimsical flameworked artwork and jewelry, most notably her series of mustaches, and work toward a master’s degree in business administration.

James Baker's leadership of Pilchuck began in the summer of 2010.

Tuesday August 15, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Pilchuck announces James Baker will retire in early 2018, begins search for executive director

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

Effective February 2018, James Baker, who has served as the executive director of the Pilchuck Glass School for seven years, will step down from the top staff position at this influential Washington State arts center with locations in Stanwood and Seattle. Baker's appointment in the summer of 2010 ushered in a period of stability and growth at Pilchuck, after the brief tenure of his immediate successor, Arthur Jacobus, who resigned in December 2009 after taking over just a year earlier from the long-serving Patricia Watkinson. Under Baker's watch, Pilchuck added a Pioneer Square exhibition gallery in Seattle's arts district, while also upgrading and making its studios and shops in the main location in Stanwood more energy efficient. Pilchuck, and by extension Baker, was recognized with a 2016 Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass Organization Award, which specifically credited the leadership of its executive director.

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.”

Dr. Karlyn Sutherland. courtesy: corning museum of glass.

Thursday August 10, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

Scotland’s Karlyn Sutherland awarded Corning’s 2017 Rakow Commission

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, New Work

The Corning Museum of Glass has announced that Karlyn Sutherland of Scotland will be this year’s recipient of the Rakow Commission, which gives emerging glass artists who are not yet included in the museum’s holdings the opportunity to create new work that is then added to institution’s permanent collection. Holding multiple graduate degrees (a 2008 Masters in Architecture from Edinburgh College of Art, and a 2014 PhD from the University of Edinburgh), Sutherland’s work is unique, especially in the context of the Rakow Commission for a number of reasons. Not only is she the first recipient since 1999 to be mainly focused on fused glass, but her use of perspective, which comes directly from her background in architecture, can be mystifying if not viewed up close. Susie Silbert, Corning’s curator of modern and contemporary glass, had her first encounter with Sutherland’s work while jurying a recent edition of New Glass Review. In a telephone exchange, she told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet that at first, “we didn’t think it was actually glass. We thought it was actually a rendering of glass.” However, upon closer inspection in person, she was astounded at the work’s ability to bring forth ideas of place, perspective, and illusion.

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.

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.