 Pittsburgh Glass Center logo | |
  Location within Pittsburgh | |
| Established | 2001 [1] |
|---|---|
| Location | 5472 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15206 |
| Coordinates | 40°27′51″N79°55′59″W / 40.464187°N 79.932919°W |
| Website | www |
The Pittsburgh Glass Center is a gallery, glass studio, and public-access school dedicated to teaching, creating and promoting studio glass art. [1] [2] It is located on Penn Avenue in the Friendship neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It has features works by Paul Joseph Stankard and classes taught by Dante Marioni, Davide Salvadore, and Cesare Toffolo. [3]
The origins of the Pittsburgh Glass Center date to 1991, when David Stephens, then visual-arts officer of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, approached glass artists Ron Desmett and Kathleen Mulcahy, then a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, about the idea of a center for studio glass. [3] It was originally to have been the Elizabeth Glass Center in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. [4] However, by 1999, the plans had changed and the center was re-oriented to Pittsburgh. [4] It was officially opened in 2001. [1]
The current facility in Friendship is LEED-certified. [5] Its development has aided the growth of Garfield, especially with the adjacent Glass Lofts residential development. [5]
In fall 2010, the Pittsburgh Glass Center entered into talks with Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. [6] By May 2011, the talks had failed, with the Pittsburgh Glass Center withdrawing from negotiations. [6]
In 2012, the Glass Center purchased residential housing adjacent to its main gallery space to be used as student and artist-in-residence housing. [7]
By 2012, the center had a $1 million budget, with 10 full-time employees. [5]
