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.

Wednesday November 11, 2015 | by Andrew Page

3 Questions for ... Jean-Simon Trottier

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, New Work

GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?Jean-Simon Trottier: For the past two years, I've been working continuously on a collaborative project with my partner Montserrat Duran Muntadas. We have created several sculptural installations that explore the issues of immigration and borders. For this project, we were especially inspired by seeds of various plants as metaphorical symbols of freedom. Because the organic forms of our sculpture were inspired by nature, this especially made our technical research an enriching one, while giving us pieces that surpassed our expectations.

Tuesday November 10, 2015 | by Sia Lenaburg

YaYa Center for the Arts readies for its first fundraising auction in new home on Friday

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Auction, Education, Opening

UPDATED: November 12, 2015 Of all the cities I've visited, New Orleans is the most human — the most alive. The city of New Orleans is a lot like a person, someone who is full of life, yet who has suffered and survived. A person with a story to tell, which undoubtedly begins and ends with an obstacle that has been overcome. Driving up to the YaYa Arts Center in Central City New Orleans, I was taken aback by how “new” the architecture of the buildings appeared. Construction had just been completed, and the shiny new center is surrounded by other new infrastructure, which, explained Lesley McBride, YaYa’s events and special projects manager, is the result of economic growth of the Central City neighborhood where the new YaYa is located.

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.

Vesna Jovanovic. "Elisabeth Morrow," 2014, 24"x36," Gouache, Ink, Watercolor, Graphite, and Colored Pencil on Paper

Friday November 6, 2015 | by Sia Lenaburg

EXHIBITION: Medical glass takes center stage at Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science

FILED UNDER: Curiosities, Education, Exhibition, Museums

Advances in glass technology have paralleled the development of modern medicine since Anton van Leeuwenhoek's breakthroughs in optical lenses and microscopes in the 17th century began to unravel the mysteries of blood flow, yeasts, and the how small parasites can affect human health. Glass instruments in medical science are directly or indirectly responsible for a substantial number of the improvements the world has seen in health and health care, and glass participates in forwarding expansion of the human lifespan. Just how indispensible the material is to the medical field is brought home in an exhibition currently on view at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, a great detour for those in town for the big SOFA art fair this weekend. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently interviewed Collin Pressler, curator at IMSS, to discuss the museum’s take on how glass is both an historical and aesthetic display of beauty and purpose.

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.

Wednesday November 4, 2015 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: Royal College of Art seeks new Head of Glass & Ceramics Program

FILED UNDER: Education, Help Wanted, News

The Royal College of Art, located in the Kensington area of London, is seeking a new head of its Ceramics & Glass Program, which is unique in only offering graduate-level studies. Masters and doctoral students at RCA are pursing glass and ceramics from different perspectives, including as product designers and individual artists, but all are driven by a desire to achieve material understanding. Reporting to the college's dean of the "School of Material," the successful applicant to head the program will be in charge of the academic direction, research, and resources allocations of the program and its staff, according to the official job posting. Key qualities sought are business acumen and creative thinking to help bolster the program's prestige as a venue where creativity, science, and technology meet.

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.