Friday July 11, 2025 | by Oscar Bembury

Coming off strong gala fundraising results, GlassRoots is hopeful expansion plans can finally move forward

Since 2001, GlassRoots has been working with underserved teens and young adults to offer skills training in glassmaking and business development in the Newark, New Jersey, area. The company has faced hardships in the past with a long-delayed building expansion and a series of executive directors. The April 13th passing of Dena Lowenbach, its longtime champion, board chair, and Lifetime Trustee (an honorific title given to honor her life-long commitment to to serve on the company's board), has been an especially difficult challenge to this organization dedicated to uplifting youth. Against this backdrop, it was uncertain how the organization's annual GlassBall would fare, but the successful June 5th event could signal a turning point for GlassRoots and its current management team, which is led by executive director Carol Losos, who, togehter with the GlassRoots Board of Trustees, oversees the company through strategic leadership.

Brian Clarke in his Studio. photo of Brian Clarke in 2007

Friday July 11, 2025 | by Oscar Bembury

IN MEMORIAM: Brian Clarke (1953 - 2025)

Sir Brian Clarke, the fearless stained-glass artist who was always looking for new ways to incorporate emerging technology in his ground-breaking work, passed away July 1, 2025. Born on July 2nd 1953, in Oldham Lancashire England, Clarke showed his talent for stained-glass early, completing his first major commission of 20 windows for the Church of St. Lawrence in Longridge, at the tender age of 22. He also developed a colorful public profile in the London art and fashion scene, once described by The Daily Telegraph as "the rock star of stained-glass" for his frequent appearances in the gossip pages of newspapers.

Monday June 30, 2025 | by Oscar Bembury

The Fuller Craft Museum welcomes Jennifer Chrzanowski as its next executive director

On July 1, 2025, a new executive director will take the reins at The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. When Jennifer Chrzanowski takes over from interim director Beth McLaughlin, she will arrive with expectations of bringing her fundraising prowess with her. In her previous role as deputy director of the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, she helped to manage a $1.7M operating budget, $7.4M endowment, 24,000 square-foot building, and 1,700 object collection. Among her accomplishments at the AAM, which describes itself as "the cultural hub of the Eastern Shore for art, music, and educational programming," Chrzanowski launched a successful 3-day craft show. In addition to this she helped AAM grow its social-media presence, achieved record-breaking fundraising results, and more than doubled exhibition funding through key partnerships. (Charlotte Potter Kasic, known to Glass readers for her tenure at the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio and Barry Art Museum, was named director of AAM in September of 2024).

Friday June 20, 2025 | by Sahana Ramakrishnan

Support Glass Quarterly and Receive a Hand Printed Tote Bag!

If you're reading this, chances are you're already familiar with the work we do at Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly. For over 40 years, Glass Quarterly has served as a critical voice and visual archive, presenting serious discourse about glass as a medium for contemporary art.

Tuesday June 10, 2025 | by Andrew Page

UrbanGlass welcomes new director of development Haley Andres

UrbanGlass has announced that Haley Andres (she/her/hers) has rejoined the organization as director of development (she previously had been on staff from 2017–18). Among her goals will be deepening the arts nonprofit's relationships with donors while also pursuing new funding opportunities through foundations as well as corporate and local/state government partnerships. Andres told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet she plans to focus on diversifying and growing UrbanGlass's contributed revenue streams to support the Brooklyn non-profit's various programs, which include publishing, small business development, science and technology, youth education, women's economic empowerment, material studies, and other activities at the intersection of art, design, and craft. (UrbanGlass publishes Glass Quarterly magazine and the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet).

Sunday June 8, 2025 | by Andrew Page

Recording of the Summer 2025 edition of "Glass Quarterly LIVE" now available for streaming

Thursday June 5, 2025 | by Andrew Page

Glass Quarterly LIVE debuts June 6th with an in-depth Zoom interview with Bri Chesler, whose work is on the cover of the Summer issue

Glass Quarterly LIVE is a new way to experience the in-depth feature articles, incisive reviews, and back-page essays only available to subscribers to Glass Quarterly. Join editor Andrew Page and Glass contributor Ellye Sevier for a video podcast about the just-published Summer 2025 issue of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#179). The first edition of our new video podcast will feature a live discussion with this issue's featured artist, Bri Chesler, whose mixed-media installations have transfixed the Seattle glass community with works that celebrate sensuality and the body, while never losing sight of the complexities that accompany intimate relationships.

William Morris, Raven with Skull, 1998. Hand-blown and sculpted glass, steel base. H 17 7/8, W 16 1/2, D 8 in. courtesy: rago arts

Thursday May 15, 2025 | by Andrew Page

Notable works by William Morris, Preston Singletary, Lino Tagliapietra, Yoichi Ohira, and Toots Zynsky coming up for auction

Artwork is something a collector never completely owns. Instead, they are all temporary stewards, that is, until time or circumstance necessitate a changing of the guard, so to speak, and it gets passed on to a new owner. On Friday, May 16th, a number of important works will be moving from carefully assembled glass collections displayed for years in Utah, North Carolina, and Connecticut, to new homes, which will be determined in Lambertville, New Jersey. There, on Friday, May 16th, at the Main Street location of Rago Auctions, over 100 works will go up for auction, among them a number of rare examples from some of the most important artists working in glass from names like Morris, Tagliapietra, Vallien, Ohira, Zynsky,and Chihuly.

Swan wine glass. Charlie Larouche-Potvin. Blown glass. H 9.5, D 2.5 in.

Wednesday April 30, 2025 | by Sophie Faber

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Applications now open for the 2025 RBC Award for Glass, which recognizes emerging talent in Canada

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2025 RBC Award, presented annually by the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery to an emerging glass artist in Canada. The criteria allows for any province and for a variety of disciplines, from blown to stained glass, but an emphasis is placed on the winner's status as an emerging artist and not as an established creator. The RBC Foundation, which supports the CC&GG in bestowing this award, donates large sums of money each year to not only craft art endeavors but a number of artistic fields including literature and theater.

Thursday April 17, 2025 | by Sponsored Content

The UrbanGlass Spring Gala on May 5th honors artist Layo Bright, auctioneers David Rago and Suzanne Perrault

At 6 PM on Monday, May 5, 2025, guests will begin arriving at the first-floor Agnes Varis Art Center at UrbanGlass in Downtown Brooklyn. This nonprofit arts center sits at the epicenter of a major arts hub of New York, with gleaming new high-rise residential buildings springing up in all directions as the neighborhood attracts legions of new residents drawn by all the buzz, but UrbanGlass has been at this location since the early 1990s as an outpost for glass art in the cultural capital of the U.S.

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.