On December 6th and 7th, a unique academic symposium will bring the world of glass instructors, professors, and program administrators to Brooklyn, New York, for a two-day discussion of the most pressing issues in the field. A review panel made up of Dan Clayman, sculptor; Jack Wax of the Craft/Material Studies Dept at The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts; Ruth King, artistic director emeritus of Pilchuck; Robert Minkoff, managing trustee of the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation; and Andrew Page, foundation director, selected from the many responses to a Call for Papers. (Disclosure: The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet is published by UrbanGlass, which is hosting the symposium, and edited by Andrew Page, who also serves as the director of the Minkoff Foundation). The resulting program brings together the new guard of glass academics who are taking over glass programs around the U.S., as well as their more established counterparts at some of the leading universities. In addition, the program will bring together top administrators of non-accredited institutions such as Pilchuck, Penland, and UrbanGlass to examine their relationship to degree-granting insttutions. The program will be a mix of auditorium lectures and what are being billed as "studio lectures," presentations taking place in the UrbanGlass studio that may make use of the newly renovated facilities to share practical techniques of teaching.
The resulting program will feature a new generation of glass program heads such as Helen Lee at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, or Alexander Rosenberg (pictured above) at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. More seasoned faculty members such as Jack Wax at VCU, Peter Houk at MIT's GlassLab, or Michael Rogers at the Rochester Institute of Technology will provide insights gleaned from years of experience in academia. Pilchuck executive director James Baker, Penland program director Leslie Walker Noell, and UrbanGlass education programs consultant Jane Bruce of UrbanGlass discuss how their programs relate to the university curricula. The speakers span the U.S., Canada, as well as Europe and Australia, with presenters such as Jens Pfeifer, head of the glass program at the Gerrit Rietveld in Amsterdam, or Richard Whitely, Head of the Glass Workshop at the School of Art, Australian National University traveling from far abroad to take part.
Columbus College of Art and Design's Dawson Kellogg (pictured above, left) and Sheridan's Koen Vanderstukken will present "Case Studies in Change," a dual presentation about overhauling established glass programs. The full line-up of speakers for this high-level academic symposium to discuss "Issues in Glass Pedagogy" is now available for review at www.urbanglass.org/symposium. A bonus pre-conference Thursday-evening tour of Chelsea galleries (including the new Heller Gallery location) will kick off the event in style on December 5th, winding up with a cocktail reception in the downtown loft of a prominent Manhattan art collector (sponsored by the Glass Art Society).
Lecture presentations will get underway on Friday, December 6th, with a keynote by Jack Wax, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, who will talk about how glass departments can redefine and reposition themselves in university art curricula.
Click on the link below to register now, and you will also receive information on booking your hotel at a special negotiated rate. Rooms at the special rates are going quickly so register early!