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Wednesday, May 15, 2002

By John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Just a touch sets "The River" in motion. A wisp of breeze nudging the suspended mobile of oddly cut, hand-blown glass plates creates a ripple that grows to waves of light and shadow projected and reflected onto the walls, ceiling and floor of the Pittsburgh Glass Center gallery.

	As artist Robin Stanaway became familiar with Pittsburgh, she defined the city as a place that is "about motion and fluidity." With that idea in mind, she created "The River," a mobile of oddly cut, hand-blown glass plates. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

The installation by artist-in-residence Robin Stanaway, which opens to the public on Friday, is as much about light, glass and the physics of fluidity as it is about Stanaway's perception of her temporary Pittsburgh home.

On another level, intentional or not, the theory behind her unique mobile parallels the intentions of the new Glass Center itself. It was designed to be a place where ideas can grow, just as the idea for the center grew into a wave of possibility that became a reality for its neighborhood, its host city and the burgeoning medium itself.

Stanaway hovers over the "down-stream" bank of her glass and light current, fidgeting with the spring wires that connect the mobile's sections and amplify the inertia transferred between them. The Lebanon, Pa., artist, considered influential in glass-art circles, was brought to Pittsburgh on a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation grant as the first artist-in-residence at the new state-of-the-art facility that opened its doors in December.

"When I got here, I was thinking of using plates and steel to represent Pittsburgh's bridges," she says, turning a fan toward the mobile and setting the ripples in motion. "But I got to know the facility and what it can do while I was getting to know the city. With all the resources here, the idea began to grow. I thought, 'This place is so much in motion.' Pittsburgh is so much about the rain starting a trickle and the stream filling up and turning to a river that matures into a torrent.

"The more I saw, the less this city seemed to be about bridges. It's about motion and fluidity. And I realized, that's what the Glass Center is."

This week, new executive director Dyana Curreri-Ermatinger begins making her own waves. The former director and chief curator of the Fresno Art Museum in Fresno, Calif., has a history of attracting underserved populations, a background that might help the center to settle into the neighborhood.

"Right now, we're simply fine tuning and building on the groundwork that has been laid here," she says. "In June, we're going to look back on the last year or so and evaluate the center's progress. I think we have a clear artistic mission to explore and experiment, which is apparent in [Robin's] installation. She's had to create ways of doing things that were new to her. It's a laboratory approach as opposed to a more formal museum environment."

	"The River" WHERE: Hodge Gallery, Pittsburgh Glass Center, 5472 Penn Ave., Friendship. WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. ADMISSION: Free; 412-365-2145.

Birth of an idea

The hands-on attitude has been a part of the center since it was conceived as a place where single drops of imagination could ripple out in all directions. People have been crafting glass for centuries, providing functional work of sometimes great beauty. But it's only been since the 1960s, with the development of the studio glass movement, that the medium has gained the status of fine art. Industrial glass manufacturing in Pittsburgh predates the local steel industry and continues to contribute to the city's economy. Technological developments enabled independent studio artists to move out of factory environments and set up basement and garage studios outfitted with a furnace, workbench and blowing and polishing tools. For a short time, Carnegie Mellon University offered instruction in glass art techniques, in classes headed by Oakdale glass artist Kathleen Mulcahy.

"In 1991, [a member] of the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts came to see an exhibition of mine," she says. "He commented that Western Pennsylvania would be a great place for a glass workshop, that the city could really benefit."

At about the same time, a Mon Valley economic impact study concluded that one step in reviving the steel-dead economy could be the creation of an arts education facility. For several years, the idea of a glass center rippled through the minds of Mulcahy and her husband, artist Ron Desmett. They researched world-class glass art shops in Washington and New York and began testing the waters for funding sources for a glass workshop to be located in Elizabeth.

"Ron and I, by our nature, are extremely persistent," says Mulcahy. "Then [Post-Gazette chairman emeritus and board member of Block Communications] Bill Block and his daughter Karen came into the project. They helped us to develop a board of directors and get [nonprofit] status."

The more they learned about arts facilities and public funding, the more the new board and its first director, Allyson Halpern, came to realize that their $2.5 million vision of a world-class glass teaching and production center would have to be located nearer to Pittsburgh's schools. With financial resources from the Blocks, they started looking for real estate and fell in love with a former food co-op and car dealership, a 1900-era brick structure on Penn Avenue in Friendship.

The ripple effect from the Blocks' down payment made it easier for the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to chip in, inspiring a wave of foundation, corporate and private contributions.

The Glass Center opened with a big splash last fall. Its first students were admitted in January.

Robin Stanaway, artist-in-residence at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, prepares her glasswork with assistants Theresa Cress, right, and Heather McElwee, rear. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Built for 150 students

The 16,000-square-foot building has begun attracting the attention of glass artists around the world. An environmentally friendly building design recycles the heat from a white-hot, 2,200-degree furnace (a second furnace is scheduled to be turned on this summer). Glass skylights let the sun shine in on students' work. Still in the early stages of opening, the facility ultimately will be equipped to teach 150 students at a time in several glass-related disciplines including hot-glass blowing, torch working, crafting warm and cold glass, sand casting, flat glass designing, mold making and kiln casting. A row of glass-working benches, pneumatically controlled reheating ovens or "glory holes," and several annealing ovens to slowly cool blown glass will permit many students to work simultaneously. Glassworking is a physical activity -- artists balance the plasticity of the hot, glowing glass against the tug of gravity to give their pieces unique shapes. A viewing area allows passers-by and invited guests to watch.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center was designed to be more than a school. For what Stanaway calls a " fair and nominal fee," independent glass artists are encouraged to rent access to furnaces, equipment and private workshops where they can forge their ideas in glass. A key element in its potential as a production center will be its ability to attract world-class glass artists for extended residencies. Stanaway stays in a three-bedroom townhouse right next door and owned by the center. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she's encouraged to develop her own project with the help of advanced students.

Center wins praise

"I've taught in a lot of places," says Stanaway, "but in my experience, the Pittsburgh Glass Center is one of the best facilities I've ever been in. [Some] were very nice, but nowhere near as excellent as this place."

A parade of international glass artists and glass facility operators who have toured the center share her sentiments.

"The new facility is totally awesome," says William Warmus, former editor of Glass Art magazine and free-lance arts writer.

Greg Robinson, director of the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle, says it's all in the planning.

"I think they did an exceptional job," he says. "The group toured several centers, including Pratt, and sought advice in design, business plan and programming. I was very impressed that they went back and incorporated some of that in their own ideas.

"They have a well-proportioned program space, included a public gallery, put it in an economically challenged district and, I think, pushed their own limits by building in space for future kiln casting, even though they couldn't afford it initially. Pittsburgh Glass Center has a welcoming presence. They've created a resource that is unique to Pittsburgh and fairly unique in the country."

A soft wind brushes the inter-linked plates of "The River." Stanaway smiles at the cascading light and shadows surrounding her in the exhibit space. It's not the work that she had intended to make, it's something more.

"It's that ripple effect," says Stanaway. "Ideas that come up here grow because of all of the possibilities and resources. It's something that I couldn't have imagined before."