A Letter From our President, Kathy Jordan - May 2022

Check out our 2022 Conference Page for more details!

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Letter From our President, Kathy Jordan

It has been an amazing opportunity to represent the American Glass Guild as their President. This will be my third and final term and will conclude at our 16th Annual Summer Conference at Corning Museum of Glass this July 14-17. There is still time to join the American Glass Guild, take a workshop and network with the Glass Art community! By popular demand, we have added an additional painting workshop with Derek Hunt from Limelight Studios, Norwich, UK. The Corning Museum is a nonprofit educational institute that preserves and expands the world’s understanding of glass. Immerse yourself and explore 45,000 objects representing 35 centuries of glass art and history, a floor dedicated to glass science and innovation, a Contemporary Art + Design Wing, the largest hot glass demonstration space in the world AND the American Glass Guild Conference! I can not begin to tell you how impressive this conference event will be. The Glass Community will come together with a prestigious list of glass luminaries, leaders and scholars holding doctoral degrees and are referenced in the ‘Who’s who in the World’ that have shaped the course of glass art & research. These individuals teach our future glass artists and scientists. We have invited Historians, Authors, recipients of Getty, and Guggenheim grants, National Endowments, Fellowships, Art & Film Festival Awards. Their works are owned by museums, installed in public spaces and private collections. Many are traveling a great distance and bring extraordinary talent, elite resumes, and international recognition.

This all culminates during the International Year of Glass 2022.

To all of my extended glass family, glass enthusiasts, museum lovers, artists and educators, join me and the AGG community at Corning to explore, collaborate, create and celebrate!

Paint with light! Kathy Jordan, President

president@americanglassguild.org

Letter From our President, Kathy Jordan - January 2022

We are very excited to bring our members a clean and sanitized 2022 Summer Conference July 14 - 17, 2022. Check out our 2022 Conference Page for more details!

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Letter From our President, Kathy Jordan

SAVE THE DATE: July 14th - 17th! Our Annual Summer Conference will be held at Corning Museum of Glass in Corning New York. Our conference just so happens to coincide with the International Year of Glass (IYoG 2022) celebration. With an epic location, powerful speakers, demonstrations, workshops, AGG 2022 is shaping up to be an event for the books. Corning Museum of Glass is the world’s largest space dedicated to the display of contemporary art and design in glass. Conference workshops, lectures, demonstrations, and activities will take place at the Museum and at the Radisson Hotel, both within walking distance from one another. In recognition of the International Year of Glass, the AGG will host National and International Speakers covering a wide range of topics including History, Education, Technique, Design, New Window Projects, and Glass Restoration/Conservation along with special sessions on Science and Technology of glass.

We will feature a very special Retrospective Exhibit in honor of the late Mary Clerkin-Higgins. Mary was one of the founding members and past President of the AGG. She spearheaded four impressive, juried exhibitions titled ‘American Glass Now’. Panels from past AGN exhibits along with past and present Whitney Scholarship Auction panels will be on display in the main lobby of the Museum throughout the conference! The exposure and audience will be like no other exhibit we have hosted!

Within CMoG's impressive amphitheater, we will be offering a live-stream virtual component to our conference this year on Friday, July 15th. For more information about our conference, registration, auction, exhibit, and lodging, please visit our website.

As magnificent as the location CMoG may be, it is the human interaction, the gathering of like minds, and the sharing of ideas that is at the heart of the American Glass Guild. Consider bringing your family the summer and explore the Corning area with its charming downtown, restaurants, local shops, scenic places to explore, nearby wineries, and family-friendly activities.

Thank you for renewing your membership and I hope to see ALL of you this summer at Corning Museum of Glass!

Kathy Jordan, President

president@americanglassguild.org

American Glass Guild - January 2021 Newsletter

We are very excited to bring our members a clean and sanitized 2021 Virtual Conference Saturday, June 5, 2021. Check out our 2021 Conference Page for more details!

