Erwin Timmers is the Co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School. His work references sociological and environmental issues of concern to him, primarily how we, as a society, consume and discard precious resources. For this topic, the choice of materials becomes a more important discussion, so Erwin endeavors to use recycled materials to express concepts and ideas of recycling and use of the environment. Recycled glass is difficult to use, so he has had to develop new and experimental techniques to exploit the characteristics of this material. A Show of Hands explores personal and cultural traits as they relate to present day social trends. Technological “advances” have changed the landscape in human interaction, and social media focuses on aspects of cultural loss, fake news, mass manipulation, and diversion and division. This series is about the expression of nonverbal and abstract themes like trust, communication, and connection. Erwin’s portfolio showcases the possibility and beauty of recycled material, while encouraging the viewer to consider his or her environmental impact.
Erwin Timmers “A Show of Hands” Featuring Artists of the Washington Glass School
Artist Discussion with Erwin Timmers – November 12th, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Exhibits for Erwin Timmers, the Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 will run from November 1st through November 22nd. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment.
Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville, established in October 2014 by artist and arts community builder Judith HeartSong, is a 13,000 sq. ft. facility is home to 87 artists, and 80 student artists. A&M Studios is dedicated to providing a supportive and vibrant environment for artists to realize their creative goals – through studio practice, collaboration, education, opportunities, networking and connecting with the community beyond.
McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) fall 2022 exhibition, Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists, runs thru November 10, 2022. The invitational exhibition highlights work by artists who give significant time to teaching, mentoring, and community building, while continuing to sustain and develop strong and innovative personal bodies of work. Continuum includes the work of artists and educators from most of the area colleges and universities, including George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, the University of Maryland, the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Washington Glass School. All of the participants are as dedicated to their on-going artistic practice as they are to their students, and vice versa.
One of the center’s programs is Art Reach- MPA’s highly successful educational outreach program for local preschool, elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as senior citizens.
MPA’s ArtReach recently visited West Springfield Elementary, to share the current exhibition, Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists. After seeing Michael Janis’ art installation titled “How We Take Care of Each Other” the kindergarten classes were inspired by the work and created their own art installation together as a classroom community. They used markers to trace their hands using favorite colors and then drew images of things or people that inspire us to care for one another. The kids became communicators when they shared their art pieces with classroom peers and collaborators when they combined the works together to make an art installation on paper.
Continuum featured artists include: David Carlson, Patrick Craig, Robert Devers, Kate Fitzpatrick, Helen Frederick, Janis Goodman, Rene Gower, Michael Janis, Maria Karametou, Steven Prince, John Ruppert, Foon Sham, Judy Southerland, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Stephanie Williams, Sue Wrbican, and Peter Winant.
1234 Ingleside Avenue McLean, VA 22101 703-790-1953
The National Capital Art Glass Guild (NCAGG) presents “The Magic of Glass” at Bethesdaʼs Gallery B from Nov 11 – Dec 3. The exhibit showcases Guild membersʼ work including mosaic, fused, stained, and blown glass. NCAGG is proud to be supporting the United Nations General Assemblyʼs designation of 2022 as The International Year of Glass for the essential role glass has played in our world.
The opening reception will be Friday, Nov 11, from 6 pm – 8 pm for a first look at this exhibit, which will be held at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814. Mark your calendar!
Washington Glass School is so proud of Resident Artist Kate Barfield for having two pieces accepted into NCAGG’s show at Gallery B. This exhibit was very competitive with entries from across the US. Made as a tribute to the Black DC painter, Ms. Mailou Jones, the artist said…” I wanted to capture her angular shapes, curves & POW! Of color into glass”.
According to NCAGG President, Tamah Graber, “NCAGG is excited to be exhibiting in Bethesdaʼs vibrant arts community at beautiful, light-filled Gallery B. Glass is a powerful medium that lends itself to a variety of shapes, forms, and functions, and we are delighted to share the wonders of glass with Gallery B visitors.”
Kate Barfield said of “Urban Season” : “This cast glass circle has a bird nesting in urban rubble. It focuses on the interface of the natural world and ours — as well as our sense of time.” Urban Season was selected for the 2021 Glass National Exhibition.
The National Capital Art Glass Guild (NCAGG) was founded in 1978 as a community of artisans working in stained glass and has grown over the years to include all forms of glass art. Through meetings, workshops, presentations, and exhibits, the NCAGG provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences and promotes glass as an art form.
The National Capital Art Glass Guild (NCAGG) presents “The Magic of Glass” at Bethesdaʼs Gallery B.
