Saturday May 2, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

INTERVIEW: Nancy Callan on her recent virtual artist talk and exhibit, as well as the challenges of making glass art during a pandemic

Nancy Callan’s artistic voice as a glass sculptor reflects her high-level training and talents. Callan attended the Massachusetts College of Art (BFA 1996) and lives in Seattle, where she is part of the vibrant Northwest glass community. On April 18th, 2020, she conducted a Virtual Tour of her Seattle studio. She showed attendees how she creates complex glass patterns. She also highlighted several of her popular series: "Droplets", "Panels", and "Palomas".

Wednesday April 22, 2020 | by Andrew Page

The Glass Art Society rolls out regional relief grants, plans virtual conference in place of cancelled 2020 May event

The Glass Art Society is set to announce three new regionally-focused emergency relief funds for glass artists in New York State, the Northwest, and the Washington, D.C. areas respectively. They are targeted to artists in specific geographic areas, a contrast to its worldwide emergency grant relief fund that rapidly disbursed $10,000 in grants of $250 each to the first 40 qualified applicants from around the world. While the artist organization is looking to replenish its international grant program's funding, these new regional relief funds are looking to disburse $10,000 (NY), $5,000 (NW), and $2,000 (D.C./Virginia/Maryland) to a narrower pool of artists. To apply, you must be a current member of GAS and have your primary residential or business address in one of the three areas. Funded by The Corning Foundation, Chihuly Gardens and Glass, and the Kendeda Fund, the initiative is part of an outreach effort GAS is making to help institutions get funding to individual artists efficiently. It is not available to students or nonprofit organizations, but only to individual artists. Executive director Brandi Clark says that she hopes that GAS can offer grant programs in other geographic areas internationally, and will do so if they can negotiate funding.

A still from a virtual tour of the Preston Singletary exhibition "Artifacts from the Future" at Traver Gallery.

Thursday April 16, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

Using technology to connect artists and collectors during extended closure, Traver Gallery to host virtual happy hour with Preston Singletary

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, Exhibition, News, Video

The Traver Gallery will host an "In Conversation" event with artist Preston Singletary on Thursday, April 16th, from 5 PM to 6 PM PDT (8 PM to 9 PM EST) to make up for the inability to host a real-time opening event around Singletary's ongoing exhibition "Artifacts from a Future Dream". The exhibition, which Singletary describes as "an homage to the future generations of Indigenous people", explores the the healing power of amulets, art, and shared stories. Topics to be discussed in this evening's conversation between the artist and gallery director Sarah Traver include stories and objects that inspired the artistic works, as well as the intersection of tradition and modern life.

During an online class session, RIT's glass students share portraits they drew of one another. courtesy: madeline rile smith.

Tuesday April 7, 2020 | by Lindsay von Hagn

Glass education goes online as universities remain closed for coronavirus distancing

As the threat of COVID-19 has rapidly spread throughout the world in the past few weeks, many colleges and universities were among the first to reach the difficult decision to suspend in-person classes in favor of a transition to online instruction. Making such a drastic and sudden change was a challenge for educators and students everywhere, but perhaps more so for art students relying on hands-on studio work and in-person critique to advance their studies.

courtesy: the artist

Saturday April 4, 2020 | by Farah Rose Smith

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.

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.