Cybele Maylone, who has served as executive director of UrbanGlass (the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet and Glass magazine) since May 2013, has announced she will be leaving the position to take on a leadership role at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Maylone will depart in the middle of August and, in September, plans to begin her new position as executive director of the Aldrich. Since 1967, the Connecticut institution has been devoted to interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs, and it remains the state's only museum dedicated to contemporary work. The board of directors of UrbanGlass will soon begin the search for Maylone's successor, with details on the executive director hiring process to follow.
Asked about some of her proudest moments during her five years leading UrbanGlass, Maylone told the Hot Sheet that first was: "building an incredible team of staff who have been instrumental in the organization's success."
"The vast majority of UrbanGlass' stellar team have been hired in the last five years," said Maylone, "and those who preceded me — like Brian Kibler, Jeff Bush, Rachel Feinberg, and Andrew Page — have deepened and expanded their portfolio of responsibilities during this time."
"I worked very hard to create a positive culture here, both for the staff but also for the studio community, because at our core UrbanGlass really is a community," she continued. "I've made great efforts to get to know the people who make up our studio and, while I haven't met everyone (there were 385 professional artists in our studio in 2017!), I've really tried to make the studio a positive place for people to create, experiment, and work."
In addition to her administrative accomplishments, Maylone prides herself on her progress learning to blow glass. "I am incredibly proud to have become a moderately competent glassblower," she said. "I took my first class with Charles Provenzano over four years ago and went home and told my husband, 'Well, it's too bad I work there because glassblowing is awful.' But I've stuck with it and found it to be an incredibly challenging but deeply rewarding endeavor. It's given me such a sense of accomplishment to have made even the tiniest bits of progress in the studio, and, of course, has given me a tremendous amount of respect for the incredible artists who work at UrbanGlass every day."
Maylone also cites the birth of her second child as well as her first child's maturing from a 1-year-old when she started at UrbanGlass to a soon-to-be second-grader, as major personal milestones during her tenure at the Brooklyn nonprofit art center.
Asked about the challenges that will face her successor, Maylone said: "While there will be challenges for the next director, I think there are mostly opportunities — to continue to build the community of artists who understand what's possible here, and to expand the audience for the amazing work that artists at UrbanGlass — and around the world— are doing in glass."