INTERVIEW: Mel Douglas, who took top honors and AUD $15,000 in the 2020 Tom Malone Prize, discusses inspiration and process

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

Australian glass artist Mel Douglas, whose works (according to her own words) "explore and interweave the creative possibilities of this liminal space" has won the coveted Tom Malone Prize of 2020 for her work Tonal Value (2019). The Tom Malone Prize is a highly respected national event within the Australian glass arts community. Each year’s winning entrant is awarded AUD $15,000 and their work becomes a part of the State Art Collection where it joins works by previous winners. Now in its 18th year, the Tom Malone Prize continues with the generous support of Ms Sheryl Grimwood, AGWA Foundation Benefactor.

This rare and important Mosaico vase by Nicolò Barovier carries the auction's highest estimate.

Sunday March 29, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

Chicago auction house Wright moves ahead with April 2nd auction "Important Italian Glass" with online-only sale of rarely available Murano glass works

Amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, museums, galleries, and auction houses have temporarily closed their doors to the public, and many exhibitions have been postponed for weeks until the lifting of a government-ordered shut down to stem the spread of the pandemic. But Chicago based Wright (and its New York/New Jersey-partner Rago, with which it merged business operations in 2019) will proceed with its much anticipated April 2nd auction of "Important Italian Glass," with individual estimates up to half a million dollars and rarely seen works by Carlo Scarpa, Nicolò Barovier, Tomaso Buzzi, and Ercole Barovier, among the more than 100 works available for sale.

Friday March 27, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

INTERVIEW: David King discusses his postponed exhibition "Reduced to Uncertainty," which explores transience and loss

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Artist Interviews, Events, Exhibition, News, Opening

Because of the ongoing temporary closure of UrbanGlass and its Window Gallery due to COVID-19, David King's exhibition "Reduced to Uncertainty" will have to wait until at least April 30th to be featured in this area of the nonprofit's Agnes Varis Art Center that presents exhibitions, performances and other community-engagement programs of work by emerging artists in its ground-level Rockwell Street windows. (Glass Quarterly is a program of UrbanGlass.) The exhibition is part of a 2019-20 series curated by Yael Ebon of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery. While you may have to wait to see the work in person, the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet is sharing an in-depth conversation with David King about the highly personal work in the exhibition.

A still from a news report from Atlanta about local glassblower Carson Pennella work to make a glass T-splitter.

Thursday March 26, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Scientific glassblowers ready to coordinate rapid manufacture of borosilicate ventilator splitter to address hospital equipment shortages due to coronavirus pandemic

Flameworkers from around the U.S. and the world have coalesced through a Facebook group to discuss a collaborative initiative to hand-make borosilicate splitters that would, in theory, allow multiple Covid-19 patients to share a single ventilator to address the potentially catastrophic shortage of such medical equipment as the pandemic overwhelms hospitals around the world. The idea was the brainchild of Joshua McMenamin, a Boulder, Colorado, flameworker, who came across a 2006 article in the Academic Emergency Medicine journal about the possibility of sharing a single ventilator with up to four patients in a dire emergency. The technique was used successfully during the Las Vegas mass shootings when one hospital was overwhelmed with patients. McMenamin, who the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet was unable to reach for comment, was featured in a local television news program, and quickly gained support of the community of glassblowers through Facebook. On the COVMD Glass Medical Devices Facebook group, flameworkers from around the globe have been crowdsourcing diagrams and schematics, as well as sharing the results of their outreach to hospitals. The effort has been fueled by the enthusiasm of volunteers to turn their home studios into emergency manufacturing sites.

Sunday March 22, 2020 | by Andrew Page

RESOURCES: Glass Art Society launches artist relief fund for membership, starting with $10,000 in funding but accepting donations

The Glass Art Society, which has already been helping the glass community to locate emergency relief resources through its website, has launched a targeted fund to help members of this international artist organization to weather the economic challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. GAS executive director Brandi Clark told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet that the fund is not actually brand-new, but the organization is repurposing an existing fund to respond to the needs of its membership. "The original fund was created several years ago as a way to help those in our glass community that have an experience -- whether medical, accidental, or natural disaster -- that impacts their ability to make a living and continue their practice," explained Clark in an email exchange. "The distribution of the funds had never been fully fleshed out, but the COVID-19 pandemic and its reach motivated us to quickly put together a way of getting those funds to those that are feeling its impact the most."

