A recovered Pier Glass in Brooklyn celebrates its grand reopening

Kevin Kutch (seated) and Kevin Scanlan blowing glass at Pier Glass.

Pier Glass, whose devastating experience of Hurricane Sandy was documented in detail on the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet last year, is celebrating its grand reopening with a three-day party that runs from April 26th – 28th, and will include a silent auction, glassblowing demos, lectures, and glass for sale. The event, which is being co-sponsored by Scanlan Glass, is being billed as “a weekend of thanks” to share appreciation with the many volunteers who helped to haul debris and restore the studio to its pre-flooded state, something that is still very much in progress for Pier Glass owners Kevin and Mary Ellen Buxton-Kutch, as well as Kevin Scanlan of Scanlan Glass and Alison Ruzsa who rent space there as well.

“We’re still getting back on our feet, going to be an ongoing process for a while,” Buxton-Kutch told the Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. “We’ve raised money to rebuild our furnace and two glory holes, and we’ve raised money to rebuild all five annealers. So far, we’ve rebuilt three of the five, with the two others in process.” She added that the focus now is on rebuilding the cold shop equipment, while they squeeze the last useful life out of the storm-damaged furnace that will be replaced during the summer slowdown.

For Pier Glass, rebuilding didn’t begin until late December, two months after the storm, when electricity was finally restored and damage could be fully assessed. “We didn’t have electricity until December 28th,” says Buxton-Kutch. “Until then, we couldn’t determine what would work and what wouldn’t.” Even things that appeared to work fine at first ended up presenting problems as the digital timer controls became unreliable for annealing cycles and couldn’t be trusted for important projects.

All the drywall has been replaced and business has resumed, with understanding clients patiently awaiting orders that were put on hold to deal with the flooding. Buxton-Kutch credits grants from the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) as instrumental in keeping their business viable during the lengthy recovery period. “You have to have money just to maintain the monthly bills so you can stay in business,” she explains. Another important source of funding was a group called “Restore RedHook” and a crowd-funding site called www.gofundme.com that raised approximately $11,000, supplemented by smaller amounts from friends and family members. .

“CERF+ was one of the most supportive groups, and not only for Kevin and myself, but for the Kevin and Alison, who also received grants,” says Buxton-Kutch who credits the $3,000 CERF grant for helping to keep monthly bills at bay while they rebuilt. “Les Snow at CERF+ has been wonderful, and he’s staying in touch. In fact, he recently sent me some more information about setting up flood insurance and they’re trying to help provide some of the money to buy flood insurance.”

Though the party is taking place in late April 2013, Buxton-Kutch estimates there’s another year of work left to fully recover. “It looks so much better, as you’ll see if you join us at the party.”