June 2010 The Lane Report:
"More than 1,000 artists, collectors, scholars, students and educators from around the world attended Glass Art Society’s 40th annual conference in Louisville June 10-12. Exhibits and events took place at nine museums, 15 galleries, two restaurants, two universities and a church.
Their attendance pumped some $1 million into the Louisville economy at hotels, restaurants and buying glass art and the conference exposed dozens of artists and high-end collectors from around the world to the city’s quality of life.
“The Louisville arts scene is very cutting edge, and that’s important for economic development,” said Pamela Koss, GAS executive director. “We came to Louisville because the city is so supportive of glass art.”
The conference could have the added benefit of attracting artists to the state and bolstering Louisville’s already strong arts community. Koss said the layout of the Market Street arts district was a major selling point. “The glass scene although young, is really well located for us. Logistically, it is all within an 18-block line in downtown Louisville.”"
Unknown. "Art Glass Conference Enthusiasts Boost Local Economy in Louisville by $1 Million" The Lane Report. Accessed June 17, 2010. http://www.kybiz.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1237
For more info on the conference see The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: http://blog.glassquarterly.com/2010/06/13/2010-gas-conference-ends-with-new-president-installed-but-no-announcement-of-2011-location/
Showing posts with label Glass Art Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glass Art Society. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
2004 part three
This is a continuation of the history/criticism timeline in glass that is found in the left margin of this blog. You can search through it using dates or keywords in the search boxes at left. The timeline is useful when writing about glass to ensure that what is being written takes into account the physical history of glass and glass objects; finds threads of continuance with other writers' ideas; and is saying something new.
Excerpts from the 2004 Keynote Lecture to the Glass Art Society, speech entitled "Some Propositions on Glass (Art)":
"Dada and Surrealist artists, for instance, conceived of art as dangerous to society and its cherished defenses of class and power. Society mostly took these artists at their word and did its best to persecute them. Since then, a lot of art has flown under the bridges of Venice, and postmodern art, playful, accommodating, and quite socially acceptable, is only dangerous when it's not up to code--the safety code, not the social code. As far as glass art goes, the danger is mostly to the artist, not to society.
Practically then, glass art has the same concerns as any art now. Namely, now to be art and not-art at the same time. All its qualities--high birth, artistic pedigree, psychological pertinence, metaphorical reach, ubiquity, promiscuity, modesty, transparency, opticity, exploratory indispensibility, matrixity, conductivity, agency, and exemplariness--can often be a burden. No wonder glass has so often masqueraded as stone. Or maybe that was to draw attention to itself, like a drag queen; ooops, surprise! I'm really glass!
[...]However, most art created now, including glass art, finds itself in an oddly protected position: it is unbreakable--because it is 'art.' Without the subversive ideals of incitement to violence and passion or even the nervous ticks of the 20th century avant-garde, contemporary art is quite safe. The history of art has also been rewritten to read that even the avant-gardists who did profess those violent desires were in fact concerned with another fundamental challenge, namely, to make thought possible for those who care to think. That was a subversive proposition, this rewriting tells us, as long as thinking was itself deemed dangerous, but that isn't the case now, or at least, it isn't so obvious what is and what isn't unthinkable. In other words, the history of modern art has been largely rewritten for the benefit of glass art, for which safety is primary.
Anyone who has ever walked barefoot has stepped on glass, and that's about everyone. People who break glass bottles on the sidewalk are called Assholes.
Insofar as the shop window and the chandelier are seen as status symbols, not art, it is still possible to break them--but only in third-world countries with large masses of 19th-century-style poor people. In the West, the museum walls protect us from all that ideological hubris and, given the demotic nature of the museum, who'd dare defile an object that has only the best interests of your mind heart? Thinking leads to more thinking and that is what it's all about! So pay up."
Codrescu, A. " Some propositions on glass (art)." GAS Conference keynote lecture, 2004, New Orleans. GAS Journal, 2004. p 19-23.
"Opening night of the College Art Association Conference in Seattle belonged to the Guerrilla Girls.
They're this year's winners of the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism. When four of them took the stage in gorilla masks, 3,000 art historians, students, artists and critics rose to their feet to applaud, leaving a few medievalists seated and shaking their heads.[...]
With corrosive wit, merry sarcasm and many buckets of wheat paste, their posters and billboards -- first in New York and now worldwide -- have made sexism and racism seem worse than wrong.
They've made it dull, stuffy and out of date, a three-strikes-you're-out combo for the museums and galleries that are most often their targets.
Now that the Guerrilla Girls are famous authors as well as agitators, they're doubly honored in the art world for remaining anonymous. If the original members of the band came forward, surely they'd boost their careers, but all have remained silent, passing on the masks to second and third generations.
New York artist Fred Wilson, the keynote speaker, let his work speak for him, screening "September Dreams," an elegiac response to the destruction of the World Trade Center, approaching the theme through Shakespeare. On four screens, the piece opened with Othello strangling Desdemona and rolled back to when they were happily in love, evoking the common desire, after disaster, to retreat to a happier time.
No one could have gone to more than a fraction of the 180 sessions that followed the Wednesday night opening and continued through Saturday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
Anxious artists and doctoral students stood in long lines waiting their turns for a brief interview, hoping to make the short list for a college or university job that may or may not materialize in the age of scarce funding.
New York critic Eleanor Hartney dutifully attended the panel for which she served as moderator, "Public Art and the Art Critic: Advocate or Antagonist," and then skipped out to look at art. She said she liked Claire Cowie at James Harris Gallery, Ben Darby at Bryan Ohno Gallery and James Martin at Foster/White. Heading down to Tacoma, she was impressed by the new Tacoma Art Museum and the sweeping plaza exterior of the Museum of Glass. [...]
Points for honesty and insight go to painter Gregory Amenoff, who said on a landscape-in-crisis panel that he thought artist Andy Goldsworthy's insertions in the land were precious and overwrought. "Martha Stewart is a better artist," he said.
The most important panel locally was the least advertised, slipping in under the radar too late for inclusion in the catalog, a discussion of what went wrong at the Bellevue Art Museum, which closed in September.
After the story broke in the P-I, the issue was thoroughly chewed in the press. The Stranger thought an installation of thong underwear was the break point of Eastside audience alienation. The Seattle Times went with money mismanagement and, oddly, lack of communication with the community. (No museum has surveyed its audience more.)
Most peculiar was The New York Times, who blamed the fiasco on the museum's sweeping, postmodernist spaces. As anyone knows who ventured beyond the lobby into the galleries, they're boxy with low ceilings.
At Saturday's panel, participants tried to clear up some of the confusion.
Sharon Burke was director of finance for the museum, hired after it moved into its new building. The books were a mess, she said. Turns out the museum was running a $1.3 million deficit, instead of the $200,000 deficit the board knew about. Because there was no financial cushion, the museum started a downward spiral it was unable to pull out of.
She'd advise museums contemplating a new building to fold into the capital campaign another 10 percent operating surplus and get donors to commit to covering museum costs in the first three years.
Board president Rick Collette said the school within the museum was a disaster. Instead of providing income, it was a money drain. It won't be there when the museum reopens in the summer. The board is developing partnerships with the University of Washington's Burke Museum and Pilchuck Glass School to share a floor of exhibition space.
The interior needs a major remodel, he said.
"With what money?" called out former Bellevue curator Miriam Sternberg, from the audience.
"We need to raise it," he replied.
Former chief curator Brian Wallace said he thought it was important for institutions to encourage those who work there to maintain a healthy skepticism. "Don't drink the Kool-Aid," he said. "Don't buy into ill-founded enthusiasms."
Collette said the board has been meeting with more than 400 community, civic and art leaders on the Eastside and in Seattle and will, as a result, return to its craft roots, focusing on craft along with art and design.
"We let our supporters and the community down," he said. "We had to close to step back, take stock and fix it."
Doug McLennan, editor of artsjournal.com, said he thought the direct way the board handled the problem was admirable but worried about its survey-the-audience approach to articulating a vision.
Asked if he would have become board president if he'd known what was in store, Collette replied, "Absolutely not. Who would? But I'm staying around after we reopen. That will be the fun part. It will make all of this worthwhile."
The museum hopes to reopen at least in time for the next Bellevue Arts Fair in July."
Hackett, R. "College art conference goes wild over guerrilla girls." Seattle PI. February 24, 2004. http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/161734_collegeart24.html
Excerpts from the 2004 Keynote Lecture to the Glass Art Society, speech entitled "Some Propositions on Glass (Art)":
2004 Andrei Codrescu:
"Dada and Surrealist artists, for instance, conceived of art as dangerous to society and its cherished defenses of class and power. Society mostly took these artists at their word and did its best to persecute them. Since then, a lot of art has flown under the bridges of Venice, and postmodern art, playful, accommodating, and quite socially acceptable, is only dangerous when it's not up to code--the safety code, not the social code. As far as glass art goes, the danger is mostly to the artist, not to society.
Practically then, glass art has the same concerns as any art now. Namely, now to be art and not-art at the same time. All its qualities--high birth, artistic pedigree, psychological pertinence, metaphorical reach, ubiquity, promiscuity, modesty, transparency, opticity, exploratory indispensibility, matrixity, conductivity, agency, and exemplariness--can often be a burden. No wonder glass has so often masqueraded as stone. Or maybe that was to draw attention to itself, like a drag queen; ooops, surprise! I'm really glass!
