Professor of Sculpture Jude Tallichet will return to participate in this semester's Blow-a-Thon. photo: Tyler School of Glass
Starting with lectures at noon today, Wednesday, March 16th, students at the Tyler School of Art are gearing up for a unique all-nighter: 24 hours of glassblowing that will start at this evening and run through Thursday evening. With returning alumni, Tyler professors, and established artists such as Jack Wax, Hank Adams, Deborah Czeresko, Stephen Paul Day and Sybille Peretti, Emilio Santini, and Walter Zimmerman as fellow participants, students are taking part in four different stages of the “Blow-a-thon” open free to the public and available online via a live feed (that will start at 6 PM today).
The Blow-a-thon day kicked off with a lecture from Wax at noon that will be followed in the evening by an Iron Chef-style Experimental Glass Challenge between students at Tyler and Virginia Commonwealth University, where Wax currently chairs the glass program. After the conclusion of the challenge at midnight, Tyler students will collaborate on glass works as gaffers for invited artists known for their work in other media, including sculptors Jude Tallichet and Tim Rusterholz, ceramic artist Beverly Fisher, and photographer Julia Staples. During the High Design Challenge, four teams of Tyler students will vie for awards for their solutions to a visual/conceptual/technical problem revealed by RISD faculty member Stephanie Pender at the start of the challenge. The Blow-a-Thon will close with Tyler and VCU students and alumni working with the invited artists to blow, cast, and flamework glass.
Assistant Professor Cutrone at work in last year's Blow-a-Thon. photo: Tyler School of Art
This is the second event of its kind organized at Tyler. Last November’s Blow-a-thon raised an unspecified amount of funding to bring visiting artists to the school by creating production work for sale. Many participating artists donated works to sell on behalf of Tyler, along with works created by the students during the event itself.
“Last year’s event was a success,” said Jessica Jane Julius, an Adjunct Professor of glass at Tyler. “In the middle of the night, when everyone gained their second wind, the studio was alive…It was amazing, the energy that came together in that 24-hour period. It definitely brought everyone closer but, of course, we needed a day to recover.”
While the first Blow-a-thon was billed as a fundraiser to help bring visiting artists to Philadelphia, this year’s incarnation of the event seems to have de-emphasized that aspect in favor or a more-conceptual presentation . Both Blow-a-thons have helped facilitate interaction between different communities within the arts, the city, and the school itself, Julius told the Hot Sheet. “Last semester’s event was directed toward reaching out to the extended Philadelphia community. This year we are looking to engage more conceptual challenges and extend our reach beyond Philadelphia,” she said. “We want to open our doors and the potential of glass conceptual glass art to other Tyler professors and local artists that would not normally have this opportunity. It will allow a dialogue between the students and artists about how to engage glass as a material.”
To watch the event online, visit the live link from 6 PM on Wednesday, March 16th, until 6 PM Thursday, March 17th. For more info on the glass activites at the school, see Tyler Glass Program’s blog.
—Grace Duggan