Newly hired chief advancement officer James Gerhardt signals a new fundraising push by the museum to finance ambitious new initiatives.

Thursday November 17, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Looking to diversify its funding sources, The Corning Museum hires high-level development officer

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, News

Since its founding in 1951, The Corning Museum of Glass has been funded primarily by its major benefactor, Corning Inc. Now, the Corning, New York, institution has announced a high-level appointment on the development side that reveals its bid to diversify its sources of unearned income. With a number of as-yet-unnamed expansion plans set to follow the March 2015 opening of its $64-million North Wing, the museum that lays claim to "the world's best collection of art and historical glass" is revving up its fundraising engines. James Gerhardt, who will hold the title of chief advancement officer at the museum, brings extensive non-profit fundraising experience to the post, including a recent stint in Philadelphia as the chief advancement officer at the National Museum of American Jewish History, which opened in 2012. What makes Gerhardt's newly created position at Corning significant is that unlike previous development positions at Corning, he will play a role on the institution's leadership team when he starts on November 30, 2016.

Sunday October 30, 2016 | by Andrew Page

BOOKS: Laura Donefer’s 2016 Glass Fashion Show immortalized in print

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Book Report

If you missed Laura Donefer's 2016 Glass Fashion Show that brought the Glass Art Society conference in Corning, New York to a spectacular close last June, you're in luck. The razzle and dazzle, not to mention the sparkle and glitter, have been documented in the superb photography of Stephen Wild. Artfully arranged on the page, a compilation of the best images has just been released as a handsome hardcover book. (Disclosure: The introduction was adapted from an article on the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet.) The book is a must-see for those present for the festivities, who now have a chance to revisit the thrill and savor the highlights, such as Jasen Johnson emerging with his glass guitar and scantily-clad entourage to kick things off.

An undated portrait of artist Joyce J. Scott.

Wednesday October 26, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Glass Art Society to honor Joyce Scott and Wayne Strattman at 2017 Conference

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

The Glass Art Society has announced that its annual "Lifetime Achievement Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contributions to the Studio Glass Field" has been awarded to Joyce J. Scott for her mixed-media work that takes on serious issues such as racism and violence. The artist association has also awarded artist and designer Wayne Strattman its "Honorary Lifetime Membership Award for Outstanding Service to the Glass Art Society." Both artists will be presented with their respective awards during the 2017 Glass Art Society Conference set to take place at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia from June 1st to 3rd, 2017.

West Branch of the Susquehanna, 2006. Hot worked, slumped, and etched glass on steel. H 48, W 30, D 3 in. collection: connie and jamie egan

Tuesday October 18, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Meditations on nature in Kathleen Mulcahy’s rich museum retrospective in Pennsylvania

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, New Work, Opening

While artist Kathleen Mulcahy was canoeing on the west branch of the Susquehanna River over a decade ago, a sudden storm came out of nowhere, leaving her no way to escape from the furious pelting rain. The river was too wide, and the waters too rapid. “We were moving into it, and there was nothing I could do but submit," she told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. "And in that moment of submission, of letting go, I put my hand in the water. And after that moment, once I let go, we went right through the storm; and on the other side of it was clear skies and fresh air and beauty like I had never really experienced, from everything — my skin, the way things smelled, the air, everything was beautiful. I remember putting my hand in the water and saying, ‘what will my new work look like because of this?’” The answer arrived in a dream a few months later. "[Upon waking], I quickly grabbed a pencil and sketched this little tiny sketch of the image that I saw.” Mulcahy's first drop piece came soon after, titled West Branch of the Susquehanna (2006), which will be featured in her upcoming exhibition “Opposites Attract: Kathleen Mulcahy and Sylvester Damianos,” at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art opening on November 5, 2016, and running through February 2017.

Brett Swenson, Standards of Measurement, 1 Liter (detail), 2016. Erlenmeyer flask, obsidian, heat, borosilicate glass shelf. H 10, W 10, D 9 inches. courtesy: norte maar.

Friday October 7, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

SEEN: Independent exhibition in Brooklyn celebrates visions of glass worlds by a new generation

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, New Work, Seen

"Paracosm" is a technical term for an imaginary world. The most famous examples are literary, like J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth or C.S. Lewis's Narnia; but in the visual arts, narrative works are often set in manufactured worlds. In an independently organized exhibition in Brooklyn, New York, the work of six experimental artists has been organized into “Paracosm: new worlds in glass,” which showcases the capacity of glass art to provide a transporting experience in a wide range of works, all with a conceptual foundation. Brooklyn’s Norte Maar, a nonprofit focused on “connecting emerging artistic communities and uniting cultural forces to foster artistic expression and raise the imaginative energy in us all,” is the setting for this fanciful exhibition, which runs through October 23, 2016.

