Monday June 23, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

OPENING: Survey of contemporary glass debuts at Connecticut art museum

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, News

A survey exhibition taking stock of the myriad approaches to glass as a medium for contemporary art opened over the weekend at a contemporary art museum in Connecticut. Entitled "Glass Today: 21st Century Innovations" and running through September 21st, 2014, the exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art explores where the material is going in terms of approaches to technique, concept, and aesthetics. The current exhibition is allso a follow-up to a 2008 exhibition at the same institution that examined the first 50 years of studio glass, getting a jump on the raft of 2012 exhibitions that covered the same territory. 

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Thursday June 19, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

Schantz Galleries’ Collectors Weekend to Feature Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events

The 2014 edition of the Schantz Galleries Annual Collectors Weekend will be held on Friday, June 27th and Saturday, June 28th, 2014, and will feature artists Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush. The artists, husband and wife, recently opened the large-scale glass and steel installation entitled the Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity at the Knoxville Museum of Art in their home state of Tennessee, and both have many of their individual works on view at Schantz Galleries. Attendees of the Collectors Weekend will have the opportunity to watch a glassblowing demonstration by Richard Jolley on Saturday.

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Wednesday June 18, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

Boisbuchet Summer Design Workshop in France offers students hands-on hot glass

FILED UNDER: Education, Events, News

Harkening back to the salons that characterized 17th and 18th century France, Boisbuchet's Summer of Design workshops will run from June 15th through September 13th, bringing together students and teachers from the fields of architecture and design to share share ideas, inspiration, and techniques. Though, instead of the crowded drawing rooms of Enlightenment Paris, this annual series of workshops will be held at Domaine de Boisbuchet, an historic estate in the south-west of France.    

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Tuesday June 17, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

EXHIBITION: “Glass Creatures” exhibit features studies of form by Susan Leibold and Mari Meszaros

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

Many glass artists are driven by the subject of water and the worlds encompassed inside of its bodies. In the 19th century, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka studied and made extensive drawings of specimens they wanted to recreate for university study, and in addition to fruits and flowers, made realistic marine invertebrates from glass. A collection of their invertebrates is housed at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and these extraordinary sculptures can also be seen on a 37-page online gallery on the Cornell website. Years ago, I had the rare opportunity to flamework on the Corning Museum of Glass’s functional replica of the Blaschka’s bellows-operated torch and workbench, managing to only create a small leaf or flower petal with its alcohol-burning flame. The size of the fire the Blaschkas worked with is much smaller than the gas and oxygen burning flame contemporary flameworkers are accustomed to, so I can attest that perfecting this process and completing the collection was no small accomplishment. Assembling these lifelike pieces with that technology in the late 1800s was certainly a labor of love. Though the Blaschkas were eventually contracted to make glass specimen for universities, the initial motivation to make these pieces must have been fueled by relentless inspiration.

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Thursday June 12, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

GlassRoots expands program to at-risk youth with new scientific glassblowing apprenticeship

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

GlassRoots is an organization that devotes itself to fanning the embers of creativity in young people until they burn hot enough to forge bright futures. Since its inception in early 2001, the nonprofit based in Newark, New Jersey has worked to teach at-risk youth the importance of teamwork, self-reliance, and entrepreneurial skills through glassmaking. The discipline required to transform glass into art carries over into other aspects of their lives, giving them the confidence and determination to succeed. The focus has been on glass art, with training in business skills important to careers in the arts but applicable to a wide range of careers. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Agnes Varis Charitable Trust, this community outreach program will be able to further expand that reach with a new apprenticeship in scientific glassblowing.

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Tuesday June 10, 2014 | by Andrew Page

EXHIBITION: Glass exhibition on Bainbridge Island puts the focus on Seattle scene

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

Through June 30th, 2014, the Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Gallery is hosting "Blown Away, Cast Away," an exhibition curated by GLASS Quarterly contributing editor Victoria Josslin. Featuring the work of Granite Calimpong, Bruce Greek, Janusz Pozniak, Lynn E. Read, Boyd Sugiki, Takuya Tokizawa, and Lisa Zerkowitz, the exhibition combines sculptural and design works in glass.

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Sunday June 8, 2014 | by Andrew Page

EXHIBITION: Kim Harty’s quest for motion capture informs a wide-ranging body of work

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

The photos are lined up neatly, like a checkerboard, fixed to the wall with binder clips. They feature a blurred figure caught in motion, her arms tracing the lines of sculptures in front of her. This is just one piece by artist Kim Harty, BOLT Resident artist, as she breaks down artmaking frame by frame in her new exhibition "Human Factors." Using motion capture technology, chronophotography, and projection, Harty's pieces seek to record the elusive artistic process and examine the dichotomy between human expression and industrial efficiency. The solo exhibition is on view at the Chicago Artists Coalition throughl Tuesday, June 14. (Disclosure: Kim is the former managing editor of GLASS Quarterly.)

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Friday June 6, 2014 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: April Surgent’s photographic glass panels debut at Heller Gallery

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, Opening

UPDATED 06- 07-2014; 8:06 PM

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Thursday June 5, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

Marie McKee to retire as president of The Corning Museum of Glass, Karol Wight to assume top post

FILED UNDER: Museums, News

After 16 years as president of the Corning Museum of Glass, Marie McKee will retire at the end of this year. Current museum executive director Karol Wight will take on the additional title of president. A newly created position of deputy director of collections and exhibitions will be filled in January 2015 to provide administrative oversight to the expanding museum that will see a new 26,000-square-foot gallery opening this December.

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Thursday June 5, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

OPENING: Espace VERRE Graduate Exhibition

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Opening

Armel Desrues and Marc-Andre Fontaine, this year's graduates of the three-year Diploma of College Studies in Fine Crafts – Glass Option, offered through Espace VERRE and Cegep du Vieux Montreal, will be showcasing their work in the exhibit titled “SiO2” at Espace VERRE, on view today through September 5, 2014. Established in 1983, the non-profit organization Espace VERRE offers education programs in glassmaking for artists and the public in addition to their collegiate program, promotes glass art through exhibitions, sales, and special events, and offers studio rentals. 

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