Click here to see the first annual Tucson Glass Festival, Viva el Vidrio!
Studio Glass Movement 50 Year Anniversary Celebration
As part of the Tucson Glass Festival
Thursday - Saturday, March 22 - 24
Location for all events: SGAA
Schedule of events:
3/22 Thurs: 6:30 – 9pm: lecture & demo, Henry Halem
3/23 Fri: 6:30 – 9pm: lecture & demo, Laura Donefer
3/24 Sat: 11am – 1:30pm: lecture &
demo, Einar & Jamex de la Torre
3/24 Sat: 2 – 4:30pm: lecture & demo, Tom Philabaum
3/24 Sat: 5-9pm: Exhibition Opening Party
$10 per day, $25 for all 3 days
Opening party: $5
Enjoy this celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement! SGAA will be the home of a wonderful collection of Anniversary Exhibitions, Demos and Lectures by important Studio Glass Artists.
Featured artists will include: Einar & Jamex de la Torre, Laura Donefer, Henry Halem and Tom Philabaum!
Check out this video: "Pioneers of Studio Glass"
Laura Donefer
Henry Halem
Einar & Jamex de la Torre
 
Tom Philabaum
The American Studio Glass Movement
During the 1950s, studio ceramics and other craft media began to gain popularity and importance in the US, and American artists interested in glass looked for new paths outside industry. The catalyst for the development of studio glass in the US was Harvey Littleton, a teaching ceramist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Informed by his own background in the material, Littleton started experimenting with hot glass in his studio in 1958. Littleton joined forces with the Toledo Museum of Art, the site of the "birth" of the American Studio Glass Movement during 2 historic glassblowing workshops in March and June of 1962. He worked with glass research scientist Dominick Labino, who successfully devised a small, inexpensive furnace in which glass could be melted and worked, making it affordable and possible for the first time for artists to blow glass in independent studios. Littleton subsequently started a glass program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Some of his early students were Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky, and Fritz Dreisbach, all artists who have played seminal roles in raising the awareness of studio glass around the world. Littleton's students successfully took glassblowing in experimental and innovative directions, shaping American glass as we know it. This year marks the 50 Year Anniversary of Studio Glass in America and we celebrate this milestone with some of the industry's finest glass artists. Please join us at SGAA for 3 days of lectures and demos to learn how modern day glassmaking was born.
Einar & Jamex de la Torre
Brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre were born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Jamex in 1960 and Einar in 1963 and moved to California in 1972. The brothers live and work in both Ensenada, Mexico and San Diego, California. Jamex started lampworking glass in 1977, attended California State University at Long Beach under scholarship and received a BFA in sculpture in 1983. Einar started working with glass in 1980 and also attended California State University. They ran a flameworked business in the 80's and in the 90's they began working exclusively as studio artists. They have exhibited their work internationally. They have work in the collection of the Arizona State University Museum; the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art; The Kanazu Museum in Kanazu, Japan; The Fisher Gallery Museum at USC; Tucson Museum of Art; and the Mexican Fine Art Center Museum in Chicago. See more at delatorre.com.
Laura Donefer
Laura has been using glass as her primary medium for 30 years, although frequently combines her work with other materials. For the past 20 years Laura has been an instructor at Espace Verre in Montreal, Pilchuck Glass School, Penland, Sheridan College, the Corning Museum of Glass as well as in Australia and Japan. Her approach with her students is having them push the envelope in a nontraditional manner and having lots of fun. In 2006 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Art Association of Canada and in 2008 the Glass Art Society presented her with their Honorary Membership Award. Her work is in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Art and Design in Manhattan, and the Corning Museum of Glass. See more at lauradonefer.com.
Henry Halem
Henry Halem has been working in glass since 1968. He retired from teaching glass at Kent State University in 1998 and devotes himself to working full time in his studio. His work is found in many major museums and numerous private collections. Halem is one of the founding members of the Glass Art Society and its first president. In 2008 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Art Society. Halem continues to exhibit and most recently opened a one person exhibition at Stewart Fine Art in Boca Raton Florida. His work can be viewed online at www.henryhalem.com.
Tom Philabaum
Tom began his training as a young man at the Toledo Museum of Art School. Originally focused on painting, he soon discovered clay in college, enjoying the physical and spiritual aesthetics of ceramics. Following graduation, he began teaching in St. Louis while pursuing graduate studies. Noting something missing in his work, his instructor suggested blown glass as a possible solution. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin to study with Harvey Littleton and Eriks Rudans. After graduation, his path led him to Tucson, where he pursued an MFA in ceramics from the University of Arizona. In the mid-1980's he opened Philabaum Contemporary Art Glass in a former Tastee-Freez in downtown Tucson. Tom co-founded SGAA in 2001 with fellow glass artist, Dave Klein. Tom's work is showcased at galleries and museums across the country, as well as in Denmark, Germany, Iceland, and Mexico. See more at philabaumglass.com.
 
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