Nov 11 – Dec 3. Opening reception in conjunction with the Bethesda Urban Partnershipʼs Art Walk on Friday, Nov 11, 2022, from 6 pm – 8 pm.
General exhibit hours: Fridays 2 pm – 8 pm; Saturdays 12 pm – 6 pm; Sundays 11am – 4 pm. Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814.
For more information, please see www.ncagg.org For more information: NCAGG Marketing Sarah Pick sarahpick648@gmail.com) 410-707-2543 or Betsy Mead (egmead@gmail.com)
Glass Sculptor and Artist Tim Tate looks back on 20 years of creating a community. He recently put together some of his observations on well, how did we get here?
“I had been raised in a household filled with craft materials. I rarely saw my mother’s hands empty, always creating something. I inherited this love. I spent my early adult years being trained in the methods revolving around studio glass while attending the 2 weeks to 2-month workshops of Penland, Pilchuck, Corning, Pittsburg, etc. (I had no money to attend grad school …though I yearned for Cranbrook). These years of varied workshops and practitioners was the perfect way to obtain a broad outlook on the entire field. We founded the Washington Glass School in 2001 with very specific goals. Let me see if I can make this clear.
1). We wanted to be something other than a traditional studio glass shop. From the beginning we realized we wanted a much broader approach; something that reflected the mission of education centers like the Crucible in Oakland and Penland in NC. We embraced mixed media work from the beginning with varied classes in kiln formed glass, steel, electronics, encaustics, etc. Our idea was not to in any way denigrate the rich history of studio glass, but to live just outside of those confines to see what would happen. To step slightly away from the 20th century.
2). As a gay man in glass, it was apparent that diversity was sorely lacking in every way in the glass world. So we did outreach and advertised our classes in many publications that went to diverse populations, rather than wait for these populations to approach us. This worked very well. Even now we go to the Facebook pages of different neighborhoods to show our class schedules.
With William Warmus we came up with the original concept of “Glass Secessionism”…to step slightly away from the recognized canon of 20th century glass and to create as much dialog and critical analysis as possible. There have been over 1.5 million words written and over thousands of images shared on this page focusing almost entirely on that theme.
4). We participated in many local shows here in the DC area, such as the spectacular Art-O-Matic show that truly put us on the map. We also curated many shows over the years to include local emerging artists. I have served on a dozen boards and juried dozens of shows and grant applications to stay in the loop and form a community bond. There are 3 Co-Directors here, all sharing a similar mission….to create a large regional, national and international community to foster new growth within our field.
5). Our first class was on Sept. 13, 2001…. a difficult day in history to start anything being right after 9/11. We thought no one would even attend the first classes. But we discovered something else….no one cancelled. It appeared that while the purchase of art slowed to a trickle around the country, the creation of art thrived. Our first class was filled with artists who wanted to make narrative work about the devastation of that event. From that moment on we embraced narrative work with all our hearts. Works about political events, social injustices and inequalities were common within our sculptural classes, and certainly in my own works. We have now been in operation over 20 years, with over 6000 students. 60% of those were and are women, we have a large population of BIPoC students and we have worked with hundreds of LGTBQ students. We are so very proud of this fact.
My purpose for serving on boards right now is to focus on the building of communities as an artistic practice. I want to take a slight step away from academia as these institutions can become elitist, and I want to be non-elitist as we have been from the beginning. I also like regional boards that focus in the mid-Atlantic.
My personal practice had been deeply imbedded in the world of glass galleries and museums, though frequently as an outsider. I have stepped away from this in the last few months. I have moved towards the fine art world once again, as I had started there. It feels great to go back to my roots, surrounded by a community that reaches far beyond anything we ever anticipated.” – Tim Tate, October, 2022
McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) exhibit: “Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists” features works by each of the Washington Glass School’s Co-Directors.
The exhibit, which opened Sept. 16 and runs through Nov. 10, features a dizzying array of artworks created by 18 educators from local colleges and teaching institutes, including George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, University of Maryland, Maryland Institute College of Art and Washington Glass School.
Read the Sun Gazette story on the works- click HERE
An Artist Talk is planned for Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 7:00PM. Click HERE to register for this free talk!
About MPA McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is one of the mid-Atlantic region’s most respected contemporary visual arts organizations. MPA provides high-quality art exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, educational programs, art classes, MPAartfest, summer art camps, and ArtReach, an award-winning program serving students in grades K – 12, seniors, and individuals with special needs. For more information, visit www.mpaart.org
ART2025 impetus: We can’t predict the future, but we can create it.
As a group of artists, curators, collectors, and appreciators of artwork in glass, we are working together to develop ART2025, an international opportunity to investigate the future of this artwork through exhibitions, installations, publications, and a virtual conference. This document is designed to establish an intellectual framework as well as specific targeted goals of the ART2025 project.
