Celebration of Glass 2003

Visitors will have a rare opportunity to view a wide range of contemporary glass art from around the world exhibited at venues throughout the city and to watch some of the most prominent artists create their work.

The centerpiece of this collaborative project is the presentation of Dale Chihuly: Baskets at Glassworks, featuring abstract sculptures in vivid color grouped together as single works. These works were inspired by woven Indian baskets that Chihuly saw at the Washington State Historical Museum stacked together and slumped under their own weight. The breakthrough for Chihuly was recognizing that heat was the tool to be used with gravity to make these forms. None of his subsequent work would have been possible without the aesthetic innovations of the Baskets. In addition, the Marta Hewett Gallery at Glassworks will host Dale Chihuly: New Works, from the artist’s signature series. Throughout the three-month event from April 21 – July 25, 2003, recognized artists from around the world will give demonstrations and workshops at Glassworks studios.

The Kentucky Museum of Art + Design, formally The Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery, will mark the grand opening of its new building at 715 West Main Street with The Glass Vessel: An International Invitational, an exhibition featuring a wide variety of glasswork produced by over 50 artists from around the world, each of whom will show a group of works made specifically for this exhibition. Among the artists are Lino Tagliapietra, the world’s foremost Italian glassblower; Stephen Rolfe Powell, known for his monumental “color-field” blown glass vessels, and DanteMarioni, one of the rising stars of the younger generation of American glass artists. The Gallery will also present a body of work by master glass artist Rick Beck, who is known for his large-scale cast glass sculpture depicting industrial, everyday objects such as screws, bolts and clamps, and objects that usually are viewed as inconsequential parts of larger items. Both exhibitions run from April 4 through July 19, 2003.

The Louisville Visual Art Association will host A New Millennium: A New Light: International Survey of Architectural Glass Art, the most complete international architectural glass exhibition in twenty-five years. Internationally renowned art glass designer Kenneth von Roenn will curate the exhibit, which will feature representations of large-scale architectural installations, concept pieces and original stained glass works by fourteen artists from the United States, Germany, Spain and Canada. A New Millennium: A New Light: International Survey of Architectural Glass Art will run from April 25 through June 29, 2003.

The Speed Art Museum will present an exhibition entitled The Light Within: Glass Sculpture from Louisville Collections, April 15 through June 29, 2003, which will feature a range of magnificent glass sculptures created by renowned artists. Monumental works will include brooding, introspective pieces by Sweden’s Bertil Vallien and the Czech husband and wife team of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. Smaller scale works will also be included, such as a glass and barbed wire purse by Silvia Levenson, an artist interested in gender-related issues. Throughout the exhibition, pieces will be unified by the pure visceral, visual and intellectual appeal of contemporary glass.

In addition to the exhibitions discussed above, Celebration of Glass 2003 will also include a variety of special features, including demonstrations given by highly recognized glass artists at the Glassworks Studios. Artists scheduled to perform demonstrations include Dante Marioni of Seattle, Washington; Klaus Moje of Australia; Richard Royal of Seattle, Washington; John Miller of Champaign, Illinois; Shane Faro of Penland, North Carolina; and Richard Jolley of Knoxville, Tennessee, and James Mongrain of Seattle, Washington. These demonstrations will be free and open to the public. Several demonstration artists will conduct master classes at Glassworks for a fee.

To coincide with the opening of the Chihuly Exhibition on April 21, William Warmus, a writer, curator, appraiser and consultant to artists Dale Chihuly and Dan Dailey will lecture on Chihuly’s works at Glassworks. Other exciting additions include tours, video presentations and a panel discussion June 5 at the Speed Art Museum on “Contemporary Glass: Today and Tomorrow,” led by Tina Oldknow, Curator of Contemporary Glass, Corning Museum of Glass. A complete schedule of events can be viewed online at www.celebrationofglass.com. Out-of-town visitors can call 1-888-LOUISVILLE (1-888-568-4784) or log on to www.gotolouisville.com to make accommodation reservations. All participating organizations are members of the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, a business network of Greater Louisville Inc.