Teens and glass arts: a bright combination at Pittsburgh Glass Center

Teens and glass arts: a bright combination at Pittsburgh Glass Center

It’s not more difficult to teach teens the various glass arts than it is to teach them to adults, say instructors at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. In fact, it’s easier.

“They seem to have a lot more ideas,” says staff instructor Melissa Fitzgerald. “They’re more eager and follow directions more easily.”

One Pittsburgh Allderdice High School junior wowed the entire staff with the sci-fi-inspired glass ray guns he concocted and molded himself from start to finish.

For the last 10 years, the PGC has been developing glass artists in its state-of-the-art building in Garfield. It now hosts a wide span of classes, ranging from one-day introductory workshops to intense, multi-week courses for advanced students. Between classes and the independent work of its 281 member artists, the center melts 30,000 pounds of glass a year.

Teens tackle sophisticated equipment

It surprises some to learn the center has classes for students 14 to 18, given its sophisticated, flame-spewing equipment. But it holds two ten-week classes for teens (starting every February and October). One teaches glassblowing, the creation of basic shapes like vases and cups using furnaces, and the other flameworking, the molding of glass with torches. Plus, there is an “intensive” in August that boils everything down in a week, as well as one-day “Make It Now” events, where absolute beginners can leave with their own beads and marbles, scattered throughout the year.

Jason Forck, the center’s youth education coordinator, says small cuts and burns are inevitable but there hasn’t been a serious injury at the center in its history. He adds that once students get anywhere near the 2,200-degree heat coming from the furnaces, they know to stay back. “Fire has its own safety mechanism,” he says.

It’s not just fun and self-expression the center offers. The staff says it’s helped student artists enter colleges with good glass art programs, like Kent and Ohio State universities.

Writer: Nick Keppler