Glass twigs to blow into Pgh.
PITTSBURGH — Susan Taylor Glasgow and many artists at Pittsburgh Glass Center are making hundreds of twigs out of glass for a giant glass bird's nest in the Hodge Gallery.
On Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m. during PGC's free open house Hot Jam and Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's Unblurred, the Glass Center will hold a Twigathon where artists throughout the building will focus all hot glass demonstrations on glass twig making.
Glasgow, PGC's current artist in residence, will be onsite making twigs for her upcoming exhibition called "Absence of Body" that opens on Oct. 3.
Visitors can sponsor an artist to make a twig in honor of someone and see it being made that night for a $50 or $75 donation. All proceeds go to support the programs of Pittsburgh Glass Center and Bethlehem Haven, an area women's shelter.
"The Communal Nest" will be the focal point of Glasgow's glass exhibition. The main feature of this exhibition will be an 8-foot bird's nest, made of several hundred glass twigs created by Glasgow and other artists from around the world. The nest is being built as a symbol of shelter, domesticity, safety and growth.
Also included in the exhibition will be several other glass art works that feature Glasgow's signature style of "sewn" glass. The exhibition will open Oct. 3 and will continue through Jan. 9.
Once a seamstress, Glasgow now sews glass panels together to create translucent vessels and sculpture. A native of Duluth, Minn., Glasgow studied design at the University of Iowa. Now a resident of Columbia, Mo., her studio is a 1930s house in downtown Columbia that she and her husband rescued from demolition.
She is the 2002 recipient of Pilchuck Glass School emerging artists grant, a Wheaton Village fellow in fall of 2003, and a visiting artist at several community schools. She has received many awards. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Carnegie Museum, Chrysler Museum, Museum of American Glass, and several others.
More information about the Pittsburgh Glass Center at 5472 Penn Ave. is available by calling 412-365-2145 or visiting the Web site, www.pittsburghglasscenter.org.