Thursday October 6, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Uroboros announces plans to close in early 2017

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

In a letter posted under the News section of its website, and sent to customers last week, Uroboros founder and president Eric Lovell announced plans to close his nearly 44-year-old glass production facility in Portland, Oregon. Though Lovell stated that he hopes to sell the business to allow for continued employment and product supply, he made it clear that the company in its current incarnation will "discontinue operations in early 2017." He cited the high costs of meeting new city and state regulations, as well as the gentrification of the Portland area where Uroboros operates, and his own advancing age. Though the company has been under intense scruitiny from environmental regulators for its use of cadmium and arsenic as well as other chemicals, like its Portland neighbor Bullseye Glass, Lovell says: "It is not any one of these factors, but a combination of all of them," that led to the decision to close.

Rui Sasaki, Object Lessons "Residue" (overview), 2014. Glass, ash (from plants in Awashima), fluorescent light, mineral oil. H 31 1/2, W 23 1/2, D 47 1/4 in. Project at the Awashima Artist Village, Kagawa, Japan.

Thursday October 6, 2016 | by Andrew Page

AWARD: Rui Sasaki receives $5,000 UArts Borowsky Prize for 2016

FILED UNDER: Award, Events, News

Japanese native Rui Sasaki has been named the 2016 Borowsky Prize winner, a $5,000 award named for the late University of the Arts trustee Irvin J. Borowsky, and awarded by the Philadelphia arts institution each year. The prize seeks to identify "an artist whose work is conceptually daring, exemplifies technical skill and innovation, and advances the field of contemporary glass," and includes the invitation for the winning artist to present a lecture. Sasaki, who is currently based in Toyama, Japan, will deliver her lecture on November 10, 2016. In addition to the top prize, juror's awards have been given to prize finalists David King (who also won a juror's award in 2015) and Sean Salstrom.

Between Fragment and Whole: Ellipse, 2016. Glass. H 13 3/4, W 21 5/8, D 21 5/8 in. courtesy: heller gallery, new york

Tuesday October 4, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Speaking Volumes: A conversation with Jeannet Iskandar on her Heller opening tomorrow

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, Opening

Danish artist Jeannet Iskandar makes things complicated, but you wouldn't know that at first glance. From across the room, her ongoing series of deceptively simple spheres appear to be minimalist objects with perfect symmetry. But upon closer examination the cool exteriors give way to an internal world of engrossing intricacy, complex assemblages of individual blown glass elements deformed by gravity and glassblowing tools, and then further transformed by repeated heating in a kiln. Iskandar was once employed by fellow Dane Tobias Mohl, and his influence shows in her appreciation of patterning, which is formed in her work by the selection of individual elements and the jigsaw puzzle of putting them together. Splashes of subdued color — inky blues and somber blacks —punctuate her newest work, which brings new elliptical forms and a larger scale than Iskandar's earlier objects. On the eve of her solo exhibition at New York City's Heller Gallery, the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke by phone with Iskandar from her studio in the seaside city of Ebeltoft, which is an outpost of international glass in Denmark.

Klaus Moje in 2015. photo: fotoheidesmith

Saturday October 1, 2016 | by Nola Anderson

IN MEMORIAM: Klaus Moje (1936 - 2016)

FILED UNDER: In Memoriam

Klaus Moje passed away in Canberra on September 24, 2016. He is remembered with great fondness by family, friends and colleagues throughout the world. His passion for glass and commitment to sharing its inspiration created bonds that stretched over decades, from his early years in Hamburg, through the heady experimental 1960s and 70s, and on to generations of emerging artists who have pushed the medium beyond all expectations. He will be remembered as a great artist who led by example, setting high standards for himself and always seeing the best in others.

Charlotte Potter, Bovidae Goat. Hand-sculpted glass, wood, metal, plastic, fabric. H 16, W 11, D 7 1/2 in. courtesy: walker contemporary.

Friday September 30, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Man and nature collide in Vermont contemporary gallery group show featuring Charlotte Potter

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, New Work

The complex relationship between the human and the natural worlds is rich territory for an art gallery set in the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, with its long history of forestry and agriculture. Through mid-October, art dealer Stephanie Walker has turned over her Walker Contemporary gallery space to an exhibition entitled “What Have We Done?”, which examines artists “grappling with the often precarious human versus nature relationship,” according to the gallery’s website. Among the five artists with work on display is the native-born Charlotte Potter, who grew up in Waitsfield before embarking on a notable career as a multi-media artist with a focus on glass. Holding a 2010 MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Potter is currently the studio manager/program director of the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Glass Studio, in Norfolk, Virginia, and her evolving artwork is represented by New York City's Heller Gallery. Potter's glass deer and elk antlers have actually been incubating in the artist’s mind and studio practice since 2008, and are recontextualized by showcasing them alongside paintings and drawings in which, as the gallery puts it, humans’ “meddling interference in the natural order of things…takes center stage”

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