[...]However, most art created now, including glass art, finds itself in an oddly protected position: it is unbreakable--because it is 'art.' Without the subversive ideals of incitement to violence and passion or even the nervous ticks of the 20th century avant-garde, contemporary art is quite safe. The history of art has also been rewritten to read that even the avant-gardists who did profess those violent desires were in fact concerned with another fundamental challenge, namely, to make thought possible for those who care to think. That was a subversive proposition, this rewriting tells us, as long as thinking was itself deemed dangerous, but that isn't the case now, or at least, it isn't so obvious what is and what isn't unthinkable. In other words, the history of modern art has been largely rewritten for the benefit of glass art, for which safety is primary.
Anyone who has ever walked barefoot has stepped on glass, and that's about everyone. People who break glass bottles on the sidewalk are called Assholes.
Insofar as the shop window and the chandelier are seen as status symbols, not art, it is still possible to break them--but only in third-world countries with large masses of 19th-century-style poor people. In the West, the museum walls protect us from all that ideological hubris and, given the demotic nature of the museum, who'd dare defile an object that has only the best interests of your mind heart? Thinking leads to more thinking and that is what it's all about! So pay up."
Codrescu, A. " Some propositions on glass (art)." GAS Conference keynote lecture, 2004, New Orleans. GAS Journal, 2004. p 19-23.
2004 Regina Hackett:
"Opening night of the College Art Association Conference in Seattle belonged to the Guerrilla Girls.
They're this year's winners of the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism. When four of them took the stage in gorilla masks, 3,000 art historians, students, artists and critics rose to their feet to applaud, leaving a few medievalists seated and shaking their heads.[...]
With corrosive wit, merry sarcasm and many buckets of wheat paste, their posters and billboards -- first in New York and now worldwide -- have made sexism and racism seem worse than wrong.
They've made it dull, stuffy and out of date, a three-strikes-you're-out combo for the museums and galleries that are most often their targets.
Now that the Guerrilla Girls are famous authors as well as agitators, they're doubly honored in the art world for remaining anonymous. If the original members of the band came forward, surely they'd boost their careers, but all have remained silent, passing on the masks to second and third generations.
New York artist Fred Wilson, the keynote speaker, let his work speak for him, screening "September Dreams," an elegiac response to the destruction of the World Trade Center, approaching the theme through Shakespeare. On four screens, the piece opened with Othello strangling Desdemona and rolled back to when they were happily in love, evoking the common desire, after disaster, to retreat to a happier time.
No one could have gone to more than a fraction of the 180 sessions that followed the Wednesday night opening and continued through Saturday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
Anxious artists and doctoral students stood in long lines waiting their turns for a brief interview, hoping to make the short list for a college or university job that may or may not materialize in the age of scarce funding.
New York critic Eleanor Hartney dutifully attended the panel for which she served as moderator, "Public Art and the Art Critic: Advocate or Antagonist," and then skipped out to look at art. She said she liked Claire Cowie at James Harris Gallery, Ben Darby at Bryan Ohno Gallery and James Martin at Foster/White. Heading down to Tacoma, she was impressed by the new Tacoma Art Museum and the sweeping plaza exterior of the Museum of Glass. [...]
Points for honesty and insight go to painter Gregory Amenoff, who said on a landscape-in-crisis panel that he thought artist Andy Goldsworthy's insertions in the land were precious and overwrought. "Martha Stewart is a better artist," he said.
The most important panel locally was the least advertised, slipping in under the radar too late for inclusion in the catalog, a discussion of what went wrong at the Bellevue Art Museum, which closed in September.
After the story broke in the P-I, the issue was thoroughly chewed in the press. The Stranger thought an installation of thong underwear was the break point of Eastside audience alienation. The Seattle Times went with money mismanagement and, oddly, lack of communication with the community. (No museum has surveyed its audience more.)
Most peculiar was The New York Times, who blamed the fiasco on the museum's sweeping, postmodernist spaces. As anyone knows who ventured beyond the lobby into the galleries, they're boxy with low ceilings.
At Saturday's panel, participants tried to clear up some of the confusion.
Sharon Burke was director of finance for the museum, hired after it moved into its new building. The books were a mess, she said. Turns out the museum was running a $1.3 million deficit, instead of the $200,000 deficit the board knew about. Because there was no financial cushion, the museum started a downward spiral it was unable to pull out of.
She'd advise museums contemplating a new building to fold into the capital campaign another 10 percent operating surplus and get donors to commit to covering museum costs in the first three years.
Board president Rick Collette said the school within the museum was a disaster. Instead of providing income, it was a money drain. It won't be there when the museum reopens in the summer. The board is developing partnerships with the University of Washington's Burke Museum and Pilchuck Glass School to share a floor of exhibition space.
The interior needs a major remodel, he said.
"With what money?" called out former Bellevue curator Miriam Sternberg, from the audience.
"We need to raise it," he replied.
Former chief curator Brian Wallace said he thought it was important for institutions to encourage those who work there to maintain a healthy skepticism. "Don't drink the Kool-Aid," he said. "Don't buy into ill-founded enthusiasms."
Collette said the board has been meeting with more than 400 community, civic and art leaders on the Eastside and in Seattle and will, as a result, return to its craft roots, focusing on craft along with art and design.
"We let our supporters and the community down," he said. "We had to close to step back, take stock and fix it."
Doug McLennan, editor of artsjournal.com, said he thought the direct way the board handled the problem was admirable but worried about its survey-the-audience approach to articulating a vision.
Asked if he would have become board president if he'd known what was in store, Collette replied, "Absolutely not. Who would? But I'm staying around after we reopen. That will be the fun part. It will make all of this worthwhile."
The museum hopes to reopen at least in time for the next Bellevue Arts Fair in July."
Hackett, R. "College art conference goes wild over guerrilla girls." Seattle PI. February 24, 2004. http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/161734_collegeart24.html
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
1984
In this time line I pull quotes to illustrate a thread in popular and scholarly writing and criticism about glass. Here we will see current glass artists defending their art against the accusations and separating themselves from these stereotypes and, hopefully, find out how and where the now-common opinion was born. Fundamentally, the general thesis seems to be born of the question, What Is Art? This question I will leave to others to answer, here I am only documenting the written history of a popular way of thinking and a popular taste.
1984 Clement Greenberg and Robert Kehlmann:
[Excerpted by ABJ Seattle Glass Online]
"Robert Kehlmann, editorial advisor to Glass Art Society Journal, interviewed Clement Greenberg on 19 May 1984, shortly after Greenberg's presentation at the Corning Conference. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. --Ed. [Robert C. Morgan]
Robert Kehlmann: When we were in Corning together for the jurying of 'New Glass Review 4' we took a walk through the museum. As I recall, you were particularly impressed by the galleries of ancient works.
Clement Greenberg: Yes, the lack of self-consciousness in the old art is remarkable. You see it written all over. You see self-consciousness in the contemporary work and you see it in the Galle exhibition that's on display now. Uneasy self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is always uneasy. Nineteenth century salon painting or sculpture wasn't so self-conscious but it was lost in a disarray of taste. At the same time a lot of nineteenth-century work is good...
... contrasting [twentieth-century work] with the Egyptian, the Greco-Roman, and other ancient glass, you feel there's no effort in the old work to make art...
... it just came from the natural order of things. Today, and I should have said this in my talk this morning, a glass artist or a ceramicist has to make an effort to make art. I'm speaking about art-art, not a good vessel or anything like that. It relates to the way painters and sculptors today make a desperate effort to be original. But it's not quite the same thing with glass and clay. I haven't really thought about it fully. I'll have to think about it some more...
How much of the unself-consciousness of the ancient pieces do you think relates to their functionality? They were made for a purpose, and as a result, they had a natural place in society. Most of the work in Corning's contemporary collection was ultimately made, I suppose, to be in a museum.
Yes but some of the old glass was done, I'm sure, just to be looked at. Like some of the old clay was just to be looked at. I have a friend in Utica who collects ancient glass. He's got delicious pieces that are just there to be looked at. You can't use them.
This is something other people have written about. It has to do with the aging of tradition. The aging of the Western tradition of art and of art in general. Western tradition is more than a thousand years old and you become conscious of it. It was noticed in the case of the Romans too. They inherited an old tradition, and they got 'arty' in a way, but they were so much less self-conscious than we are. We're the most self-conscious culture there ever was--self-inspecting and self-conscious. It stands to reason, because we're the latest...
_____________________________
... How about Galle?...Can you remember other specific pieces that you liked?
If I only had a copy of the catalogue.
I have one here.
(The following comments are made while looking through the catalogue, Emile Galle: Dreams into Glass.)
In a piece like Cerebus he went wild with the painting, and it's damn interesting, but I think he paid no attention to the shape. He made a big mistake in Joan of Arc. The piece is Victorian in the wrong way. He makes mistakes all over the place. He has no discipline of taste, and that's part of what makes him extraordinary. I found myself liking him most when he was strict. You can say it's my modernist taste. I remember liking Magnolia. It's the clear glass in the piece--oh, I love the clear glass.
