here - Glass Art Society

Letter from the GAS President
The first GAS conference was held April 5-7, 1971 at Penland, with the
Coordinating Chairmen being Mark Peiser, Billy Bernstein, and Fritz Dreisbach
according to the archives at Penland. The second one was also held at Penland
based on the success of the first one. What a grand idea these individuals had
in starting this organization based on the ideals of free exchange of information
and promotion of the glass arts!
This is a milestone in our history considering we have had our conferences
in 28 locations, five of them international sites. GAS is proud to present our
40th Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is not an old glass
community excepting its stained glass history, but it has an enthusiastic one.
GAS has a mission to reach out to different glass communities and to foster
them by bringing our conferences in partnership with their communities
to showcase, network, and expand their relationships worldwide. I have
affection for Louisville, the city and its culture, as well as its growing glass
community, and I feel you will too if you join us for the excellent programming
we are offering.
We are honored to announce our Lifetime Achievement and Membership
Awards at this time. Our Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient is Mark Peiser,
one of the founding fathers, who is a humble, restless artist who has mastered
many techniques in his long career and is still doing so in his quiet ways.
An artist/scientist who will spend years in research & development before
executing a new body of work, Mark deserves this award at this time and
place and we congratulate him. Tom Philabaum is our Lifetime Membership
Award Recipient and he has been an outstanding Board Member of GAS
as well as a Site Coordinator for Tucson twice, and is working on the 2011
conference again. We congratulate Tom for his award and appreciate his
tireless efforts and amazing energy.
As you look through this brochure, you will see a very interesting mix of
lectures, demonstrations, panel discussions, tours and other events which
will surely please. Fritz Dreisbach’s lecture on the early beginnings of GAS,
demonstrations by Lino Tagliapietra, and the Keynote Lecture by Bill Samuels,
President of Maker’s Mark are just some of the highlights. The Closing Night
Party at the Muhammad Ali Center promises to provide a scenic view and
a unique and inspirational venue. We hope to see you there in June!
Thanks,
Letter from the Conference Co-Chairs
Ingenious Possibilities – the theme of the 2010 Glass Art Society
conference is a term representative of the qualities of Louisville Kentucky
and its growing glass community. Though it has only become a destination
for contemporary glass art in the last several years, Louisville’s historical
involvement with glass, coupled with its flourishing contemporary glass art
scene make it the perfect place for the 40th annual International Glass Art
Society Conference.
Louisville is not only the birthplace of chewing gum, the cheeseburger,
and “The Champ”, Muhammad Ali; it is also the place where Thomas
Edison’s revolutionary invention, the light bulb, was first displayed publicly.
Architectural Glass Art, located in Louisville is the oldest continuously
operating glass business in America, and at nearby Centre College, Stephen
Rolfe Powell has been fostering the contemporary studio glass art movement
in Kentucky for 25 years. The Louisville glass community recognizes its roots
in the region’s rich history with glass.
Currently, Louisville’s downtown district showcases three large, comprehensive
glass studios which will be the venues for the 2010 GAS conference
demonstrations. Glassworks, The University of Louisville’s Cressman Center
for Visual Arts, and Flame Run Glass Gallery and Studio, are all recently built,
state of the art facilities that provide artists, students, and the public with the
opportunity to pursue glass in any manner they choose. We think you’ll be
pleased to find that not only are the majority of the conference venues within
walking distance of one another, but some of Louisville’s best eating, scenery,
and nightlife are just a short walk or a long stumble away.
Louisville’s past has been built upon ingenuity. Its future is shaped by
possibility. While you are here, you can sample the many attractions Louisville
and the surrounding areas have to offer. From Bourbon tasting and horse
trading to contemporary art and skate parks, you’ll find Louisville’s blend
of southern hospitality and metropolitan progressivism to be intriguing and
satisfying. With so many recent developments in glass art, it’s easy to see
that Louisville’s contemporary glass scene is rich in resources and ready to
share. During the conference, you can do the sharing easily on a bicycle.
For the 2010 GAS conference, we hope that all of you will attend, many of
you will return, and some of you will stay.
Sincerely,
Shane
Merrily Orsini, Ché Rhodes, J. Page von Roenn, Brook Forrest White, Jr.
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