The West Michigan Glass Art Center has been closed for about a year to settle its roughly $60,000 debt. Starting next week it will reopen to the public - with a new name and a new look. But the recently renamed Glass Art Kalamazoostill has an uncertain future.
Glass Art Kalamazoo will participate in Art Hop on Friday, September 9th. Labor Day weekend pushed the hop back by a week. Interim Executive Director Blaine Lam says the name Glass Art Kalamazoo is shorter and easier to remember than West Michigan Glass Art Center.
Lam says the organization is officially out of debt thanks to several non-profits, private donors, and a $14,000 Kickstarter campaign.
“One of the nice things about the Kickstarter was it showed the kind grassroots support not only that we like to see but that other funders like to see,” he says.
But the glass art center isn’t quite out of the woods. Board members are still trying to find a sustainable model for the organization. Lam says this fall will be a test-run for the re-vamped center - and that experiment will help the board develop a firm budget.
Though there are still a lot of decisions to be made, Lam says the glass art center can’t stay closed any longer:
“There’s a sense of urgency because the organization has been quiet long enough where - you know when people don’t hear from you they think there’s either something wrong with you or something wrong with them and either way they want out. So we’re looking to reopen so to speak with the Art Hop on September 9th.”
Lam says in the past, the center would be open for classes and events about four days a week, but attendance was low. The new Glass Art Kalamazoo will start small with just a handful of programs.
Studio Manager Tori Hollister says there will also be more of an emphasis on classes that teach glass techniques - rather than one-day workshops where people can make a single bead or pendant.
“We really are wanting to teach people the process of all of those things - make artists out of people,” she says.
Hollister says the center also plans to bring in more visiting artists to appeal to advanced students.
Right now Glass Art Kalamazoo is working with other art studios around the country to help it develop the center’s programming and funding models. Lam says so far it seems like the classes aren’t that much different from what the center was doing a year ago:
“And when you go to Pittsburgh, and when you go to St. Louis, and when you go to Tucson - the programming looks pretty much alike in all those places. Except for places that attract the Chihuly’s and whatnot, well they have a little bit better art. So what we need to do is to find a way for people in this community to come in and be with us at any level. And if they happen - and I think we’ve got some people that can do that - and if they happen to be able to turn into better artists and distinguish themselves and then -as some of our artists have done - come back and help teach, then I think we’re doing something as a community organization.”
Lam says the center also hopes to attract more community members to its board.
“We are a little artist rich on our board. Nothing wrong with any of them, they’re all good. But we think we need a little more diversity in the types of experiences that people have," says Lam.
"For instance, if you have somebody with fundraising skills or marketing skills or whatever. So the board is looking at doing those things as well.”
Ultimately, Lam says keeping ties with Kalamazoo groups will help Glass Art Kalamazoo to sustain itself.
“We reestablished the kind of links that we have with youth organizations, with schools, with nonprofits and even with employers to say hey this is something that is fun and social and it gives people a really good feeling,” he says.
Glass Art Kalamazoo, formerly known as West Michigan Glass Art Center, will open its doors next Friday, September 9th for Art Hop.