The success of Forest and Wildflowers depended upon the view. The problem is that he has some real illusionist painting and you begin looking at the painting instead of the vessel. The handles are wrong in Olives and Pines. I like the piece except for the handles. They don't belong. They're just stuck on. I though The Hazel Tree was one of the best things I saw in the exhibition, though the people I was with from your organization didn't like it at all.
Did you like it because of its shape?
Both the shape and the way he was discreet in coloring it. Again you can say it's my modern taste. Now I thought Thistles stank...
... In Beetle Vase, he should have taken the beetle out along with that heavy lip.
But the beetle is the subject of the work. That's why he made it.
He had a beautiful green there, and the beetle gets in the way of it. His decoration often gets in the way of some of his colors...
... What did you think of the "Mushroom Lamp"?
I thought that one really stank.
For the average person coming to the exhibition, I suspect the "Mushroom Lamp" would be the premier piece. It has colors. It has light inside it. It's a real eye-catcher.
The average person, like my neighbors in Norwich, would rather come this glass museum than walk around the block to see a painting.
Why is that? Do you think it's the material itself that just has that type of attraction?
Yes. Especially for the women...
____________________________
... Perhaps you're suggesting that someone working sculpturally with glass shouldn't necessarily be looking at the precedents in glass but rather those in modern sculpture. And someone working two-dimensionally should be looking at the precedents in painting rather than at contemporary German designers or Tiffany and La Farge.
I couldn't agree with you more. You said it though, and you're right. You're absolutely right. I could say that to you about your rather good piece in the Corning Collection. You should have looked more at what's called color-field painting--that awful label--and I'd say you would have made a better picture if you had left out
the whole upper-right hand corner... just omitted it; left it blank and not worried about the corners in a cubist way...
... A couple of the three-dimensional pieces I saw in the museum [Corning] would have been better in steel. The artists didn't realize this. They would have been way better off without the transparency. There was one piece, and unfortunately I don't remember the artist's name, that had two definite planes coming together. If the piece were made in steel the artist would have made his point. But the fact that one plane is showing through the other spoils what he did. He should have known that if one plane is going to show through the other, you work with that in mind--you exploit it. You turn a liability into an asset; it's been done in art all along.
I suspect you're arguing in favor of artistic flexibility. Aren't you saying that if you're going to be an artist, be an artist--don't be a glass artist unless glass is appropriate to what you're doing.
What I should have said this morning in my talk is that you glass artists don't know about the best art being done in your time. You go along with Kim Levin. But that's what's happened in art since the early sixties; it's this trendy stuff....
_____________________________
...I felt I could stand behind most of the items we chose [for New Glass Review 4]. But it only came to me today in the museum that there's not yet any major art in glass--and i insist upon the distinction between major and minor, as I do in painting and sculpture. Not yet...
... I saw Tim Scott use Plexiglas, if you can call that glass, in his best works. Tim, being a defeatist, dropped that, but I think some of the best pieces made in this century were the big pieces Tim Scott made using Plexiglas. The material sort of delivered something to him, released something in him.
______________________________
...I think there's more of an immediate future for glass in the pictorial direction than in the direction of sculpture.
Pictorial being two-dimensional?
Yes.
I'm inclined to agree with you.
God, what you can do with glass by making a picture out of it!
Can you think of any specific contemporary painters who you'd like to see try their hand in the medium?
Any good ones, except the representational ones. If you begin doing illusionistic painting in glass you get into fancy effects.
So you think the material lends itself more toward abstraction?
Absolutely.
You made the comment in your talk this morning, and I assume you were talking more about sculpture than about two-dimensional work, that the human figure done in glass tends to become an objet d'art.
So far that's been the case.
Is that a comment on the material or the scale of most works in glass?
It has to do with the fact that the material attracts too much attention to itself in a way that clay, stone, and bronze
don't. It all relates to translucency, transparency, and so forth. Now someone will come along and someday and do
the human figure, the animal figure, in glass, and they'll bring it off. But it hasn't been brought off yet, and
I'd say, as I said in my talk, that the way for glass to become high art is through abstraction. In doing
landscape in the flat glass you'd work for a piquant effect, but it's a kind of piquancy you wouldn't want.
But still and all, you can do anything in art...
... I appreciated your response to the question this morning about why good criticism isn't written about glass. You said, "Make glass good enough and it will be written about."
Yes. It's the art that pulls. The critics can't resist when that happens. You don't wait for the critics to decide, "Today I'm going to write about it." The art pulls. Critics don't decide anything...they follow."
Kehlemann, R. and Greenberg, C. "An Interview with Clement Greenberg." May 1984. Clement Greenberg: Late Writings. edited by Robert C. Morgan. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 2003.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
2009 NEA Visual Arts Grants
Access to Artistic Excellence Awards:
"Pilchuck Glass School (aka Pilchuck)
Seattle, WA
$10,000
To support a summer artist residency program. Up to ten artists will be provided with resources, facilities, and technical assistance to experiment with new work in glass.
Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Inc. (aka WheatonArts) (on behalf of Creative Glass Center of America)
Millville, NJ
$20,000
To support a residency program for emerging and mid-career glass artists at the Creative Glass Center of America. Artists will be provided with housing, a stipend, studio facilities, and technical assistance to work in glass."
National Endowment for the Arts FY 2009 Visual Arts Grants. Website Accessed June 19, 2009. http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/disciplines/Visualarts/09visual.php?CAT=Access%20to%20Artistic%20Excellence&DIS=Visual%20Arts&TABLE=1
"Glass Art Society, Inc.
"Pilchuck Glass School (aka Pilchuck)
Seattle, WA
$10,000
To support a summer artist residency program. Up to ten artists will be provided with resources, facilities, and technical assistance to experiment with new work in glass.
Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Inc. (aka WheatonArts) (on behalf of Creative Glass Center of America)
Millville, NJ
$20,000
To support a residency program for emerging and mid-career glass artists at the Creative Glass Center of America. Artists will be provided with housing, a stipend, studio facilities, and technical assistance to work in glass."
National Endowment for the Arts FY 2009 Visual Arts Grants. Website Accessed June 19, 2009. http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/disciplines/Visualarts/09visual.php?CAT=Access%20to%20Artistic%20Excellence&DIS=Visual%20Arts&TABLE=1
"Glass Art Society, Inc.
Seattle, WA
$20,000
CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support the 39th annual conference. To be held in Corning, New York, the conference will include a series of exhibitions, lectures, panels, and workshop demonstrations.
Museum of Glass
Tacoma, WA
$64,000
CATEGORY: Learning in the Arts FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Learning in the Arts
To support Science of Art, a visual arts education program that encourage students to recognize the intersection between scientific exploration and the creative process. Students will identify and apply the processes of observation, rigorous experimentation and problem-solving, and visual literacy in the creation of glass art."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/09grants/states2/09_states2.php?STATE=WA
"Chrysler Museum of Art
Norfolk, VA
$40,000
To support the exhibition Art of Glass II, with accompanying education programs, including glass blowing demonstrations, seminars, and workshops. The project is a region-wide celebration of contemporary art glass."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/09grants/09AAE.php?CAT=Access&DIS=Museum
"University of Idaho (on behalf of Prichard Art Gallery)
Moscow, ID
To support the exhibit SLAG, The Anti Art Glass, which will explore the use of glass in non-traditional forms. Guests artists will include Elizabeth Lyons, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Jaume Plensa, Renee Stout, and Walter Zimmerman.
Knoxville Museum of Art
Knoxville, TN
To support the exhibition Josh Simpson: A Visionary Journey in Glass. In addition to presenting a public gallery talk, Simpson will discuss his work with low-income students of Beaumont Elementary Magnet Honors Academy."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/09grants/09cham.php?disc=Challenge%20America
"Pittsburgh Glass Center, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$10,000
To support an artist residency program. Artists will be provided with resources, facilities, and technical assistance for exploration in glass making."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/09grants/09AAE2.php?CAT=Access&DIS=Visual%20Arts
Friday, April 24, 2009
2000
In this time line I pull quotes to illustrate a thread in popular and scholarly writing and criticism about glass. Here we will see current glass artists defending their art against the accusations and separating themselves from these stereotypes and, hopefully, find out how and where the now-common opinion was born. Fundamentally, the general thesis seems to be born of the question, What Is Art? This question I will leave to others to answer, here I am only documenting the written history of a popular way of thinking and a popular taste.
2000 Business Wire:
"MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2000
Quebec Craft Gallery (d'arts du Quebec) will be presenting works from 11 renown Quebec craft artists at the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) exhibit taking place November 3-5 2000 in Chicago at the Navy Pier.
The gallery's juried exhibition will feature the work of contemporary Quebec craft artists in a variety of media. Exhibiting with the gallery this year:
Each year the SOFA exhibit has been attracting collectors, gallery owners, architects and art lovers from around the world. Last year SOFA CHICAGO 1999 closed after record sales and gate attendance. Patrons were delighted by a multitude of sophiticated and innovative artworks. This year the exhibit will feature 90 select galleries mostly from the United States but also including galleries from London, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia and three from Montreal: Galerie des metiers d'art du Quebec, Galerie Elena Lee and Option Art.