Overview
We have chosen the year 2025 as an optimal time to start exploring significant shifts we have noted between 20th and 21st century glass art. 2025 represents a quarter century in the development of 21st century art. We feel this gives us sufficient perspective to look back and also predict how the art might evolve in the future by exploring its geography, aesthetics, and impact. We intend to help encourage, organize, and promote exhibits in museums around the world as well as lectures and discussions about this evolution, held in public and virtually. These exhibits and discussions will take stock of developments small and large, individual, and cultural, with artists working in the material of glass, and artists outside of the glass world stretching the boundaries of glass even further. In addition, digital and print publications will delve into the unique place that glass art in the 21st century holds and where it is headed.
Although this plan is eventually intended for diverse audiences, our first goal is to reach museum curators and encourage them to participate. Secondary targets are artists and collectors who might be willing to collaborate. We wish to reach curators, collectors, and artists who have been exclusively devoted to glass as well as those interested in other art forms that incorporate glass in some way. These forms might include performance and/or digital art, ceramics, painting, and sculpture. Eventually, we hope to connect to anyone who has an interest in the art of the 21st century and the expanding role that glass is playing, not only esthetically but culturally, socially, and politically. ART2025 is a movement steered by William Warmus, Tim Tate, and Merrily Orsini (see brief bios at end). This Paper was developed with the assistance of a group of curators, artists, collectors and advisors through a series of Think Tank discussions that are ongoing.
ART2025 asks all of these audiences: What has the contemporary art world of the 21st century, as expressed through glass, revealed from your vantage point? What is unique to art in the 21st century? What challenges are ahead?
Project Guidelines
We are encouraging curators and museums to participate by developing programming that includes 21st century artworks in glass. We have evolved a few guidelines that establish our definition of 21st century art. It could be:
1. Art made since 2000.
2. Work made by artists who emerged in the 21st century, whose reputations have become established since 2000.
3. Art that explores 21st century themes.
Some examples of these themes, suggested by our Think Tank, include art that addresses or is influenced by:
● The universality of the digital world.
● The rise of social media.
● The introduction of the iPhone and other smart phones.
● The globalization of the art world through proliferation of media and ease of travel within the US and Europe.
● Challenges to the “Western” (European and Euro-American) canon.
● The rise of social practice art.
● The rise of the art fair.
● The growth of the art market particularly in contemporary art.
● The rise of contemporary art within mainstream consciousness.(examples: Murakami and Yayoi Kusama)
● Postmodernism and dissolution of the “art movement”.
● A return to figuration especially in art which deals with the underrepresented/marginalization of the artist.
● An embrace with, and break away from, the era of modernism and hierarchical thinking.
● Art that addresses social and societal issues.
● The expansion of women, people of color, and LGTBQ individuals who are active and visible in all art forms, including glass.
For museums, we hope that this project represents:
● A call to collect and display all forms of art in their permanent collections.
● A challenge that museums have an obligation to address the realities of this expanding art universe.
● Encouragement for complete, non-hierarchical ecosystems of art, as something new (not only of the 20th century and before).
● The opportunity to show a complete ecosystem of art; not just paintings, but sculpture, glass and fashion, white and black, queer and unqueer, all in the same galleries.
Examples of suggested programming (exhibitions or events) for museums and other arts organizations:
● Mid-career retrospective exhibitions of artists.
● Argentinian glass, which has blossomed in the 21st century.
● A grand survey of glass in China.
● What is happening in Africa.
● A small select show comparing the 1925 Art Deco era to our 2025 era.
● A show of the American artists from Glasstress in Venice.
● 21st century architecture constructed with glass as the spectacular focal point.
● An Olafur Eliasson exhibition focusing on his glass and installations. (Warmus would love to curate such a show for interested institutions.)
● Glass artists from the 21st century fine art shows. (Olafur Eliasson, David Hockney, Kiki Smith, Damien Hirst, Joyce Scott, and Gerhard Richter, as examples.)
● A show of winners and other participants of the Blown Away series on Netflix.
● An LGTBQ glass show (names provided if you need them).
● A show focusing on kiln cast work that tells stories.
● How abstraction has evolved in glass from the late 20th into the 21st century.
● Exhibitions that compare and contrast 20th and 21st century glass. For example:
How the approach to the environment has evolved.
A discussion of the changes in narrative.
How art responded to the 1918 pandemic compared to our response to the 2020 pandemic.
Two (or more) collections compared: one formed mostly in the late 20th century, one formed primarily of work made after 1999 .
5 artists to watch in the 21st century.
