In a joint release with the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Pittsburgh Glass Center has announced the launch of “merger negotiations” with a fellow Iron City nonprofit arts organization. In a process expected to take up to a year-and-a-half, the PGC and PCA boards of directors are investigating how they might form a single comprehensive arts organization that supports a wider range of artistic media and approaches. This will be the second merger for the PCA, which in January 2006, completed a merger with Pittsburgh Filmmakers. The process should be made easier by the fact that the PCA and PGA already share their executive director, a position which is held by Charlie Humphrey. In a prepared statement, Humphrey laid out the rationale for the merger as “totally in the best interest of the community and it is truly unique.” Citing a shared philosophy and approach to programming between the two organizations, he says: “We can do so much more together than we can individually.”
A sign of a likely more multi-media future for PGC can be seen in the upcoming exhibition of the work of Japanese artist Fumino Hora that will include an installation incorporating glass, paper, photography, and video. Presented in conjunction with PCA, it is entitled “The Way of Samsara,” and opens November 5th.
For more info, visit the PGC’s exhibition website here.