Glass Art Society
[G.A.S.]

Rev. 2002-0702, 2003-07-24, ... 2006-09-12

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The Glass Art Society is a fundamental organization in the development of the modern art glass movement, its growth paralleling the growth and popularity of the art glass.  It came from meetings sponsored by the Toledo Art Museum and celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1993 with a meeting there.  I think it fair to say the for most of its years it has been primarily for the furnace glass artist, collectors and academic people in the area.  In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in warm glass (kiln worked) and lamp working (torch worked).

The primary activity from a member's viewpoint is the annual Conference which is commonly held in early June unless some feature of the site - such as Michigan Glass Month - suggests holding it earlier. This attracts 1500-2500 people and costs about $300 (with room & board, transportation, and workshops as extras - going to Seattle, with guest housing, cost me $1800.)  The Journal is sent to all members at the end of the year and reports on the Conference.  A newsletter, improved in recent years, reports between times and has informative articles.  Members have access to the membership listing and can buy labels of the mailing lists.

I encourage any person involved or interested in furnace glassblowing (my interest) to attend the Conference at least once. There a person will find a considerable sampling of the people important in the Art Glass movement and virtually all of the equipment and tool makers. Each conference tends to have a different emphasis depending on the resources of the local area and the people running it. I attended in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2003.

GLASS ART SOCIETY
Please make sure your address book is up to date.
Our OLD E-MAIL: glassartsoc@earthlink.net is NO Longer Active.

NEW E-MAILS:
General:  info@glassart.org
Executive Director:  pberk@glassart.org
 Registrar / Administrative Assistant:  info@glassart.org
Tamara Gill, Communications Coordinator:  commcoord@glassart.org
Karen Skrinde, Database Manager: DataMgr@glassart.org

Hot Glass Bits 35
>Anybody going to the Glass Art Society show in Tucson in April? This will be our first year there and I'm curious to know what it's like.
>Thanks very much.
I am going to be there, having gone two and four years ago. Each conference is different, the last one in Boston having had a very strong lamp work influence, the one before that leaning a lot more to furnace work. This one seems to have some strong furnace workers on hand though the state seems to have more lamp workers than furnace. [turned out to be strong on warm glass, with good furnace demo sites MF 2002]
Two things that GAS offers every year are the chance to see the top glass workers in the country actually working and the chance to see, in one large room, all of the good tools for furnace working and lamp working. Actually handling pipes, jacks and shears made choices about spending $60-120 each a bit easier. This year scheduled demos are available for Lino and Shane and Dante and Dino,  Bandhu, Powell and Lundberg (and others)
Sessions may explore starting in a career after college, building a studio, safety and glass on the Internet (golly gee whillikers, Mike, who could be on that panel?)
About half the value of the Conference is the ability to visit studios and talk with people at the studios and at the conference. The people who come are very open and I have asked the question "How did you do that?" to some very good artists and got very good answers.

 2004-03-06 3 am  I have been a member of GAS since 1991. I attended in 1993, 95, 97 and 2003. I subscribe to Glass Magazine. When I skipped GAS, I did so because 1) The emphasis in the preview material seemed weak on furnace glass working (Boston), 2) I couldn't go as cheap as I had to/wanted to (UrbanGlass) 3) I couldn't/wouldn't leave the country (Mexico, Japan, Australia)
For me GAS offers the following experiences in the formal structure (i.e. other than being able to talk to Stephen Powell over one of his pieces.)
0. Academic "old farts" giving out papers of interest to other guys/gals and their resume (just like the old American Theater Association)
1. Personal remembrance of the history of us (mostly since 1960) Gee whiz guys showing images of art and discussing it. Meeting people met before.
2. Professional information on surviving outside the school - a continuing topic at every GAS
3. Technical information at discussion panels and in the tech displays.
4. A chance to do a workshop on the same travel money.
5. A chance to see a LOT of glass - since usually dozens of gallery displays and shows are on in the city and region.
6. A chance to see a LOT of studios that I could never get in on my own.
7. A chance to see a LOT of glass being worked and to watch it intensely and to ask questions during or after the process.

For me, the Seattle GAS was great. I glanced at the tech meetings and skipped almost all. I visited a lot of studios and a lot of demos. I missed several artist discussions because other things were stronger interest at the time.
This whole thing reminds me of the American Theatre Association in the late '70's, where tech and art were in battle as well as academic vs. community theater, kids vs. adult. I started and ran a Playwright's workshop. The ATA died when it tried to hold its convention, a major fund raiser for the organization, in Canada during an economic downturn when professors could not get funding to get out of the country.

What really gets me in all this discussion is my personal bone to pick - technique. Glass Magazine refuses to present/document technique under direction of its board. GAS does not document its demos with other than snap shots. Videos are done, but not released. I can do it on my web site - with no money or time to travel and only one chance to get a reasonably good image - but it certainly would be nice if someone was documenting how people did things in the Fifth Decade of the modern art glass movement.

Contact Mike Firth