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Letter From our President, Kathy Jordan

We are in the midst of the most unusual of times and its profound effect has been felt amongst us all. Out of an abundance of caution, our board made the difficult decision to cancel two (in person) conferences. Our Board and the volunteers that work behind the scenes bring an array of talents and under these circumstances, their intuitive and creative spirits have prevailed.

Our members originally created the American Glass Guild both to teach and to learn. A large part of what we’re about, and one of the original drivers that led to the formation of the AGG, is education. Many of our members are accomplished designers, fabricators, conservators, and historians. We are all the benefactors of this generosity and in an effort to stay connected and honor our mission statement (even in the midst of a pandemic), the AGG believes it is critically important to actively share this knowledge by offering a virtual conference this June.

The Conference Committee led by Amy Valuck, David Fode, and Tony Glander are busy bringing this virtual event to life. We will launch more detail in January. We are proud to say, year in and year out worldwide experts in stained glass, architectural art glass, and allied fields will share their knowledge and expertise. Exploring the old and new, the use of light, and pushing the limits of creativity and technology while honoring the tradition of stained glass are just a few of the topics covered.

We encourage all to join the virtual glass conversation in June of 2021, visit with your peers, make new contacts, be inspired and expand your horizons. I will reach out after the new year and share more details about our virtual conference and the list of speakers and exciting events after the new year is welcomed in.

Finally, with a heavy heart, I share the news of Mary Clerkin Higgins’s recent passing. Mary was a founding member of the AGG and served a two-year term as President in 2010-2011. Her contribution and steadfast direction helped build a strong foundation for the American Glass Guild. Since 1976, Mary devoted her career to glass, conserving historic stained glass and creating original new work. Please take a moment to listen to Shawn Waggoner’s podcast, Talking Out your Glass: Mary Clerkin Higgins: Creating and Conserving Masterpieces.

Please save the date of June 5th on your calendars! The beauty of camaraderie and creativity inspires us to move forward and reassures us there is much to look forward to.

Be inspired,

Kathy Jordan

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Celebrate Your Fellow Guild Members

As glass artists, we hold an important tool for dealing with troubling times. Although some people believe that hardship and strife foster creativity, modern science supports the theory that making art relieves stress. It is a way to examine our relationship with the world and to communicate a personal, political, or spiritual narrative; to tell our story. Creating art also provides a sense of mastery, personal empowerment, and control.

We asked AGG members to tell us what art and creativity means to them during this time of challenges, isolation, and change. Based on the following stories, it seems that we are not only creative but resilient. These members have taken advantage of 2020 as a time of personal growth and are looking forward to 2021.

Susanna Conaway

feralstudioglass@gmail.com

In the past four years, working in glass has become a way to connect with others and is an act of collaboration. This has unfolded as I work with more homeowners, and realize that the exchange of ideas actually pushes me to create in ways that are unexpected. I've grown to appreciate these connections and the conversations about design and color that happen during the process of creating a window for someone's home. Coming from a fine arts background, at first, I was torn with these interactions. I wanted to do my own thing! I now look forward to the input and ideas that make me grow and create in unexpected ways.

During this time of Covid, I have found these connections calming and uplifting. People are investing in their homes, and I get to help them make their homes into a peaceful nest. I enjoy hearing what people choose to surround themselves with in their homes, how they think about the space, the importance of when the building was built, and biographical elements that will be featured in the window.

My time in the studio is solo, which is necessary for my well being and balance. Opening my studio door is such a joy. Seeing my space again, and getting ready to start my day, working in glass. I have lots of sunlight since it is on the 2nd floor. I moved into a larger studio a year ago, so the space is organized to be efficient. I have been working full time in glass for 5 years. Before that, I still did commissions, but had many side jobs.

The windows I am sharing are recent commissions. “Yosemite Landscape” was made with kiln formed glass, and screen printed clouds. It was for a client who spent time at this area in Yosemite with her family. “Radiant” is an entryway for local artist, Deborah Yoon. This window was designed based on some of this artist's personal work. I combined her request for a radiating flowing stained glass window with her own work, which has similar elements. I also used some of her line work. Working in this way pushed me to do more glass painting, and explore a different direction in glass.