Heating up the Central Mass art scene
By Leon Nigrosh
 February
2005 - The New Street GlassWorks is one of Worcester’s newest
hot spots — literally. Located at 35B New Street, just a short ride
behind the Sprinkler Factory on Harlow Street, this brand new 8,000 square-foot
facility is cookin’ 24/7.
GlassWorks is equipped with a glass furnace that keeps 400 pounds of clear
glass melted and ready for instant red-hot use. Three “glory holes”
are cranked up as needed for glassblowers making use of the hot shop.
There’s also a cold shop, a mold shop, a flat shop, six rental studios
and a flame working studio. Run by the Worcester Center for Crafts [WCC],
the nation’s oldest craft school, GlassWorks came about after a
few fits and starts. The organization had talked about opening a glass
shop for years, optimistically offering a small bead working class However,
the needed space for a full facility just wasn’t available.
Then, everything fell into place and this major glass facility, the only
one in Central Massachusetts, burst on the scene. The WCC even managed
to lure internationally known glass artist Alex Gabriel Bernstein from
his comfortable position at the Cleveland Institute of Art to spearhead
the development of this rapidly expanding facility.
While Bernstein’s own work consists primarily of polished and shaped
cast abstract glass sculpture, he is adept at all facets of glasswork
and lends his expertise to the nearly 100 students already enrolled at
GlassWorks. Ably assisted by studio manager Jay Riviello, an accomplished
glassblower in his own right, Bernstein keeps the studios humming —
installing new equipment as it arrives, tinkering with previously-owned
machinery to get the best performance from itand developing new projects
for himself and for the studio.
With nearly 50 students taking classes in the large, airy flameworking
studio, teacher/artist Liliana Glenn has her hands full overseeing their
progress as the students melt and fuse colorful glass rods to form imaginative
beads. There are also classes in hollow working, in which tubes of glass
are heated and manipulated to form goblets and other small vessels. Anything
bigger or more complex is developed at any of the three glassblowing stations.
Stained glass classes are carried on in the separate cold and flat shops.
Still in its infancy, the out-ofthe- way GlassWorks has become a center
of activity. Professional glass artists are already signing up for hot
shop rental time, classes are growing and a steady stream of the curious
has already begun to step through the doors. There are plans for visiting
artist workshops, artist residencies and a changing exhibition space.
Bernstein envisions GlassWorks becoming the center of the New England
glass scene and a supportive community asset. He’d like it to become
“a cool artist place,” attracting artists working in all mediums,
as well as art enthusiasts. He sees this new venture, with no pun intended,
“as a diamond in the rough” — and with his abilities
to carve, grind and polish, we should soon see another gem in Worcester’s
arts community.
For more information, check
out www.worcestercraftcenter.org
or call (508) 757-1424 or (508) 753-8183.
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