An exploration of how social media has transformed the ways we interact as an art community.
ART2025 Committee Contributions
The ART2025 organizing committee will:
● Serve as promoters, conveners, connecters, and documenters.
● Establish a web presence, hosted on the (working with an established art organization at present to be announced later) webpage, which lists all related programming around the world.
● Promote these events through our extensive mailing list as well as the ART2025 accounts on social media.
● Offer to connect museums and curators with artists, traveling exhibitions, and independent curators who can address this topic for a range of budgets and exhibition spaces.
● Help to organize a conference to share scholarship and artwork relating to our themes.
At the end of the projects, recognizing that despite technological advances, the internet remains ephemeral, we hope to create a book to record these efforts and to celebrate all of our participants.
In Conclusion
There is something about a silver anniversary that makes a look forward essential to understanding our accomplishments. The French realized this in 1925 when they held a World’s Fair whose name, The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes) showcased the avant-garde in architecture and the applied arts, defined Modernism, and gave the world the style now known as Art Deco. There were 15,000 exhibitors, and over 16 million people visited the Expo. In short, 1925 was a seminal year in art of the 20th century. We are proposing that ART2025 accomplish this and more, given the expanded possibilities for communication, display, and connection offered by the internet.
In 1925, the thousands of exhibitions found their way to Paris. In the 21st century we rely on the internet and social media to interconnect this web of institutions and museums into a single body of like-minded curation. This makes each institution connected to something larger than just a single show but part of an international movement.
Next Steps
● September 16, 2022: A presentation for AACG that will be housed on YouTube so we can send links to our growing mailing list (join and register at contempglass.org).
● September 21, 2022, 1 pm EDT: An open Zoom event for museums, galleries, and artists to continue to spread ideas and make plans.
Register in advance for this meeting: click on link HERE
ART2025 Creator Bios
William Warmus
William Warmus is a Fellow and former curator at The Corning Museum of Glass. The son of a glassblower at Corning Incorporated, he studied with art critic Harold Rosenberg and philosopher Paul Ricoeur while at the University of Chicago.
Warmus became the curator of modern glass at The Corning Museum of Glass in 1978, and curated three landmark exhibitions: New Glass, which was also shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Louvre; Tiffany’s Tiffany, which focused on the masterpieces Tiffany had in his home and studios; and the first major exhibition in North America of Emile Gallé’s work. He is the founding editor of New Glass Review.
Since leaving the Museum, Warmus has pursued a career as an independent curator, historian, and appraiser, specializing in modern glass, abstract art, and the aesthetics of the natural environment. The New York Times profiled him as a “Stylemaker,” while the University of Chicago magazine described him as a classical modernist. He is the author or co-author of more than 15 books, including biographies of Tiffany, Lalique, and Chihuly.
Warmus lives near Ithaca, NY. Warmus was the editor of Glass Quarterly, faculty member and visiting artist at the Pilchuck School of Glass, executive secretary of the Glass Art Society and board member at UrbanGlass. He is the recipient of the AACG award for outstanding contributions to contemporary glass. Warmus is a featured speaker at the 58th Annual Seminar on Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass.
Tim Tate
Tim Tate is co-founder of the Washington Glass School and Studio in Washington, DC. Tate’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. He was also the 2010 recipient of the Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture, 2nd place in the 2017 London Contemporary Art Prize, and is a 2018 James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist…among many other awards.
Tate taught in Istanbul in August 2007 and at Penland School on several occasions, and was the featured artist for the 2018 annual auction. He was the Development Chair for the Penland Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2018 and is the Program Chair for the James Renwick Alliance.
Tate received his Fulbright Award from Sunderland University in England in 2012. In 2018 he was asked to speak at Yale University on Craft and Conflict by Glenn Adamson to represent the Queer community and its history of art activism.
He participated in the Glasstress show with Ai Wei Wei and Vic Muniz during the 2019 Venice Biennale and the Boca Raton Museum Glasstress show in Jan. 2021, and that work showed in October 2021 at the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Merrily Orsini
Merrily Orsini has a passion for contemporary glass art led to years of learning more about glass as art through travel, research, visits, and collecting. That interest led to board service as well: President of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (2018-2020), the North Carolina Glass Center Board of Directors (2016-2018), and the South Arts (a regional component of the National Endowment for the Arts) Board of Directors (2010-2016), Secretary (2014-2016), and for one term each, the boards of Creative Glass Center of America and the Speed Museum Board of Governors (2014-2016). In addition, she served as Co-Chair of the Glass Art Society’s 40th Annual Conference in 2010, held in Louisville, Kentucky. In July 2022, she was elected to the board of the Penland School of Craft.
