A Regional Study of Its Birth in Northwest Ohio

THE AMERICAN STUDIO GLASS MOVEMENT: A REGIONAL STUDY OF ITS BIRTH IN NORTHWEST OHIO Kaysie Harrington A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS December 2018 Committee: Douglas Forsyth, Committee Chair Katerina Ray © 2018 Kaysie Harrington All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Douglas Forsyth, Committee Chair In 1962 the Toledo Museum of Art hosted the first studio glass workshop. For the first time, artists were able to experiment with glass as an artistic medium outside of the factory setting. This thesis investigates how the Studio Glass Movement began and grew within Toledo and the greater Northwest, Ohio area, with a focus on the social networks which made its formation possible. It argues that the Studio Glass Movement’s success was a product of cooperation between Toledo’s glass industry, educational organizations, community clubs and the artists themselves. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support of BGSU’s History Department faculty, especially my Committee Chair, Dr. Douglas Forsyth, whose enthusiasm for this topic and continual direction kept me motivated throughout my research. Thank you to Dr. Katerina Ruedi Ray, for offering insightful commentary and suggestions in the final stages of my writing, and to Dr. Steven Seubert, for first introducing me to studio glass as a potential research topic. I also extend my gratitude towards the knowledgeable and helpful staff of the Rakow Research Library. A special thank you to Alli Hoag, who allowed me to join her introductory glassblowing course and who gave me the opportunity to explore the captivating medium of glass myself. I now have a profound appreciation for the immense talent, dedication and imagination glass artists possess. Thank you to artists Harry Boyer and Jack Schmidt, who were kind enough to recount their personal experiences within the Studio Glass Movement and give me fascinating tours of their own studios. In addition, I would like to thank the family and friends who offered their constant support throughout this entire process, especially my father, who offered steady encouragement and perspective, and my mother, who made my research trip to Corning, New York a memorable adventure. Finally, a sincere and heartfelt thank you to the Penzinski family, whose generosity allowed me to continue my research from the Toledo area, and particularly, to Kyle Penzinski, who had unwavering faith in my ability to succeed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...……...... 1 CHAPTER I. INDUSTRY………………………………………….……………………… 6 CHAPTER II. EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS………………………………..…... 30 CHAPTER III. ARTISTS, COLLECTORS AND GALLERIES…….……………………. 52 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………… 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………… 74 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Punch Bowl, Libbey Glass Company, ca. 1900 ......................................................... 9 2 Glass fiber dress displayed at the 1892 Columbian Expedition ................................ 11 3 Kit Paulson wearing Armor, 2012. ............................................................................ 12 4 Harvey K. Littleton, Implosion/Explosion, 1964 ....................................................... 38 5 Dominick Labino, Emergence XII, 1972 ................................................................... 55 1 INTRODUCTION In 2012, Toledo, Ohio hosted the 42nd annual Glass Art Society conference. Though annual conferences had been a regular part of the organization’s programming since 1971, the Toledo conference marked a special occasion—glass artists and enthusiasts from around the world gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement’s birth in the city.1 In 1962, a workshop hosted on the Toledo Museum of Art’s grounds proved for the first time that an individual artist could blow glass separate from the glass industry. Toledo’s success launched an international interest in glass as an art medium, one which continues to grow in global popularity today and which has also produced such internationally recognized artists as Dale Chihuly and Lino Tagliapietra. According to 2012 Glass Art Society President Jeremy Lepisto, the first glass workshop was “an idea in the right place.”2 Although the East and West Coasts are now widely considered the glass hubs of the United States, many artists began or continued their careers in the Toledo area following the first glass workshop. In fact, the city continued to be recognized an innovative glass art center well into the second half of the twentieth-century. This thesis investigates the early success of studio glass in Toledo and explores what qualities made the city the “right” place for studio glass to both emerge and thrive. Other literature addressing the Studio Glass Movement remains scarce, and largely focused on defining the evolution of glass as a medium within the world of fine art. Art journal publications such as the Glass Art Society Journal and the Corning Museum’s New Glass Review tend to function as surveys of emerging artists and the evolution of glass in the contemporary art 1 Idea, Impact Innovation, the Glass Art Society’s 42nd Annual Conference Brochure (2012). 2 Jeremy Lepisto. “From the GAS President: Hello, Toledo!” Idea, Impact Innovation, the Glass Art Society’s 42nd Annual Conference Brochure (2012) 5. 2 world. More comprehensive works such as March Drexler Lynn’s American Studio Glass: 1960- 1990, focus specifically on glass’ evolution from a craft medium to a high-art form, accepted by serious art collectors. Lynn argues that there were three specific developments that positively influenced the art world into accepting glass as fine art: the increased production of American studio glass, increasingly loose standards of what materials qualified as “art,” and finally, the integration of functional forms into the high-art world.3 Lynn’s fellow glass historian William Warmus also uses his research to place glass in the context of larger trends in the art world. His work, Fire and Form thematically explores the pieces of well-known contemporary glass artists in their use of abstraction, color and glass as a spiritual representation of both human and other biological forms.4 Habatat Gallery owner Ferdinand Hampson has also contributed his retrospective, Studio Glass in America: A 50 Year Journey, to the field. By surveying the work of premier glass artists throughout the world, Hampson’s work offers a decade by decade overview of glass art’s major developments.5 In contrast, Joan Falconer Byrd’s Harvey K. Littleton, A Life in Glass focuses solely on the career of one pioneering glass artist. Her work functions primarily as a biography of Harvey K. Littleton, a ceramicist turned glass artist who is often credited with founding the Movement.6 Outside of the scholarship listed above, which provides a predominantly broad, international approach, little critical discourse exists which examines the Studio Glass Movement’s early history. Thus, the opportunity exists for this thesis to contribute an original, more targeted line of research to the field, by addressing studio glass in the greater Toledo area 3 Martha Drexler-Lynn, American Studio Glass: 1960-1990 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004) 1. 4 William Warmus, Fire and Form: The Art of Contemporary Glass (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2003). 5 Ferdinand Hampson, Studio Glass in America: A 50 Year Journey (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Punishing Ltd., 2012). 6 Joan Falconer Byrd, Harvey K. Littleton, A Life in Glass (New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications Inc., 2011). 3 specifically. It finds that the Studio Glass Movement took shape in Toledo at the confluence of several different communities. By isolating these various community groups into separate chapters, a thorough investigation of the complex social networks which aided in establishing studio glass is made possible. The first chapter addresses Toledo’s glass industry, specifically those firms which acted as good corporate citizens in their continual commitment to promoting innovation in glass. The second chapter explores the area’s educational institutions. Collaborative efforts made by the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo University and Bowling Green State University helped establish quality glassblowing facilities and programming within the region. The final chapter addresses the contributions made by talented local artists as well as the collectors, art clubs and galleries who coordinated with them to sell and exhibit studio glass in the region. This framework is based on economic historian Douglas North’s theory that progress is a product of cooperation. In his 1990 work, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, North argues that competition is not the only driver of economic progress. Rather, studying the circumstances under which people cooperate to innovate can provide valuable insight into economic change. North recognizes that social norms and networks, or what he refers to as “institutions,” shape the way humans interact. They have the ability to either help or hinder progress, and thus function as “rules of the game” for a society.7 By exploring Toledo’s social networks, this thesis attempts to reconstruct “the rules of the game” that structured cooperation in the region as the Studio Glass Movement emerged in the region. To do so, this work also relies upon the theory of social capital,

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