The Quebec Craft Council's head office is located in Montreal, Quebec. The Council has been instrumental in assuring a Quebec presence at SOFA, including the presence of its own gallery-the Galerie des metiers d'art du Quebec. In November 2000, the gallery will be presenting unique and innovative crafts at booth #1301 in the Festival Hall of the Navy Pier in Chicago.
For additional information on the Quebec Craft Council visit their site at http://www.metiers-d-art.qc.ca or contact France Bernard at 514.861.2787 ext. 310. For further information on the SOFA Chicago 2000 exhibit go to www.sofaexpo.com"
"Craft Artists from Quebec Featured at Prestigious SOFA Chicago." Business Wire. October 4, 2000. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28396612_ITM
2000 Art Popham:
"If you think you have lots of precious packages to send around the country this holiday season, consider the shipments Allen Vinup regularly handles. It might elevate your shipping appreciation level, as you languish in line at the post office or sweat the on-time arrival of the gifts you're sending.
Vinup works as shipping manager for internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Last January, Chihuly consolidated all shipments of his valuable, ornate blown glass in a 73,000-square-foot warehouse near Jefferson Avenue in Tacoma. Few people realize Chihuly's entire shipping operation, including distribution of all his Portland Press books, is based right here in the artist's hometown. Chihuly is a 1959 Wilson High School graduate and an honorary alum of Stadium High.
Glass blown in Seattle comes to Tacoma for distribution. When Chihuly travels to Mexico, Scandinavia, Ireland or anywhere in the world to create his treasures, all new art not going directly to an exhibition comes to Tacoma for storage. Glass shipments to destinations worldwide emanate from Tacoma.
It's a huge operation that requires a staff of 31 people. They must make positively sure glass arrives at museums, galleries and to private patrons on time and unbroken. Remember, we're talking delicate glass here. And lots of it.
Consider these mind-numbing numbers from this year alone.
-- Chihuly's Tacoma operation has made 770 domestic shipments in 2000, an average of more than two for every single day. By year's end, it will have made more than 800.
-- It has made 55 international shipments this year, averaging more than one per week. Destinations include Monaco, Australia and Iceland. Loads range in size from a single corrugated cardboard box to ocean containers.
-- It has shipped 80 of Chihuly's massive chandeliers. Each contains as many as 2,000 individual parts. The average is 500. Each chandelier requires 100 hours of work to prepare for shipment.
-- Overall, it has shipped more than 10,000 boxes of artwork this year.
-- This phase of Chihuly's operation spends $500,000 on shipping costs and $500,000 on supplies in a single year.
-- Those supplies include $100,000 worth of boxes, $90,000 of block foam and $11,000 for 144,000 cubic feet of foam peanuts.
-- In addition to actual glass, Chihuly-owned Portland Press has shipped 44,000 books this year. Portland Press has 26 books in print, plus many exhibition catalogs. Chihuly has had 41 exhibitions this year.
The local economy benefits from much of this shipping activity.
"We buy mostly from local vendors," Vinup said. "We use a local transportation firm, Interstate Distributor in Tacoma. We use local trucking firms to and from the port. We build display cases for some glass pieces locally."
Foam is a key packing element to protect the glass. Vinup's staff uses different forms of foam for different types of glass.
Chihuly's round floats and colorfully spotted Macchia, which are round at the bottom and splay open at the top like a flower are cushioned by pouring heated liquid foam into the box around the glass. It solidifies into foam-in-place.
For seaforms or baskets, they use foam cut to the exact shape of the piece, similar to the tool box fillers that precisely hold specific tools in place.
The delicate, paper-thin Persians, with multiple, erratically shaped parts, are suspended in a box filled with foam peanuts that provide uniform pressure.
The boxes are a story in themselves. They come in 53 different sizes, with various dividers to create 4-inch to 14-inch squares and lengths up to 90 inches for chandelier parts. They're double-wall corrugated cardboard with rope handles on each end for sure grip. Chihuly himself designed the cartons years ago.
"That's an old Dale idea," said Terry Rishel, manager of Chihuly Studio in Tacoma. "In the very beginning, it was only Dale. He blew the glass. He packed it himself, so he became aware of details. We still use some of his ideas today."
But Chihuly is a bit too much in demand to do the packing himself nowadays. That's where Vinup comes in. In the Air Force, the 43-year-old Tacoma native learned about careful shipping by running warehouses that handled such hazardous commodities as bullets. He gained experience with international shipping laws. For the past five years, he's applied his background to Chihuly glass.
Despite his expertise, doesn't that precious, fragile freight often break en route?
"We actually don't have that much breakage. It's less than 1 percent," Vinup said.
"That's directly related to our extensive internal shipping and safety training video," Rishel said. "It teaches many important things, like where the thickest and thinnest parts of the glass are. Some Venetians are so delicate you have to handle them precisely, or you can stick a finger right through it."
Timeliness of deliveries is at least as significant a pressure as safety.
"This does have time-sensitive issues, with specific openings and closings," Vinup said. "Exhibitions must be shipped on time. We track everything. It gets intense. But not one time has an exhibition failed to open on time."
"Even though there have been times our crew is going out the back door when the people are coming in the front," Rishel said.
Exhibition logistics are complicated. A massive Jerusalem display that has drawn more than 1 million patrons in the past 18 months required the gathering of material from Japan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New York and Alaska.
Alaska?
"We sent 64 tons of ice from Alaska to Jerusalem (for a neon-in-ice display)," Vinup said. "We sent 10 ocean containers of art, plus lots of air freight shipments."
If you think Chihuly throws cost to the wind and simply spends whatever it takes to transport glass safely, think again.
"Cost is very, very important," Vinup said. "We try to reuse as much material as we can for as long as it's of acceptable quality. Some boxes have been with the company longer than I have."
Like the rest of us worrying that special Christmas package might not arrive safely or on time, Vinup finds this a particularly stressful month for shipping.
"This time of year is the worst time of year to ship glass because shippers hire so many temps who don't really know how to handle boxes," he said. "We just try to pay more special attention to all the glass we ship now.""
2000 Neil Watson:
"Is it meaningful to continue to debate the distinction between art and craft? Doesn’t it seem fruitless, if not a little absurd, to debate craft’s inclusion in the contemporary art canon when artists are suspending sharks in tanks or drawing on the floor with hair saturated in Loving Care? It’s a free-for-all out there. Forms expand. Barriers fall. And it all happens at the accelerated point-and-click pace of contemporary culture. The contemporary curator who has the time to make judgments about whether the medium of glass is craft or art is wasting time. But curators are in the business of judgment, after all.Back in the early 1970s, when I was studying painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, I wasn’t thinking about judgments. I was gobbling up instruction as fast as I could.Studio glass was in its infancy, and Dale Chihuly was head of the glass department. He was also one of the coolest teachers around. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take his flat glass course. I can’t say that I was among his stellar students, but I was struck with Dale’s vision of where glass was heading, and the fact that he saw no divisions, no barriers between what he did and what other artists did. For the first time, I connected glass to sculpture, glass to drawing, glass to paint.
This is one of the challenges facing today’s contemporary glass artists. Their technical virtuosity is unquestionable. But the artist who relies too heavily on technique will always be anchored to craft. In the end it will be the artists working with glass s who look to art history as well as the work of their contemporaries who are non-glass artists who will have the greatest chance of being judged on their own terms as artists.It is the job of the museum curator to try to make sense of it all. Finally, what all of these issues distill down to is what is good, what will last. All the heated discussions regarding the validity of glass as art will eventually disappear, and what will be left is the work, whether a classic vessel or a sculpture formed from thousands of carefully extruded colored glass threads. Talk fades. Vision endures."
Watson, N. "What will last: the challenge of glass." Glass Art from Urban Glass, 2000. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., PA.
2000 National Endowment for the Arts:
"Glass Art Society, Inc.
Seattle, WA
$12,000
DISCIPLINE/FIELD: Visual Arts
To support the 30th annual conference of the national service organization of artists working in glass. G.A.S. 2000: Bridge to the Future will be held in Brooklyn in June 2000."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/00grants/Ed.html
2000 Karen S. Chambers:
“The future of glass might seem to be a frivolous question or alternatively a deeply philosophical one. For some, glass has no future, meaning that studio glass will die because glass as a medium will be subsumed into the larger category of sculpture. It will become a material for those working three dimensionally with perhaps the skilled studio glassworker functioning like a master printer or foundry foreman to execute an unskilled glass artist’s concept.
That is not the future of studio glass that I see although I do believe that it will become an increasingly significant trend….There will forever be artists like Maurice marinot who feel they must conquer the medium. Responding directly to the seductiveness of the material will always yield unexpected and perhaps even aesthetically pleasing results….
I, personally do not subscribe to the notion that big is better…but larger may be the natural consequence of more technically skilled glassworkers.
One thing I do not see happening in the future is the widespread acceptance of glass objects into museum collections , despite the efforts of organizations like the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and the popularity of recent glass survey exhibitions in major museums. The simple truth is that museum collections are intended to preserve the best art, an evaluation subject to change over time."
Chambers, K. The Future of Glass, a question posed by editor Perreault. “UrbanGlass Art Quartlery” GLASS no 78 spring 2000. [editor John Perreault]. pg. 20.
