I’ve recently attended the Glass Art Society Conference in Portland OR. It was a great conference and the GAS Board of Directors, Staff and Co-Chairs are to be congratulated! Having been involved in GAS as a student, independent studio owner, and now educator it is a pleasure to see such a vibrant community gather to exchange information and exhibit new works. It was gratifying to see RIT’s students so well represented there. My congratulations to David Schnuckel who received 1st place, Rebecca Arday 3rd place and Kyung-Ok Choi honorable mention in the GAS Student Exhibition. Congratulations are also due Shane Caryl who received the Kilncaster Award in Bullseye’s Emerge Competition. We’ve a great crew of students at RIT and it’s a privilege to work with them.

Other highlights for me were excellent lectures by engaged and talented artists. I felt like I could have a finger on the pulse of contemporary art in glass. Bill Klingensmith multi-media artist and web designer <mydarndest.com> who designed my website gave an excellent lecture to a packed hall on how to approach creating a website or having a website created for you by a professional, WWW.YOU.

In terms of exhibitions my hat is off to the Australians who represented themselves with outstanding works.