CERF+ is conducting an anonymous survey of studio artists experiencing the effects of COVID-19 to help in their advocacy work on a federal level.

Sunday March 22, 2020 | by Andrew Page

RESOURCES: CERF+, collecting for new emergency relief fund, is also surveying artists for advocacy to federal relief agencies

In 1985, glassblower Josh Simpson began collecting money during craft shows, together with Carol Sedestrom Ross (president of a craft fair), in an effort to support fellow artists who found themselves in desperate financial circumstances because of an emergency. This early informal effort grew into the nonprofit organization known as CERF+, which now has a full-time staff based in Montpelier, Vermont, and distributes grants and loans to artists, produces informative brochures about planning for disasters, and also advocates for the craft field in Washington, D.C. The COVID-19 pandemic, which is rapidly shaping up as a global health and economic emergency, is likely to impact artists and arts nonprofits around the world. CERF+ has quickly set up the "CERF+ COVID-19 Response Fund," a grant program for which they are collecting donations.

Artist and curator Shelley Muzylowski Allen organized the "Invitation Glass Exhibition" coming up at Blue Rain in June.

Saturday March 21, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

A year in the making, June exhibition curated by Shelley Muzylowski Allen still on schedule at Blue Rain Gallery, depending on state of coronavirus crisis

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, Exhibition, New Work, Opening

Artist Shelley Muzylowski Allen is expanding her role, adding " curator" to her already extensive resume for an upcoming show at Blue Rain Gallery, intended to "expand our understanding and visual vocabulary in Studio Glass art," according to the show announcement. In light of the current health crisis, Blue Rain's Santa Fe location is temporarily closed to the public (though still offering private viewings by appointment), but the gallery's executive director Denise Phetteplace is hopeful that Allen's invitational exhibition featuring 22 artists will open as planned in three months' time. "Currently we are operating with some optimism," Phetteplace told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone exchange. Acknowledging the importance of slowing the spread of the virus, the gallery is shuffling its schedule for the next two upcoming exhibitions, but Allen's invitational exhibition is at the moment set to run as scheduled, opening June 12th and running through the Fourth of July.

Thursday March 19, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Glass Art Society pivots from cancelled conference to providing crisis resources, including launching its own relief fund

On Monday, March 16, the Glass Art Society decided to refocus its efforts from the cancellation of its 2020 conference to connecting glass artists with resources in the face of the growing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. "As the situation in the States took a dramatic turn, Brandi [Clark, the executive director] led us to the decision to pivot," Lauren Bayer, communications and social media manager of the artist organization, told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. By Tuesday, a new "Emergency Relief" page on the GAS website resources page went live, offering more than 60 links to online videos, educational resources, and relief opportunities.

2020 Studio Air Working Portrait 2 Peretti Sibylle 0

Sibylle Peretti at work in her New Orleans studio.

Thursday March 19, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

INTERVIEW: A conversation with Sibylle Peretti, whose upcoming Heller Gallery exhibition has been moved online

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Events, Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening, Public Art

"Backwaters," an exhibition at the Heller Gallery of nine new major works by German-born glass artist Sibylle Peretti, will shift to an online exhibition in light of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. The in-person gallery event has been indefinitely postponed, with the hope that improving conditions will allow the gallery to reopen. (Heller has temporarily closed its 10th Avenue gallery in the Chelsea art district of New York City, but can be reached via email or phone.) The online exhibition will open on April 2nd, 2020.

A still from Janusz Pozniak's February 2020 glass-artist demo at the Corning Museum of Glass amphitheater.

Wednesday March 18, 2020 | by Andrew Page

RESOURCES: While The Corning Museum of Glass closes all public programs, it ramps up online offerings

The Corning Museum of Glass officially cancelled all its classes, events, and programs when it temporarily closed its doors on Monday, May 16th, but the world's largest museum of glass art is doing its part to help the glass community stay connected and productive during an unprecedented time when the nation is promoting social distancing as the best hope to control the spread of COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus.

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.