2000 Matthew Kangas:
“For the time being, the number of glass artists seems likely to grow, but what about the next generation of connoisseurs and collectors? Not at all definite."
Kangas, M. The Future of Glass, a question asked by editor Perrault. “UrbanGlass Art Quartlery” GLASS no 78 spring 2000 editor John Perreault. pg. 21.
2000 Matthew Kangas:
Kangas, Matthew. 2000. Art Guide NW. "Clearly Brilliant: Pilchuck's new talent program." Accessed April 24, 2009. http://www.artguidenw.com/Emerging.htm
2000 Brad Broberg:
"For years -- more like forever -- the only thing tourism and Tacoma had in common was the letter T.
2000 Business Wire:
"MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2000
Quebec Craft Gallery (d'arts du Quebec) will be presenting works from 11 renown Quebec craft artists at the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) exhibit taking place November 3-5 2000 in Chicago at the Navy Pier.
The gallery's juried exhibition will feature the work of contemporary Quebec craft artists in a variety of media. Exhibiting with the gallery this year:
- Chantal Gilbert, jeweller and sculptural knifemaker. Part of her work stems from a desire to codify the knife in a different way. The pieces are no longer weapons or tools-her unique appropriation of the knife results in stunning works of art rather than mere utilitarian objects. - Luci Veilleux, jeweller. The fascination of Veilleux's wearable art lies in its fluid lines, metamorphosis over time, changes in rhythm and the logical, unusual and harmonious interaction of materials. - Christine Larochelle, jeweler. Her stunning pieces are inspired by carapaces, shells, fur and plumage observed in wildlife. - Rosie Godbout, textile artist: In an attempt to free herself from the constraints of traditional weaving techniques. Godbout explores the various possibilities that fabric printing offers by applying pigment directly onto the warp and weft threads. - Jean-Marie Giguere, glass. His work is intended to evoke communication between individuals. The use of signs and symbols explains the intentions and interactions between living beings, as well as their relationship with their community. The use of geographic, cosmic and folkloric indicators situates humankind in time, with all its strengths and weaknesses. - Sylvie Belanger, glass. Belanger looks to history and mythology for inspiration. The images and ways of the past spark her imagination and are conveyed in her blown, cast and twisted glass assemblages of metal pigments and sand. - Paul Bogati, ceramist. Through his bronze, stoneware and terracotta sculpture Bogati succeeds at illustrating his fascination with two extremes: human misery and the greatness of man. - Mitsuru Cope's ceramist. Her whimsical and humorous creatures are loosely based on Japanese folk tales. Her ideas come from her experience and observations of people and animals. - Eva Lapka, ceramist. Lapka explores the characteristics of people in all eras; people crushed under the weight of their condition, torn and worn down by a turbulent past; but also people as bearers of all the power of ideas, burning with both infinite wisdom and an unquenchable thirst for truth. - Gary Merkel, ceramist. With its hint of whimsy and intrigue, his work ranges from the functional to the decorative to the sculptural. - Danielle Carignan, sculptor and fine woodworker. Her sculptural furniture pieces resemble animals or characters, each with their own personality.You will find many of these artists on site to discuss their work.
Each year the SOFA exhibit has been attracting collectors, gallery owners, architects and art lovers from around the world. Last year SOFA CHICAGO 1999 closed after record sales and gate attendance. Patrons were delighted by a multitude of sophiticated and innovative artworks. This year the exhibit will feature 90 select galleries mostly from the United States but also including galleries from London, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia and three from Montreal: Galerie des metiers d'art du Quebec, Galerie Elena Lee and Option Art.
The Quebec Craft Council's head office is located in Montreal, Quebec. The Council has been instrumental in assuring a Quebec presence at SOFA, including the presence of its own gallery-the Galerie des metiers d'art du Quebec. In November 2000, the gallery will be presenting unique and innovative crafts at booth #1301 in the Festival Hall of the Navy Pier in Chicago.
For additional information on the Quebec Craft Council visit their site at http://www.metiers-d-art.qc.ca or contact France Bernard at 514.861.2787 ext. 310. For further information on the SOFA Chicago 2000 exhibit go to www.sofaexpo.com"
"Craft Artists from Quebec Featured at Prestigious SOFA Chicago." Business Wire. October 4, 2000. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28396612_ITM
2000 Art Popham:
"If you think you have lots of precious packages to send around the country this holiday season, consider the shipments Allen Vinup regularly handles. It might elevate your shipping appreciation level, as you languish in line at the post office or sweat the on-time arrival of the gifts you're sending.
Vinup works as shipping manager for internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Last January, Chihuly consolidated all shipments of his valuable, ornate blown glass in a 73,000-square-foot warehouse near Jefferson Avenue in Tacoma. Few people realize Chihuly's entire shipping operation, including distribution of all his Portland Press books, is based right here in the artist's hometown. Chihuly is a 1959 Wilson High School graduate and an honorary alum of Stadium High.
Glass blown in Seattle comes to Tacoma for distribution. When Chihuly travels to Mexico, Scandinavia, Ireland or anywhere in the world to create his treasures, all new art not going directly to an exhibition comes to Tacoma for storage. Glass shipments to destinations worldwide emanate from Tacoma.
It's a huge operation that requires a staff of 31 people. They must make positively sure glass arrives at museums, galleries and to private patrons on time and unbroken. Remember, we're talking delicate glass here. And lots of it.
Consider these mind-numbing numbers from this year alone.
-- Chihuly's Tacoma operation has made 770 domestic shipments in 2000, an average of more than two for every single day. By year's end, it will have made more than 800.
-- It has made 55 international shipments this year, averaging more than one per week. Destinations include Monaco, Australia and Iceland. Loads range in size from a single corrugated cardboard box to ocean containers.
-- It has shipped 80 of Chihuly's massive chandeliers. Each contains as many as 2,000 individual parts. The average is 500. Each chandelier requires 100 hours of work to prepare for shipment.
-- Overall, it has shipped more than 10,000 boxes of artwork this year.
-- This phase of Chihuly's operation spends $500,000 on shipping costs and $500,000 on supplies in a single year.
-- Those supplies include $100,000 worth of boxes, $90,000 of block foam and $11,000 for 144,000 cubic feet of foam peanuts.
-- In addition to actual glass, Chihuly-owned Portland Press has shipped 44,000 books this year. Portland Press has 26 books in print, plus many exhibition catalogs. Chihuly has had 41 exhibitions this year.
The local economy benefits from much of this shipping activity.
"We buy mostly from local vendors," Vinup said. "We use a local transportation firm, Interstate Distributor in Tacoma. We use local trucking firms to and from the port. We build display cases for some glass pieces locally."
Foam is a key packing element to protect the glass. Vinup's staff uses different forms of foam for different types of glass.
Chihuly's round floats and colorfully spotted Macchia, which are round at the bottom and splay open at the top like a flower are cushioned by pouring heated liquid foam into the box around the glass. It solidifies into foam-in-place.
For seaforms or baskets, they use foam cut to the exact shape of the piece, similar to the tool box fillers that precisely hold specific tools in place.
The delicate, paper-thin Persians, with multiple, erratically shaped parts, are suspended in a box filled with foam peanuts that provide uniform pressure.
The boxes are a story in themselves. They come in 53 different sizes, with various dividers to create 4-inch to 14-inch squares and lengths up to 90 inches for chandelier parts. They're double-wall corrugated cardboard with rope handles on each end for sure grip. Chihuly himself designed the cartons years ago.
"That's an old Dale idea," said Terry Rishel, manager of Chihuly Studio in Tacoma. "In the very beginning, it was only Dale. He blew the glass. He packed it himself, so he became aware of details. We still use some of his ideas today."
But Chihuly is a bit too much in demand to do the packing himself nowadays. That's where Vinup comes in. In the Air Force, the 43-year-old Tacoma native learned about careful shipping by running warehouses that handled such hazardous commodities as bullets. He gained experience with international shipping laws. For the past five years, he's applied his background to Chihuly glass.
Despite his expertise, doesn't that precious, fragile freight often break en route?
"We actually don't have that much breakage. It's less than 1 percent," Vinup said.
"That's directly related to our extensive internal shipping and safety training video," Rishel said. "It teaches many important things, like where the thickest and thinnest parts of the glass are. Some Venetians are so delicate you have to handle them precisely, or you can stick a finger right through it."
Timeliness of deliveries is at least as significant a pressure as safety.
"This does have time-sensitive issues, with specific openings and closings," Vinup said. "Exhibitions must be shipped on time. We track everything. It gets intense. But not one time has an exhibition failed to open on time."
"Even though there have been times our crew is going out the back door when the people are coming in the front," Rishel said.
Exhibition logistics are complicated. A massive Jerusalem display that has drawn more than 1 million patrons in the past 18 months required the gathering of material from Japan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New York and Alaska.
Alaska?
"We sent 64 tons of ice from Alaska to Jerusalem (for a neon-in-ice display)," Vinup said. "We sent 10 ocean containers of art, plus lots of air freight shipments."
If you think Chihuly throws cost to the wind and simply spends whatever it takes to transport glass safely, think again.
"Cost is very, very important," Vinup said. "We try to reuse as much material as we can for as long as it's of acceptable quality. Some boxes have been with the company longer than I have."
