Arts & Culture
Photo by Dan Neckar
Dave Sittler applies air to molten glass
Dept. of Art and Design unveils hot glass shop
The Pointer
dneck184@uwsp.edu
On Friday, Oct. 9, students and faculty gathered in the Noel Fine Arts Center outdoor sculpture yard for the grand opening of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Department of Art and Design’s hot glass shop.
The opening included introductions by Interim Dean Jim Haney, Department Chair Diana Black and Interim Provost Jeff Morin. Associate Professor of sculpture Kristen Thielking presented a ribbon cutting ceremony. The ribbon was created by stretching molten red glass using a traditional Italian technique called “pulling cane.”
After the ceremonies, guest artist and UWSP alumnus Matthew Piepenbrok provided a demonstration of glass blowing techniques, including the creation of goblets that incorporated pieces of the glass ribbon cut during the ceremony.
Thielking was excited and emotional as she revealed the features of the new shop to the crowd.
“Glass is going to expand our curriculum extensively,” she said. “It is a very current medium that students are excited to work with.”
Thielking said that she anticipates the shop will attract prominent glass artists, exposing students to new processes and the glass art community.
“The glass community is small. By having an excellent facility here, we will be able to bring in artists that will show our students some of the possibilities with the medium,” said Thielking.
According to Thielking, the development of the shop can be traced back to 2002 when she built the department’s first glass kilns with alumna Marcy Forman who was also at the event.
“I think that with this new shop, glass students will be able to learn a multitude of techniques, whereas they are usually only accustomed to one,” said Forman.
Forman went on to explain the importance of combining these techniques with each other.
“They’ll be able to work on blowing, torch work, and fusing so they can cross those skills together,” said Forman.
Department Chair Diana Black explained that the shop had been in the works since 2004, when the building became the Noel Fine Arts Center after the Noel family’s contributions.
“When the renovations were made, there was this garage made, mostly for storage,” said Black. “But the vision was always there. Kristen had the vision, Jeff Morin had the vision, and we knew that one day this would be our hot glass shop.”
Student Kaylyn Ronk said that the new shop will give students the opportunity to work with an exciting material they would not have had access to before.
“Kristen has opened so many doors for students in this department. Once you blow your first piece, you’ll want to keep going to see what you can do,” said Ronk.
