New Orleans creative glass center expands “Brass and Glass” event, mixing jazz with sculpture

At last year’s “Brass and Glass” event, Mitchell Gaudet (right) showcased his talent. Also pictured: artists Althea Holden (top right) and James Vella (left). courtesy: YAYA Creative Glass Studio.

At 7 PM this evening, the Creative Glass Studio of the New Orleans nonprofit Young Aspirations|Young Artists (YAYA) will hold a second “Brass and Glass” benefit event, this time sponsored by the Jazz Foundation of America. Expanded from last year’s inaugural event, tonight’s festivities will ring out with a distinctive New Orleans spirit as hot glass demonstrations will be accompanied by traditional jazz performances by local marching bands Treme Brass Band and The Hot 8 Brass Band. A new addition to the event will be a “Goblet Grab,” in which attendees choose from an array of hand-blown cups that they may then refill with drinks throughout the evening.

Studio co-manager and artist Mark Morris says that the event will be bigger this year, and they hope it will bring more people into the studio. Morris, along with artists Ben Dombey, Stephen Kraft, Jay Trash, Chad Ridgeway, and Charity Poskitt, will be engaging in hot glass demonstrations by melting down bottle donations supplied from Bissap Breeze. Morris is excited to be using the recycled glass—something the studio has never done before—and is discovering that its green tint inspires the creation of more funky and wildly designed glass goblets than with the clear glass the studio normally uses. Among the soulful cries of saxophones and trumpets, these artists promise to showcase their fun and innovative work for the event’s attendees.

The outside of the gallery and studio. courtesy: YAYA Creative Glass Studio.

In November 2011, YAYA absorbed the New Orleans Creative Glass Institute (NOCGI), a group of glass artists that formed in 2006 to provide a community for those who had lost their work and equipment during Hurricane Katrina. In the almost two years since, local glass artists have had an expanded set of opportunities and resources for the new and experienced alike thanks to the greater financial security of new parent YAYA,

In an interview with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet earlier this
year, YAYA’s former executive director and current development director Baty Landis said, “NOCGI artists were trying to give a gratifying artistic experience, and a big part of what YAYA does is to position our artists to succeed professionally in as many different spheres as possible. We create a sub-community between the very serious professional artist community and our young artists, who automatically become really motivated and skilled.”

YAYA is committed to a mission of fostering creative development and exploration for inner city youth, disregarding the socioeconomic troubles New Orleans youth may encounter. Landis said that the organization becomes a home for the students who “have fewer arts opportunities in their high schools,” which tend to be those within “a more at-risk, lower income population. The broader the demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds of our artists, the better we’re positioning them within as broad and as enriching a context as possible.”

The organization covers a broad array of specialities, from educational art workshops to guidance in leadership and creative entrepreneurial ambitions. It offers residencies, hosts social activist projects, and provides opportunities for traveling, allowing some students to explore art beyond Louisiana for the first time. The organization hopes to build enduring stability in young people’s lives through the arts, encouraging educational and professional success that may serve to revitalize New Orleans as a whole.

—Gina DeCagna