Like the rest of us worrying that special Christmas package might not arrive safely or on time, Vinup finds this a particularly stressful month for shipping.
"This time of year is the worst time of year to ship glass because shippers hire so many temps who don't really know how to handle boxes," he said. "We just try to pay more special attention to all the glass we ship now.""
Popham, Art. "The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash., Art Popham Column.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)." Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. Dec 19, 2000. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-6424981_ITM
2000 Neil Watson:
"Is it meaningful to continue to debate the distinction between art and craft? Doesn’t it seem fruitless, if not a little absurd, to debate craft’s inclusion in the contemporary art canon when artists are suspending sharks in tanks or drawing on the floor with hair saturated in Loving Care? It’s a free-for-all out there. Forms expand. Barriers fall. And it all happens at the accelerated point-and-click pace of contemporary culture. The contemporary curator who has the time to make judgments about whether the medium of glass is craft or art is wasting time. But curators are in the business of judgment, after all.Back in the early 1970s, when I was studying painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, I wasn’t thinking about judgments. I was gobbling up instruction as fast as I could.Studio glass was in its infancy, and Dale Chihuly was head of the glass department. He was also one of the coolest teachers around. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take his flat glass course. I can’t say that I was among his stellar students, but I was struck with Dale’s vision of where glass was heading, and the fact that he saw no divisions, no barriers between what he did and what other artists did. For the first time, I connected glass to sculpture, glass to drawing, glass to paint.
Since that experience, I had always wanted to visit the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. Twenty-five years later, I got my wish. Last May I was invited to participate in their curator’s workshop and it was everything I had hoped. To stand in the hot shop and encounter close up the jump-back blistering heat of the furnaces and see the glassblowers perform their seemingly choreographed dance is to glimpse the remarkable progress of the studio glass movement as well as where it’s headed.
Studio glass is a collaborative effort. The material requirements are demanding and costly, the help and assistance of others a necessity. That fact doesn’t limit glass; it expands it. It charges and challenges artists. You can feel it all at Pilchuck, permeating Washington State’s thick fog-laden air; passion, challenge, generosity, rivalry, vision. Even now, studio glass is still young. During the early 1960s when artists were experimenting with glass, their ambition was often hindered by the size of the work that could be created. With the advancements of furnaces and their capabilities and techniques, as well as a large does of ingenuity, the artists were able to create larger scaled work. Trailblazers such as Harvey Littleton and Dale Chihuly were instrumental in bringing studio glass to the forefront and effectively giving it a popular appeal. At the same time, artists such as Toots Zynsky, Judith Schaechter, Christopher Wilmarth, and longtime collaborators Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have pushed the boundaries of the medium to a point where the glass has become an integral component of a larger idea. Today’s artists are not constrained by medium; in their search for meaning, they slip back and forth across the borders of craft and art and, in the process, push us all in a new direction.
Much like photography, glass, when in the hands of gifted artist, becomes something altogether different from its traditional and more narrowly focused beginnings. Glass can be many things: smooth or coarse, opaque or clear, intimate or heroic, subtle or eye-popping.It can also be seductive—some critics say too seductive.In the world of contemporary art these days, beauty often annoys.It can be a problem.Beauty cant’ be taken seriously, after all. The impulse to beauty, some think, is an easy road, especially if the artist is technically proficient.
This is one of the challenges facing today’s contemporary glass artists. Their technical virtuosity is unquestionable. But the artist who relies too heavily on technique will always be anchored to craft. In the end it will be the artists working with glass s who look to art history as well as the work of their contemporaries who are non-glass artists who will have the greatest chance of being judged on their own terms as artists.It is the job of the museum curator to try to make sense of it all. Finally, what all of these issues distill down to is what is good, what will last. All the heated discussions regarding the validity of glass as art will eventually disappear, and what will be left is the work, whether a classic vessel or a sculpture formed from thousands of carefully extruded colored glass threads. Talk fades. Vision endures."
2000 National Endowment for the Arts:
"Glass Art Society, Inc.
Seattle, WA
$12,000
DISCIPLINE/FIELD: Visual Arts
To support the 30th annual conference of the national service organization of artists working in glass. G.A.S. 2000: Bridge to the Future will be held in Brooklyn in June 2000."
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/00grants/Ed.html
2000 Karen S. Chambers:
“The future of glass might seem to be a frivolous question or alternatively a deeply philosophical one. For some, glass has no future, meaning that studio glass will die because glass as a medium will be subsumed into the larger category of sculpture. It will become a material for those working three dimensionally with perhaps the skilled studio glassworker functioning like a master printer or foundry foreman to execute an unskilled glass artist’s concept.
That is not the future of studio glass that I see although I do believe that it will become an increasingly significant trend….There will forever be artists like Maurice marinot who feel they must conquer the medium. Responding directly to the seductiveness of the material will always yield unexpected and perhaps even aesthetically pleasing results….
I, personally do not subscribe to the notion that big is better…but larger may be the natural consequence of more technically skilled glassworkers.
One thing I do not see happening in the future is the widespread acceptance of glass objects into museum collections , despite the efforts of organizations like the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and the popularity of recent glass survey exhibitions in major museums. The simple truth is that museum collections are intended to preserve the best art, an evaluation subject to change over time."
Chambers, K. The Future of Glass, a question posed by editor Perreault. “UrbanGlass Art Quartlery” GLASS no 78 spring 2000. [editor John Perreault]. pg. 20.
2000 Matthew Kangas:
“For the time being, the number of glass artists seems likely to grow, but what about the next generation of connoisseurs and collectors? Not at all definite."
Kangas, M. The Future of Glass, a question asked by editor Perrault. “UrbanGlass Art Quartlery” GLASS no 78 spring 2000 editor John Perreault. pg. 21.
2000 Matthew Kangas:
"Clearly Brilliant: A Decade at Pilchuck Glass School's Emerging Artists in Residence," (to Jan. 1, 2001) "...Chihuly's hunch proved prophetic for, if anything, the EAiR [Emerging Artists in Residence] underscored and facilitated a general trend in contemporary art toward the implementation of glass as art element rather than its exclusive focus for decorative crafts.
EAiR echoes Pilchuck's already existing artist-in-residence program that has invited such well-known artists as Lynda Benglis, Willie Cole, John Torreano, Dennis Oppenheim and Italo Scanga to have works executed in glass according to their design whims.
By concentrating on younger, unknown artists of promise, Pilchuck wisely plants seeds for the future, a day that, in a way, has already arrived within the past decade when glass became fully accepted as one of a variety of art materials attracting artists today.
Viewers will be startled and delighted by the range of works on view. The bright color associated with Pilchuck glass (because of its Venetian heritage) is there but it is accompanied by a cool, clear color sense ratcheting up the intellectual caliber of the show, and reminding us that much of the appeal of glass to younger artists lies in its transparency. Icy, frosty, crystalline, colored or blurry, the 66 works on view by 34 artists make references to human anatomy, technology, botany, calligraphy, medicine, genetics, adolescence, childhood, femininity, masculinity, and consumerism. With such a full plate, curator Bell was able to differentiate his survey from TAM's benchmark 1991 exhibit, "Glass: Material in the Service of Meaning," guest-curated by artist Ginny Ruffner. "'Clearly Brilliant' is about emerging artists for one thing," Bell noted, "but, like Ginny's show, not everyone in "Clearly Brilliant" is known for working in glass. I tried to create a show that would look good in our space."
[...]
It's too soon to tell which of the 54 former residents may become "big names" nor is that the gauge of the program's success. Several have managed to exhibit their work in galleries afterwards and a few, like Carl Hasse, Karin Richardson and Lisa Zerkowitz, joined the venue that also displayed their EAiR showcase, in this case, the Bryan Ohno Gallery. Other artists who found gallery affiliation as a result of the program include: Masami Koda and Kait Rhoads at the William Traver Gallery; Patricia Davidson and Patrick Martin at the Friesen Gallery.
Either way, the program is becoming one of the most desirable artistic residencies available in North America. What the next decade will bring is hard to say but, given the TAM survey and Pilchuck's sterling record for encouraging new talent, it is sure to remain the fount of some of the most promising and exciting art being made in our region."
2000 Brad Broberg:
"For years -- more like forever -- the only thing tourism and Tacoma had in common was the letter T.
But that was before world-class car and glass museums were in the works. And a new convention center and art museum were on the drawing boards. And an aquarium and an excursion train to Mount Rainier were being considered.
"I said a couple of years ago we needed a pair of jumper cables in this town," says David Allen, director of the Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma. "Now we need a traffic cop."
Once a dead end, downtown Tacoma believes it is on the road to becoming a magnet for travelers and meeting-goers.
"We're just going to be so (exciting), they're going to have to get off I-5 and explore our fine community," says Ruthie Reinert, executive director of the Tacoma/Pierce County Convention and Visitor Bureau.
The bureau is so confident that Tacoma will emerge as a convention destination that it recently flip-flopped its name to place the word convention before the word visitor.
Tacoma has been gaining momentum for more than a decade with the creation of a theater district, construction of the Washington State History Museum and arrival of the University of Washington branch campus. Before that, there was the Tacoma Dome and Exhibition Hall.
But the best is yet to come, say boosters.
