North Carolina arts nonprofit to host juried exhibition and demos featuring work in glass in May 201

The glass studio at STARworks is cordinated by artist Nick Fruin, pictured at the bench.

With a deadline fast approaching, those interested in showing their work at the STARworks NC: FireFest, should get cracking to apply to participate in a juried exhibition and sale of three-dimensional works in ceramics, glass, and metal as well as a category called “multimedia.” But even those not exhibiting in the gallery might want to make their way down to the tiny town of Star, North Carolina, with a population of less than 1,000, where a fire arts festival will run from May 3 through 31, 2013, and feature glass demos the first weekend of the event by the likes of Hank Murta Adams, the director of the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts, and Nick Fruin, the coordinator of the STARworks GlassLab, a nonprofit arts center where the demos will take place. The event is being put on by Central Park NC, an eight-county rural sustainable economic development not-for-profit organization whose mission is “to (re)grow a regional economy based on the sustainable use of its natural and cultural assets.” Funds from the National Endowment of the Arts are also making this event possible.

The STARworks Glass Lab was built in 2008 by local business Wet Dog Glass, one of the top and most-prolific equipment builders serving creative glassblowing institutions. (Editor’s Note: Wet Dog Glass is constructing the equipment for the renovated hotshop of UrbanGlass.) The STARworks studio features a 250-pound capacity invested crucible furnace, a 12-inch glory hole, and three-ported glory hole with 9-, 15- and 21-inch ports. Glass is but one of the materials featured at STARworks, which also includes a 5,000-square-foot ceramics studio featuring gas and wood-fired kilns, as well as a clay manufacturing facility. During Firefest, STARworks hopes to unveil its metal studio complete with an iron-melting cupola, a 30-inch coke forge, and MIG and TIG welding facilities.

If you can’t make the festival, there are other opportunities available to glass artists. Two internships are being offered to beginning-level glass students who have completed a glassblowing course. These internships will last from three to 12 months. in addition, three emerging artist residencies are being offered to three individuals for periods of three to six months. Glass artists or artists in other mediums who are interested in transitioning to glass, or incorporating glass into their work will be eligible for this program. Finally, three well-known professional glass artists will be invited to STARworks for short-term residencies lasting up to one month. According to a prepared announcement, “the residency programs are designed so that there will be one visiting glass artist during each intern and emerging artist session to provide professional glass influence and inspiration.”

Those interested in more information about either the festival or the internship and residency opportunities, should contact STARworks Glass coordinator Nick Fruin for more information or an application. Nick can be reached at 910 428 9001 or by email at nick@starworksnc.org.

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