The Washington Glass School’s 25th Anniversary Exhibition continues at Brentwood Arts Exchange, and now it’s time to hear from the artists themselves!
Join us Saturday, October 17, from 2–4 PM for an afternoon of art, conversation, and stories from the creative community that has helped shape the Washington Glass School over the past quarter-century.
From experiments and collaborations to unexpected discoveries, there’s plenty to talk about after 25 years!
Artist Talk | Saturday, October 17, 2–4 PM Brentwood Arts Exchange 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, MD 20722
Come for the art. Stay for the stories. Celebrate the community.
After 25 years of glass, kilns, public art, questionable decisions, heroic amounts of plaster, and somehow keeping the Washington Glass School going through it all, WETA Arts has turned its cameras on us.
DC’s PBS WETA crew has been filming at the School and following the Washington Glass School’s 25th Anniversary exhibition at Brentwood Arts Exchange — talking with artists, looking at the work, and documenting the strange little experiment that Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers and Michael Janis started a quarter-century ago.
Think Ken Burns documentary, only with fewer Civil War letters, considerably more glass, and some artists who probably should not be trusted with this much screen time.
We’re thrilled — and perhaps slightly terrified — to see how it all comes together.
WETA Arts Monday, November 9, 2026 | 9:30 PM EST Featuring the Washington Glass School 25th Anniversary
Add it to your watchlist. Alert the relatives. Prepare the popcorn.
Our secret history is about to become public television. Get ready to binge.
Twenty-five years calls for a little conversation.
Brentwood Arts Exchange Gallery
On Saturday, October 17, join us at Brentwood Arts Exchange for Washington Glass School at 25: Artists in Conversation, presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Washington Glass School: 25 Years.
The afternoon brings together artists from the exhibition to talk about their work, their connections to WGS, and the experimentation and exchange of ideas that have shaped the School since 2001. Over those 25 years, WGS has grown from a small Washington-area glass program into a broad community of artists working across glass, sculpture, mixed media, public art, recycled materials and new technologies.
When the art is so good, you have to get the shot. 📸
Rather than a formal history lesson, expect stories, different perspectives, and a look at how this rather unconventional glass community came together—and where it might be headed next.
And judging by some of our younger visitors, the exhibition is already inspiring some serious art documentation.
Washington Glass School at 25: Artists in Conversation Saturday, October 17, 2026 From 2-4PM Brentwood Arts Exchange 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, Maryland
The Washington Glass School: 25 Years continues through October 31, 2026.
🎃 Wanna let your ghouls and goblins out? This class will shed some light on the scary world of glass. Bring friends and family alike and make 2 lights each. Your lights will ready in time for All Hallows’ Eve itself! 🎃 Boo!
It was a special moment this week when Jude Andreasen stopped by the Washington Glass School and handed me a copy of Cleve Overton – His LifeandArt, the beautiful new book she has created about the life and work of her late husband and my friend, artist “Cleve” Overton.
Cleve Overton – His Life and Art
I was honored to write the introduction to the book, but holding the finished volume—with 260 pages and more than 200 images of Cleve’s work—was something else entirely.
Cleve was an artist, author, educator, welder and social activist whose practice ranged from woodcuts and ceramics to sculpture and mixed-media assemblage. He had an extraordinary ability to see possibility in things other people discarded, transforming scrap metal, electronic components, tin cans and other found materials into work that could be playful, beautiful and pointed.
That sensibility made Cleve very much at home at the Washington Glass School, where he took welding classes. Our friendship extended well beyond the studio. We talked frequently about public art, fabrication and, particularly, how monuments and civic artworks tell history: who is represented, whose accomplishments are celebrated, and whose experiences can disappear from the story.
Michael Janis and Cleve Overton, Sarasota, FL, 2020
I encouraged Cleve to participate in the 2012 Artomatic in Crystal City, and we remained friends through the years. His commitment to making art from reclaimed materials, to questioning accepted narratives and to using art as a means of engagement feels especially connected to the values that have shaped the Washington Glass School.
Jude’s new book brings the remarkable breadth of Cleve’s work together for the first time. I’m grateful to have played a small part in it—and very happy to finally be holding a copy in my hands.