On the business side, Orsini is Founder and Board Chair of corecubed, a care services marketing company with clients in 38 states. Her unique background combines skills in technology, art, and people. Upon graduation from college in 1969, her first job was as a programmer and system analyst, with her first start-up business in 1981. corecubed is the fifth. While active in aging care, Orsini spoke nationally on topics that related to the future of the healthcare-at-home delivery system. For four years, she hosted the podcast, Help Choose Home, sponsored by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, still available on iTunes and Google Play.
In 1996, Orsini was awarded the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Kentucky and Indiana, with an induction into the Entrepreneur of the Year Institute. She was the first woman president of the downtown Louisville Rotary Club, the 27th largest Rotary Club in the world, from 1998 – 1999. Orsini was also honored in 2017 with a Silver Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement for Women in Business.
On Saturday, September 17th, all are invited to join the James Renwick Alliance (JRA) and celebrate their 40 years supporting CRAFT with an Open Studio Block Party at the Washington Glass School & surrounding artist studios. The festivity will include open studios, artist demonstrations, LuvPlates food truck, a live mural painting and, of course, anniversary cake! Noon to 3 pm. Registration is strongly encouraged. https://www.jra.org/jracraftevents/jracraft-block-party
Participating artists and organizations include:
Zenith Foundation Mobile Wood Truck featuring a woodturning demonstration by the Montgomery County Woodturners
Blue Fire Ceramic Studio featuring a tile painting demo by Robert Devers and a Balik demo by Kelly Posey
Washington Glass School including Michael Janis, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Christina Helowicz, with a demonstration of enameling on glass by Patricia De Poel Wilberg - Multimedia artist Martha Jackson Jarvis
Mosaic artist Valerie Theberge featuring a mosaic demonstration - Orange Door Studios including Ellyn Weiss, Veronica Szalus, Brian Williams and Ellen Sinel
Painter Janis Goodman
Blue Door Studios including Alec Simpson
Otis Street Art Projects including the studios of Chris Bohner, Gloria Chapa, Chris Combs, Elizabeth Curren, Art Drauglis, Liz Lescault, Kirsty Little, Shelley Lowenstein, CeCi Cole McInturff, Lisa Rosenstein, David Mordini
The legendary artist – Joyce Scott– who was awarded the 2016 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” is making artwork in the Glass School. Joyce is a printmaker, weaver, sculptor, performance artist, and educator, but she is probably most well known for her work in jewelry, beadwork, and glass. Her art reflects her take on all aspects of American popular culture, her ancestry, and her community.
Joyce is working with Tim Tate – creating new work for Joyce’s retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was joined with Cecilia Wichmann – Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) – on of the DMV leading contemporary visual arts organizations will present an invitational exhibition focused on Artist/Educators.
Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists is an invitational exhibition highlighting works by artists who give significant time to teaching, mentoring, and community-building, while continuing to sustain and develop strong and innovative personal bodies of work. Continuum includes works from Artist/Educators from most of the area colleges and universities, including George Mason, George Washington, Georgetown, Northern Virginia Community College, University of Maryland, and Maryland Institute College of Art. Also represented are some teaching institutes such as the Washington Glass School.
All of the participants are as dedicated to their on-going artistic practice as they are to their students, and vice versa.
Continuum featured artists include: David Carlson, Patrick Craig, Robert Devers, Kate Fitzpatrick, Helen Frederick, Janis Goodman, Reni Gower, Michael Janis, Maria Karametou, Steve Prince, John Ruppert, Foon Sham, Judy Southerland, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Stephanie Williams, Sue Wrbican, Peter Winant.
Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists
September 16 – November 10, 2022
Opening Exhibition Reception September 22, 2022 from 7-9pm
The Public Art Archive (PAA) is a free, continually growing database of completed public artworks. The Archive aims to raise awareness about the value of public art and help make it possible for stakeholders to advance the professionalism of public artists and practitioners in allied fields.
The PAA has an easy-to-use website that allows one to search for completed public artwork on its site using various descriptors. It also creates a fun graphic map of the artworks across the United States and PAA map can also be used to create awareness and help guide tours of public art in local communities.
We are proud to announce that our Laurel Library public art project “Involve Me and I Learn” community-based sculpture was selected from over 500 submissions representing diverse and innovative public art from all 50 US states for inclusion in the new map. The PAA website also includes other Washington Glass Studio public art projects, including the Library of Congress doors, Florida’s West Palm Beach Tourism Office, and the Beanes Community Center, and others.
Images of the selected USA Public Art installations are currently being made into the new map by Colorado-based illustrator Kara Fellows, which we will share with all upon its completion.