2008 International Flameworking Conference
Friday, March 28 - Sunday, March 30
Preconference Artists and Presenters
Conference Presenters | Preconference Program Presenters
Featured Artist Carmen Lozar
Beth Hylen
Beth Hylen has been reference librarian at The Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass since 1978. In her role as a librarian, she answers questions, assists research, and provides bibliographic instruction to national and international audiences. The experience is an incredible opportunity to talk with researchers, students and artists about their work, as well as absorb ideas from artists who visit The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass and participate in the Glass Art Society. As a glass artist, Beth creates wearable art from silver and flameworked glass. Beth has a master’s in library science from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Recently, Beth researched and documented publications, exhibitions and special projects -- including subway station art -- featuring the works of expatriate Czech and Slovak glass artists scattered across the globe for Sylva Petrova’s book, Czech and Slovak Glass Artists in Exile (The Moravian Gallery, 2007). The resulting bibliography provides a starting point for further research on these established and emerging artists-in-exile.
Beth’s art work is featured in 500 Necklaces: Contemporary Interpretations of a Timeless Form (Lark Books, 2006) and 500 Glass Objects: a Celebration of Functional & Sculptural Glass (Lark Books, 2006).
Christopher Pavlou
Christopher Pavlou has been the co-owner of Turning Point Gallery in Media, Pa. since 1987. Over twenty years of working and developing close relationships with a broad spectrum of artists and collectors have given him valuable perspectives on the fascination of the marketplace with the dedication of artists, as well as the excitement of collectors about American studio glass.
His own passion for glass started 20 years earlier when, at age 14, he was often found, paper-route earnings in hand, searching for Tiffany Studios glass at local auctions.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and directing a small advertising agency for a number of years, he found his way back to glass and, with his wife, opened the gallery.
Arlene and Norman Silvers
Norman and Arlene Silvers started collecting glass when they were students at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.V. They would visit glass factories to buy beautiful, colorful, interestingly shaped glass objects. They especially liked the pieces from the Blenko Glass Co. Today, they have an extensive collection of Blenko glass.
Their first contemporary piece was a 1974 John Lewis moon bowl from the Works Gallery in Philadelphia. Since then, glass art has become their passion. They proudly show their collection, which is a great historical collection of the studio art glass movement.
Norman and Arlene are active in local and national organizations. Arlene has served as treasurer of the board of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass for the past 10 years, with Norman on the secondary market committee. They founded Contemporary Glass Philadelphia and belong to the Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Association. Norman also is on the board of the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts. Both are active at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. The museum uses glass to teach tolerance and nonviolent behavior. Through this forum, they have educated others about glass art and promoted collecting this art form.
Dr. Jutta-Annette Page
Jutta-Annette Page is Curator of Glass at the Toledo Museum of Art. Previously, she was the Curator of European glass at The Corning Museum of Glass from 1993 to 2003.
She completed the equivalent of an M.A. in Visual Arts in Germany, and then moved to the United States to continue her education. She studied jewelry design at San Diego State University with Arline Fish and went on to receive an M.A.E. in jewelry/metalsmithing at the Rhode Island School of Design. During this time, she also attended the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria. Jutta also earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University’s Department for the History of Art and Architecture.
A respected author in her field, Jutta has completed an extensive array of publications and lectures on subjects relating to glass. Her latest contribution is an essay on the history of glass jewelry to the exhibition catalog accompanying GlassWear, a traveling show organized by the Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Jewelry Museum in Pforzheim, Germany. The Art of Glass: The Toledo Museum of Art, was published in 2006 in conjunction with the opening of the Museum’s new Glass Pavilion. Her book, Beyond Venice: Glass in Venetian Style 1500-1750, published in 2004, was the most comprehensive work on the subject. A Fellow of The Corning Museum of Glass, Jutta chaired the International Council of Museums’ glass committee from 2001-2007 and serves on the boards of the Glass Art Society and the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts. She was a featured speaker at the 2005 International Flameworking Conference.
Gateson Recko
After earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University, Gateson Recko returned to his native Philadelphia, where his artistic goals shifted from buildings to glass. In the mid-1990s, he was a co-founder and the artistic director of Hot Soup, Philadelphia’s first public glassblowing facility. After three years of furnace-worked glass, Gateson turned his focus toward flameworking.
In 2000, while living in Taos, N.M., Gateson began developing the Universe Marble. In the eight years following the initial concept, Gateson’s work has brought him both national and international recognition. His hand-held Universes have become one of the most sought-after contemporary glass marbles on the market. Last year brought Gateson honors as the featured artist for WheatonArts Marble Weekend as well as the featured artist for the Borosilicate Art Expo in Yokohama, Japan. His work is included in The Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass and the Kobe Flameworking Museum.