"The year 2002 will be an unprecedented year," says Don Meyer, executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. "This isn't rhetoric. This is real."
The waterway, which forms downtown Tacoma's eastern boundary, is one of several focal points in Tacoma's transformation and an example of the kind of public/private partnerships that are fueling the city's progress.
Owned by the city and managed by the development authority, much of the waterway's western shoreline is being converted from a blighted former warehouse district into an $88 million mixed-use development featuring shops, restaurants, condominiums, a hotel and a pedestrian esplanade along the water's edge.
Team Tacoma, a consortium of bankers, brokers, architects and developers, is expected to complete the project in 2002.
To the south of that development will sparkle the future crown jewel of Tacoma's renaissance -- the International Glass Museum, also scheduled to open sometime in 2002.
"It's like getting an anchor tenant in a shopping mall," says Meyer of the museum's importance to the waterway's redevelopment.
Inspired by the success of Tacoma-born glass artist Dale Chihuly, the museum is intended to become "an international home for the art form," says Allen.
Besides static displays, the museum will feature a huge "hot shop" where people can watch artists from all over the world at work.
The museum is expected to attract approximately 200,000 visitors a year, says Allen.
Site preparation for the museum already has begun near the south end of the waterway. A glass bridge linking the museum site and downtown will be finished later this year.
The glass museum won't be the only addition to Tacoma's cultural scene in 2002. A new $25 million Tacoma Art Museum will open north of Union Station on Pacific Avenue.
The final new attraction scheduled for completion in 2002 is the city's $51 million, 130,000-square-foot convention center. Also located north of Union Station on Pacific Avenue, it will be the centerpiece for surrounding private development -- including a possible multiplex movie theater.
Developer Opus Northwest LLC -- recently chosen by the city over two other firms -- is to present a final proposal in mid-February.
In a separate but related endeavor, the nearby Tacoma Sheraton is pondering a 200- to 225-room expansion, says Martha Anderson, an economic development manager for the city.
Reinert envisions the new convention center drawing midsize gatherings of up to 5,000 people. She says meeting planners who previously never considered Tacoma are already asking about dates.
Margaret O'Brien, executive director of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, recently scouted Tacoma as one of two possible sites (the other is in Minnesota) for the New York-based group's 2004 convention.
In O'Brien's eyes, Tacoma already shines.
"Waking up and seeing the mountain outside my window was beautiful," she says. "You don't see that in New York."
The new convention center, museums and waterfront developments will make Tacoma that much more "fabulous," says O'Brien. "I think they will probably bring a lot more people there."
If her organization's board selects Minnesota instead of Tacoma for the 2004 convention, O'Brien wants the 800-member gathering to occur in Tacoma in 2006.
"I would choose it right now, but I'm only one person," she says.
Preceding completion of Tacoma's 2002 construction boom will be the arrival of a light rail spur. Scheduled to begin operation in 2001, the line will run along Pacific Avenue between the Tacoma Dome Station -- a terminus for Seattle-bound buses and commuter trains -- and the Theater District at the north end of downtown.
But wait. Those are just the "done" deals. Several other projects may also gain the funding and/or political support to move forward.
The grandest is the Harold E. LeMay Museum, a 200,000-square foot temple to the history and social impacts of the automobile. If all goes well, the museum and an adjacent 10-level open storage structure will house about half of LeMay's 2,300-car collection -- the largest private car collection in the world.
The museum's board is scheduled to decide by spring whether to begin raising funds. So far, the $74 million proposal "pencils out real well," says Eric LeMay, grandson of Harold and director of the museum.
The museum has a handshake agreement with the city to study constructing the complex in the south parking lot of the Tacoma Dome, says LeMay. It would take four years to build and could open as early as 2004, drawing as many as 360,000 visitors a year.
Harold LeMay, now 80, owns Pierce County Refuse and has been collecting cars for 50 years. They range in age from turn-of-the-century to modern-day.
About 250 of the cars would be displayed in the museum proper at any one time amid memorabilia of the era from which the car originated.
"We never refer to it as a car museum," says Eric LeMay. "It's a 20th century American culture museum ... that uses the car to put people in times and places to understand what was happening in the world to create that car."
Another project chugging to ward fruition involves running a tourist train from downtown Tacoma to Elbe, just outside Mount Rainier National Park. Weyerhaeuser already has donated the tracks, but the city must find $6 million to $7 million to upgrade them, says Allen.
Lastly, Alien is busy gauging support for building a Northwest Waters research aquarium. A site has been reserved along the Foss Waterway, but only until July 1. If Allen can't find a sponsor and major funding sources for the $60 million to $70 million project, the aquarium may evaporate.
"I find it hard to tell," he says of the aquarium's chances.
Allen has been executive director of the Executive Council for-a Greater Tacoma since it was formed in 1987.
"We're a leadership group," he says, "a subtle form of leadership. We are not project sponsors. We are project starters."
The council consists of the city's top business leaders. Bill Philip, chair of Columbia Bank, has chaired the council since its birth.
Created during the depths of the downtown's demise, the group has teamed up with City Hall to help turn Tacoma around, first by attracting projects like the UW branch campus and state history museum and now by supporting the glass museum, convention center and other coming attractions.
"For a long time Tacoma wanted to be like Seattle," says LeMay. "Now, look at all the things we can do to complement Seattle.""
Broberg, B. "Tacoma tourism: 'This isn't rhetoric, this is real'." Puget Sound Business Journal. January 21, 2000. American City Business Journals, Inc. 2000. AccessMyLibrary. 5 Nov. 2009 http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-59483074/tacoma-tourism-isnt-rhetoric.html
"Glassblowing thrives on the Venetian island of Murano in the work of a countess, a legendary g/ass artist's granddaughter, and an American furnishings firm
"I said a couple of years ago we needed a pair of jumper cables in this town," says David Allen, director of the Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma. "Now we need a traffic cop."
Once a dead end, downtown Tacoma believes it is on the road to becoming a magnet for travelers and meeting-goers.
"We're just going to be so (exciting), they're going to have to get off I-5 and explore our fine community," says Ruthie Reinert, executive director of the Tacoma/Pierce County Convention and Visitor Bureau.
The bureau is so confident that Tacoma will emerge as a convention destination that it recently flip-flopped its name to place the word convention before the word visitor.
Tacoma has been gaining momentum for more than a decade with the creation of a theater district, construction of the Washington State History Museum and arrival of the University of Washington branch campus. Before that, there was the Tacoma Dome and Exhibition Hall.
But the best is yet to come, say boosters.
"The year 2002 will be an unprecedented year," says Don Meyer, executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. "This isn't rhetoric. This is real."
The waterway, which forms downtown Tacoma's eastern boundary, is one of several focal points in Tacoma's transformation and an example of the kind of public/private partnerships that are fueling the city's progress.
Owned by the city and managed by the development authority, much of the waterway's western shoreline is being converted from a blighted former warehouse district into an $88 million mixed-use development featuring shops, restaurants, condominiums, a hotel and a pedestrian esplanade along the water's edge.
Team Tacoma, a consortium of bankers, brokers, architects and developers, is expected to complete the project in 2002.
To the south of that development will sparkle the future crown jewel of Tacoma's renaissance -- the International Glass Museum, also scheduled to open sometime in 2002.
"It's like getting an anchor tenant in a shopping mall," says Meyer of the museum's importance to the waterway's redevelopment.
Inspired by the success of Tacoma-born glass artist Dale Chihuly, the museum is intended to become "an international home for the art form," says Allen.
Besides static displays, the museum will feature a huge "hot shop" where people can watch artists from all over the world at work.
The museum is expected to attract approximately 200,000 visitors a year, says Allen.
Site preparation for the museum already has begun near the south end of the waterway. A glass bridge linking the museum site and downtown will be finished later this year.
The glass museum won't be the only addition to Tacoma's cultural scene in 2002. A new $25 million Tacoma Art Museum will open north of Union Station on Pacific Avenue.
The final new attraction scheduled for completion in 2002 is the city's $51 million, 130,000-square-foot convention center. Also located north of Union Station on Pacific Avenue, it will be the centerpiece for surrounding private development -- including a possible multiplex movie theater.
Developer Opus Northwest LLC -- recently chosen by the city over two other firms -- is to present a final proposal in mid-February.
In a separate but related endeavor, the nearby Tacoma Sheraton is pondering a 200- to 225-room expansion, says Martha Anderson, an economic development manager for the city.
Reinert envisions the new convention center drawing midsize gatherings of up to 5,000 people. She says meeting planners who previously never considered Tacoma are already asking about dates.
Margaret O'Brien, executive director of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, recently scouted Tacoma as one of two possible sites (the other is in Minnesota) for the New York-based group's 2004 convention.
In O'Brien's eyes, Tacoma already shines.
"Waking up and seeing the mountain outside my window was beautiful," she says. "You don't see that in New York."
The new convention center, museums and waterfront developments will make Tacoma that much more "fabulous," says O'Brien. "I think they will probably bring a lot more people there."
If her organization's board selects Minnesota instead of Tacoma for the 2004 convention, O'Brien wants the 800-member gathering to occur in Tacoma in 2006.
"I would choose it right now, but I'm only one person," she says.
