Pilchuck partners with Palm Springs Art Museum to present panel on 50th anniversary of Studio Gla

Feb. 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Pilchuck Glass School, in collaboration with the Palm Springs Art Museum, will present a panel discussion titled “50 Years of Studio Glass: Past, Present and Future.” The presentation will take place 4 p.m. Saturday, March 3rd, at the Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 North Museum Drive, Palm Springs, California.

Fritz Dreisbach, Preston Singletary and Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, renowned artists working in glass, will discuss their work and the evolution of glass as an expressive material. The panel will be moderated by Pilchuck Executive Director Jim Baker.

The artists on the panel have each played major roles in influencing the direction of the field. Recognized as one of the pioneers of the Studio Glass Movement, Fritz Dreisbach is an artist and teacher who has taught at more than 130 institutions worldwide. He is a founding member of the Glass Art Society, which presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Singletary is a Native American artist who has become internationally acclaimed for incorporating traditional Tlingit themes into his work. Based in Seattle, he has reached out to other Northwest Coast Native American artists as well as other artists worldwide whose work speaks to their respective indigenous origins. Susan Stinsmehlen-Amend is an Ojai-based artist who works in glass and mixed media. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections including the LA County Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Capitalizing on this important anniversary, museums and galleries around the country are recognizing a half-century of the development of glass as a creative medium. In 1962, artist Harvey Littleton and chemist Dominic Labino introduced the idea of taking glass out of the factory and into artist studios to experiment with and create new works of art from the difficult-to-master medium.

Littleton’s students, including Dreisbach and Dale Chihuly, went on to become leading proponents of the field through their art, teaching and—in the case of Chihuly—the creation of Pilchuck Glass School, which is dedicated to teaching artists from around the world the creative potential of glass. The Palm Springs Art Museum has played a significant role in promoting the field of glass through exhibitions and through the Kaplan/Ostergaard Glass Center, which features contemporary glass work by a wide range of practitioners of the medium.

Glass has experienced a renaissance in this country and abroad, with an increasing number of artists realizing the technical and aesthetic potential of the material. The panel will discuss the genesis of the Studio Glass Movement, their respective roles in it, the influence of the Movement on the development of their own work and on the contemporary art world and, finally, how they envision the future of the medium evolving.

There is no fee for attending. Seating is limited and reservations can be made by calling (206) 621-8422 ext. 23 or emailing ysaheki@pilchuck.com