A conversation with Hank Adams on the state of the Creative Glass Center of America

John Moran's mixed media bust of Teddy Roosevelt is one in a series of all the U.S. presidents he is currently making during his CGCA fellowship at WheatonArts.

UPDATED 9/21

Tomorrow evening, Friday, September 18, the WheatonArts glass studio in Millville, New Jersey, will throw open its doors to the public from 7 PM – 8:30 PM for a demonstration by current Creative Glass Center of America fellows Megan Biddle and John Moran. As is customary for the recipients of one of the most sought-after residencies in glass, the two artists will be demonstrating their techniques for the public, as well as presenting a slide lecture discussing their work. Says Moran, a Philadelphia-based artist who hot sculpts glass heads as the foundation for his elaborate latex and fabric figurative sculptures: “I’m creating busts of all 44 of the U.S. presidents, fairly realistic sculptures, but they will be installed with unconventional biographical information that will force viewers to realize how little they really know about these revered historic figures.”

GLASS spoke with CGCA director Hank Adams about the struggles of a nonprofit like his to continue to offer residencies in these uncertain economic times.  “All nonprofits need to make sobering decisions if they want to still be around in two years,” he says. “Susan [Gogan, executive director of WheatonArts] and I were widely criticized a year-and-a-half-ago when we decided to cut back from 12 to 10 residencies a year, and to close the studio for the winter. But then, during the economic crisis that got really bad exactly one year ago, we suddenly seemed like geniuses.”

Adams says that funding for CGCA is secure through the end of the fiscal year which ends in June 2010, but the following year’s funding depends on many events outside of the organization’s control. With WheatonArts heavily dependent on state funding, he worries about the reelection of New Jersey’s democratic governor Jon Corzine. He is grateful, however, for the support of the CGCA board that he says has been able to be more generous as the stock market has stabilized in recent months.

Adams focus, however, remains on the fellowship program itself. He has noticed that both current fellows are keenly aware of the value of a six-week residency and are actively working to get the most out of their time.

Megan Biddle, Sonic Boom!, 2008. Glass and mirror. Dimensions variable.

“John has worked with Doug Ohm and he understood what this fellowship means,” says Adams. And that’s true not only in the hours he’s putting in but also his level of concentration.” The other fellow, Megan Biddle, has returned for her second fellowship. Says Adams: “She’s here late every night and seems to be devoting herself to a wide variety of experiments with refractory molds. Megan has obviously given a lot of thought and planning to what she would be doing here, and her work shows this.”

More info on the fellowship, including an application for 2010, is available here.