Contemporary Craft Wing and Art School Hot Shop Opening

Join FIA staff and faculty, as well as state and local dignitaries, on Saturday, April 21 at 10:30a in the FIA Theater for the ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of the museum’s new Contemporary Craft Wing and Art School Hot Shop. The ribbon cutting kicks off the FIA’s Community Weekend, which features tours of the new wing, live artist demonstrations in the state-of-the-art Hot Shop, lectures, and multiple exhibition openings. 

The Community Weekend, Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22, is free for all visitors. 

For more information, please call 810.234.1695 or follow us on Facebook.

Community Weekend Schedule
Saturday, April 21
10:00a–9:00p  Art Galleries Open   Docent tours until 5:00p	10:30a–11:00a  •  FIA Theater & Hot Shop    Ribbon Cutting  Remarks and multi-faith blessing
12:00p–4:00p  •  Art School Studios    Art School Open House  Select studios open with faculty demonstrations	11:00a–9:00p    Hot Shop  Glassblowing demonstrations on the hour
1:00p–2:15p  •  FIA Theater    Lectures: Intro to the Glass Glass Collection   Tradition, Innovation and Meaning: Reflections  on the FIA’s Exciting New Glass Collection and  A Conversation about the Glass Glass Collection	2:30p–3:00p  •  Lobby    Glass Glass Collection Book Signing   With Authors Ferd Hampson and Patricia Watkinson
4:00p–4:45p  •  FIA Theater    Lecture: Intro to Photorealism Exhibition   Circa 1870: “Hey, there are cameras here!”	5:00p–5:15p  •  Lobby    Photorealism Book Signing   With collector and dealer Louis K. Meisel
Sunday, April 22
12:00p–5:00p    Hot Shop & Art Galleries Open Demonstrations on the hour

The Lectures

Tradition, Innovation and Meaning: Reflections on the FIA’s Exciting New Glass Collection 

Patricia Watkinson provides context in which to view the FIA’s newly acquired and important collection of contemporary glass by USA and international artists. She discusses many of the works on view and shares insights into the phenomenal rise of glass as an artistic medium in the late 20th through the early 21st century.  

Her role as executive director of Pilchuck Glass School brought her to the Pacific Northwest to lead this international center for glass art education. Watkinson was interim director of the Museum of Northwest Art, executive director of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and curator, then director, of the Museum of Art at Washington State University. She contributed an essay to the book that commemorates the unveiling of the Sherwin and Shirley Glass Glass Collection.

A Conversation about the Glass Glass Collection 

Ferdinand (Ferd) Hampson, founder of Habatat Galleries, and Corey Hampson, president/owner of Habatat Galleries Inc., discuss the Atlanta-based glass collectors Sherwin and Shirley Glass and their stunning collection. In less than 10 years, the Glasses amassed more than 140 pieces of contemporary glass, working personally with Ferd as a dealer, advisor, and close friend. Their talk highlights what is was like to work with the Glasses and their collecting tastes. Hear anecdotes about working with the collectors to obtain “the biggest” and “the best” works from renowned artists, as well as their experience as dealers in helping to assemble this outstanding collection.  

Habatat Galleries founder Ferdinand Hampson has worked with glass artists for 40 years. He is the author of several publications, including Studio Glass in America: A 50-Year Journey, as well as contributing to the FIA’s The Glass Glass Collection. He has lectured extensively and written numerous articles and introductions for exhibition catalogues. 

A graduate of the Haworth’s School of Business at Western Michigan University, Corey Hampson has been the Director of Sales at Habatat Galleries for over a decade. He has written and published numerous articles about studio glass.

Circa 1870: “Hey, there are cameras here!” 

In conjunction with the opening of From Lens to Eye to Hand: Photorealism 1969 to Today, Louis K. Meisel’s lecture, “Circa 1870: ‘Hey, there are cameras here!’” offers an overview of the impact of the camera on painters beginning in the late 19th century and its continuing influence on painters more than 100 years later. See page 6 for information on the exhibition. 

President and Director of Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City, Meisel first coined the term photorealism in 1969.  He is responsible for all phases of gallery operation, including buying, selling, promoting, advertising, and managing art and artists. Since1967, he has organized hundreds of exhibitions, which have traveled with accompanying catalogues to major universities and museums throughout the world. 

Major funding for the construction  of the Contemporary Craft Wing and Art School Hot Shop was provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
During Community Weekend, admission is free thanks to Huntington Bank and Hot Shop demonstrations are free thanks to McLaren Health Care.