Preceding completion of Tacoma's 2002 construction boom will be the arrival of a light rail spur. Scheduled to begin operation in 2001, the line will run along Pacific Avenue between the Tacoma Dome Station -- a terminus for Seattle-bound buses and commuter trains -- and the Theater District at the north end of downtown.
But wait. Those are just the "done" deals. Several other projects may also gain the funding and/or political support to move forward.
The grandest is the Harold E. LeMay Museum, a 200,000-square foot temple to the history and social impacts of the automobile. If all goes well, the museum and an adjacent 10-level open storage structure will house about half of LeMay's 2,300-car collection -- the largest private car collection in the world.
The museum's board is scheduled to decide by spring whether to begin raising funds. So far, the $74 million proposal "pencils out real well," says Eric LeMay, grandson of Harold and director of the museum.
The museum has a handshake agreement with the city to study constructing the complex in the south parking lot of the Tacoma Dome, says LeMay. It would take four years to build and could open as early as 2004, drawing as many as 360,000 visitors a year.
Harold LeMay, now 80, owns Pierce County Refuse and has been collecting cars for 50 years. They range in age from turn-of-the-century to modern-day.
About 250 of the cars would be displayed in the museum proper at any one time amid memorabilia of the era from which the car originated.
"We never refer to it as a car museum," says Eric LeMay. "It's a 20th century American culture museum ... that uses the car to put people in times and places to understand what was happening in the world to create that car."
Another project chugging to ward fruition involves running a tourist train from downtown Tacoma to Elbe, just outside Mount Rainier National Park. Weyerhaeuser already has donated the tracks, but the city must find $6 million to $7 million to upgrade them, says Allen.
Lastly, Alien is busy gauging support for building a Northwest Waters research aquarium. A site has been reserved along the Foss Waterway, but only until July 1. If Allen can't find a sponsor and major funding sources for the $60 million to $70 million project, the aquarium may evaporate.
"I find it hard to tell," he says of the aquarium's chances.
Allen has been executive director of the Executive Council for-a Greater Tacoma since it was formed in 1987.
"We're a leadership group," he says, "a subtle form of leadership. We are not project sponsors. We are project starters."
The council consists of the city's top business leaders. Bill Philip, chair of Columbia Bank, has chaired the council since its birth.
Created during the depths of the downtown's demise, the group has teamed up with City Hall to help turn Tacoma around, first by attracting projects like the UW branch campus and state history museum and now by supporting the glass museum, convention center and other coming attractions.
"For a long time Tacoma wanted to be like Seattle," says LeMay. "Now, look at all the things we can do to complement Seattle.""
Broberg, B. "Tacoma tourism: 'This isn't rhetoric, this is real'." Puget Sound Business Journal. January 21, 2000. American City Business Journals, Inc. 2000. AccessMyLibrary. 5 Nov. 2009 http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-59483074/tacoma-tourism-isnt-rhetoric.html
2000 Christopher Petkanas:
"Glassblowing thrives on the Venetian island of Murano in the work of a countess, a legendary g/ass artist's granddaughter, and an American furnishings firm
Before Marie Brandolini founded her upstart company, Laguna B, the humble drinking glasses known as got/were largely unavailable to the general public. Fashioned at the end of the day from bits and pieces of leftover glass, melted and reblown, these seductively artless tumblers were always reserved for the use of the craftsmen who made them.
"Traditionally they are the fruit of chance," says Brandolini, a countess through her marriage into one of Italy's grandest families. "Since I control every step of production, my goti are an interpretation. I select the glass rods and murrini--little glass ornaments that look like hard candies, which supply the decoration. I wanted them used in a variety of ways--as whiskey or Coca-Cola glasses, as pencil cups or vases, even as holders for votive candles."
After meeting some initial resistance (many feared she was merely a bored socialite), Brandolini is now a member of the Murano glass community. She knew she'd made it when craftsmen began calling her "the Glass Contessa."
Laura de Santillana's grandfather, Paolo Venini, and father, Ludovico de Santillana, did more to open the art of Venetian glass to the world than anyone in the 20th century. Even people who never buy glassware more exotic that what is offered at Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn know the name Venini.
"A decommissioned soldier who had been a lawyer in Milan, my grandfather arrived in Venice after World War I, fell in love with the city, and looked for an activity that would allow him to stay," says Laura de Santillana. "In 1921 he opened a workshop that would launch the mode for Venetian glass in northern Europe, especially Scandinavia. After my grandfather died in 1959, my father welcomed American artists like Dale Chihuly, Dick Marquis, and James Carpenter to the factory, and the market in the United States exploded."
Having grown up among the furnaces of Murano, surrounded by glass artisans, Santillana distanced herself as a teenager from her family and the visionary business it built from the ground up. "I wanted to escape Venice," she remembers. She landed in New York as a graphic design student at the School of Visual Arts, but returned to Italy in 1975 at age 20. Her father welcomed her back and set her to work designing.
With the sale of Venini and a second family company, Eos, Santillana now works as a freelance designer. Her slender, tapering vases for Arcade are just big enough for a single blossom. Sei Sensi (Six Senses) is a collection that was designed for Japan, which has little tradition of fine glass tableware, but that has also found enthusiastic customers in this country.
Expert at divining niches in the home furnishings arena, Donghia Furniture/Textiles recently put its muscle behind a 20-piece line of Venetian glass. Created by the company's New York design team, which is headed by Sherri Donghia, and produced in Murano, the trade-only collection comprises lighting, mirrors, and accessories, including compotes, urns, and vases. Most objects are flecked with gold leaf.
"A lot of Venetian glass is over-the-top in terms of shape and color," says Lloyd Jackson, Donghia's marketing manager. "We saw the need for historic designs that are cleaned up, pared down, and brought into contemporary focus. The palette draws on the rich and muted colors of the 17th and 18th centuries, the ones you see in Venice: burnt blood-red, golden ocher. What we call `breen'--not blue and not green--was inspired by the Venetian lagoon."
Donghia is betting on the power of the new collection to "round out" (read: soften) interiors that might be considered stark or chilly, adds Jackson. It also carries forward poetically the firm's practice of vaulting the divide between the traditional and the modern."
PETKANAS, CHRISTOPHER. "THREE WAYS WITH BLOWN GLASS." House Beautiful. May 2000. Retrieved November 06, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27664668_ITM
"Traditionally they are the fruit of chance," says Brandolini, a countess through her marriage into one of Italy's grandest families. "Since I control every step of production, my goti are an interpretation. I select the glass rods and murrini--little glass ornaments that look like hard candies, which supply the decoration. I wanted them used in a variety of ways--as whiskey or Coca-Cola glasses, as pencil cups or vases, even as holders for votive candles."
After meeting some initial resistance (many feared she was merely a bored socialite), Brandolini is now a member of the Murano glass community. She knew she'd made it when craftsmen began calling her "the Glass Contessa."
Laura de Santillana's grandfather, Paolo Venini, and father, Ludovico de Santillana, did more to open the art of Venetian glass to the world than anyone in the 20th century. Even people who never buy glassware more exotic that what is offered at Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn know the name Venini.
"A decommissioned soldier who had been a lawyer in Milan, my grandfather arrived in Venice after World War I, fell in love with the city, and looked for an activity that would allow him to stay," says Laura de Santillana. "In 1921 he opened a workshop that would launch the mode for Venetian glass in northern Europe, especially Scandinavia. After my grandfather died in 1959, my father welcomed American artists like Dale Chihuly, Dick Marquis, and James Carpenter to the factory, and the market in the United States exploded."
Having grown up among the furnaces of Murano, surrounded by glass artisans, Santillana distanced herself as a teenager from her family and the visionary business it built from the ground up. "I wanted to escape Venice," she remembers. She landed in New York as a graphic design student at the School of Visual Arts, but returned to Italy in 1975 at age 20. Her father welcomed her back and set her to work designing.
With the sale of Venini and a second family company, Eos, Santillana now works as a freelance designer. Her slender, tapering vases for Arcade are just big enough for a single blossom. Sei Sensi (Six Senses) is a collection that was designed for Japan, which has little tradition of fine glass tableware, but that has also found enthusiastic customers in this country.
Expert at divining niches in the home furnishings arena, Donghia Furniture/Textiles recently put its muscle behind a 20-piece line of Venetian glass. Created by the company's New York design team, which is headed by Sherri Donghia, and produced in Murano, the trade-only collection comprises lighting, mirrors, and accessories, including compotes, urns, and vases. Most objects are flecked with gold leaf.
"A lot of Venetian glass is over-the-top in terms of shape and color," says Lloyd Jackson, Donghia's marketing manager. "We saw the need for historic designs that are cleaned up, pared down, and brought into contemporary focus. The palette draws on the rich and muted colors of the 17th and 18th centuries, the ones you see in Venice: burnt blood-red, golden ocher. What we call `breen'--not blue and not green--was inspired by the Venetian lagoon."
Donghia is betting on the power of the new collection to "round out" (read: soften) interiors that might be considered stark or chilly, adds Jackson. It also carries forward poetically the firm's practice of vaulting the divide between the traditional and the modern."
PETKANAS, CHRISTOPHER. "THREE WAYS WITH BLOWN GLASS." House Beautiful. May 2000. Retrieved November 06, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27664668_ITM
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