Voices in Studio Glass History: Art and Craft, Maker and Place, and the Critical Writings and Photography of Paul Hollister is a Bard Graduate Center multi-media, web-based digital exhibition and publication that rethinks and reinterprets the history of postwar American studio glass. This project builds upon the work of critic and historian Paul Hollister, who published over eighty essays and reviews in the field. Concurrently, he recorded candid interviews with artists and photographed them at work. Both an exhibition and an archive, Voices in Studio Glass History unites these materials for the first time, including unseen images, recently transcribed interviews, and a fully annotated bibliography with linked and downloadable articles. Extensive original research informs this reinterpretation of what became known as the studio glass movement, grounded in unprecedented opportunities to create work outside of factory settings from the 1960s onwards. In new interviews, over fifty artists, curators, critics, historians, and gallerists reflect upon the movement’s past and discuss its future. What emerges are themes of experimentation, shared knowledge, community building, international exchange, critical debate, the impact of museums and galleries, and fluidities among the categories of art, craft, and design.

Presented in a rich digital environment, Voices in Studio Glass History foregrounds key sites of making and learning such as UrbanGlass, the Penland School of Craft, Pilchuck Glass School, Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, The Corning Museum of Glass, Blenko Glass Company, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Featured artists include Mark Peiser, Tom Patti, Paul Stankard, Henry Halem, Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, James Carpenter, Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Steven Weinberg, Sydney Cash, Jane Bruce, Dan Dailey, Michael Glancy, Toots Zynksy, Hank Murta Adams, Mary Shaffer, William Gudenrath, and many more.

Join us for a preview of this digital exhibition and archive, which will include a welcome from Peter N. Miller (Dean and Professor), a project overview by Catherine Whalen (Associate Professor), and a synopsis of the website by Barb Elam (Associate Director of Visual Media Resources and Study Collection Librarian) and Jesse Merandy (Director of Digital Humanities/Exhibitions). A panel discussion with Susie Silbert (Curator of Postwar and Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass), Andrew Page (Editor of Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly), and Mary Savig (Curator of Craft, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution), moderated by Catherine Whalen, will explore and assess the field of studio glass, past and present.

Voices in Studio Glass History is co-created by Barb Elam, Associate Director of Visual Media Resources and Study Collection Librarian; Associate Professor Catherine Whalen; and Jesse Merandy, Director of Digital Humanities/Exhibitions.

This project was made possible by support from The Paul and Irene Hollister Endowment at Bard Graduate Center. Paul Hollister (1918–2004) was an influential critic of contemporary studio glass and glass historian. Irene Hollister (1920–2016) was a philanthropist, advocate for glass scholarship, and founding administrator of the Association for Computing Machinery.

This research was supported by a Craft Research Fund grant from The Center for Craft.