Yearly Archives: 2017

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Opens “Mindful” – & Examine Creativity’s Role in Mental Health

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The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) opens “Mindful: Exploring Mental Health through Art”- an exhibit that looks at mental health through the lens of contemporary craft. Mindful features more than 40 works created by 14 contemporary craft artists  – WGS Co-Director Michael Janis’ glass artwork is highlighted in the show that runs January 28 – April 16, 2017.

Other artists include: Edward Eberle, Ian Thomas, Meredith Grimsley, Grace Kubilius, Swoon, Rose Clancy, Jesse Albrecht, Joan Iversen Goswell, Sophia Jung-Am Park, Alison Saar , Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Lyn Godley, and Kaitlyn Evans.

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

The exhibition highlights a variety of techniques and forms that include innovative art expressions rooted in traditional craft materials, as well as art that explores unexpected relationships between craft and painting, sculpture, conceptual, and installation art.

Along with the exhibition MOCA will plan innovative community programming, partnerships and education opportunities. Mindful reaches beyond the museum walls to examine creativity’s role in mental health, resiliency, and compassion.

This exhibition was organized by the Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Michael will also be featured in a Virginia MOCA Artist Talk on April 13 – click HERE for details.

Virginia MOCA

Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art

2200 Parks Ave
Virginia Beach, VA 23451

Posted in contemporary craft, michael janis, mindful | Tagged , ,

Glass Art Magazine Features WGS Co-Director Michael Janis

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janis.michael.glass.art.magazine.leatherbarrow.usa.mixed_media.sculptureGlass Art Magazine had profiled WGS artist Michael Janis recently for their podcast series “Talking Out Your Glass“. The Glass Art celebrates warm, cold and hot glass in multiplatforms – and had presented profiles in print magazines that are issued bi-monthy.

In the new January/February issue, some incredible articles – including a great read on Michael Janis’ works events, and fascinating profile on pioneering glass artist Ginny Ruffner’s distinguished career. 

Have a listen to the Michael Janis podcast HERE – and click HERE to jump to Glass Art magazines site to get a subscription to the latest info on glass and glass education.

Posted in ginny ruffner, glass art, glass art magazine, mike janis

Congrats Deb Ruzinsky – New Director of Appalachian Center for Craft!

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The Appalachian Center for Craft is a satellite campus of Tennessee Tech.

The Appalachian Center for Craft is a satellite campus of Tennessee Tech.

The Appalachian Center for Craft (ACC) has announced that their new Director of the Appalachian Center for Craft at Tennessee Tech University is our Debra Ruzinsky! Congratulations Debra – and congrats to the school who is getting such a thoughtful and dedicated new director! This will be great for both of them!

Deborah Ruzinsky lectures on glass casting techniques at Washington Glass School.

Debra Ruzinsky lectures on glass casting techniques at Washington Glass School.

 

The Appalachian Center for Craft is located on over 500 wooded acres overlooking Center Hill Lake in scenic Middle Tennessee near the town of Smithville. The facility was built in 1979 and exceeds 87,000 square feet of spacious studios, gallery, exhibitions, administrative offices, library, cafe, student housing and meeting/audio visual rooms.

The Craft Center is approximately 60 miles east of Nashville and 120 miles west of Knoxville; and only 25 miles west of TTU’s main campus in Cookeville.

Debra Ruzinsky is a creative facilitator, an arts administrator, and an active and engaged glass artist with an ongoing practice. Her works are found in numerous collections, among them the Seto City Museum collection in Seto, Japan, and the Glasmeseet Ebeltoft collection in Denmark. She has exhibited at such venues as Vis Arts in Rockville, MD, Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY, Hawk Galleries exhibition BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass in Columbus, OH, The Wayne Art Center exhibition Reflections in Glass in Pennsylvania, the Brattleboro Museum of Art exhibition Glass in All Senses in Vermont, and the Glass Heap Challenge exhibition at the Glass Factory Museum in Boda Glasbruk, Sweden.

Posted in appalachian center for craft, debra ruzinsky

USA Art Glass Industry Goes South

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uroboros

A few Uroboros workers will have the options of transferring to California to work for Oceanside. About 40 people work at Uroboros. photo April Baer

Oregon glass makers have gotten skewered in the news this past year. 2016 was the year one modest Forest Service research project turned the Northwest’s storied art glass industry upside down. Samples taken near two Portland art glass factories were shown to carry dangerously high concentrations of heavy metals. These companies make supplies for glass artists all over the world. 

After a tumultuous year of regulatory and public scrutiny, Uroboros Glass founder and owner Eric Lovell is spending this winter preparing to send his 44-year-old art glass business, Uroboros Glass, into new hands. Lovell made the decision this fall to retire and sell his business to a California-based company, Oceanside GlassTile.

Click on link HERE to read KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio’s (PSPR) April Baer interview with Eric Lovell as he prepares to hand off Uroboros to California’s Oceanside GlassTile. While the company has some Oregon connections, it means the loss of some 40 Portland-area jobs to Oceanside, whose production facilities are in Mexico.

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