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President’s Message

President’s Message

As we welcome in 2024, I want to take a moment to thank all of our AACG members, as well as our board members and advisory council for their service.  Also a special thank you to our Sustaining Visionary and Visionary members who provide the additional support needed to keep our Visionary Scholarship program thriving. The talent that is coming out of the glass community continues to evolve and amaze, and your financial support makes the growth and innovation in this medium possible.

We held our fall board meeting in Kentucky this year, which is rapidly becoming a focal point for glass.  With the University of Louisville glass program led by Ché Rhodes, the glass program at Centre College, the opening of Trifecta Gallery in Lexington, a glass museum honoring Stephen Rolfe Powell’s work in Danville, and the incredible Leight collection on display at the Speed Museum, art created from glass is gaining more and more visibility in this area. The sudden surge of glass in this region made it the perfect place for AACG to hold their first ever membership mixer event at Trifecta Gallery, and it was a great success!  We picked up a number of new members who we want to thank for joining our community. A very big thank you to Trifecta for making this event possible. We look forward to building upon this model to plan more events like this on future trips.

Our 2024 member trip to Montreal is coming up in September, and I want to thank our travel committee (Diane Phillips, Lori Solon, Ray Chimienti, Linda Greene, Arlene Garfinkle, Carol Mapes) as well as Jack Cooperstone, for planning what is sure to be an amazing trip. I also want to welcome Arlene Silvers as the chair of our newly formed international travel committee! With the expertise she brings from the National Liberty Museum travel program, we have some exciting things in store for AACG members.

I was really heartened to end the year with such an incredibly positive and productive board meeting. AACG has made significant strides over the last year to implement changes that will strengthen our ability to serve our mission, and continue to share our love of glass with the broader art community. I have written about these developments over the last year, but will recap a few highlights here:  new scholarships for BIPOC artists and artists with disabilities in partnership with major educational institutions, a new website resource library of hundreds of educational videos exclusively for members, a new website name (AACGglass.org), the addition of marketing, finance, and international trip committees, improving awareness of AACG through the issuance of press releases throughout the year, a new student membership rate, the addition of new group discounts for members, close to $100,000 in grants and scholarships awarded in 2023, and in 2024 we have the addition of a very special, new award which you will read about later in the newsletter.  

I want to thank our board members for their dedication and service, extend our gratitude for the service of those rolling off, as well as extend a big welcome to the new board members that just joined us. I am so grateful for your enthusiasm, help, and support, and look forward to working with you to create a productive and exciting path for AACG in the new year.  

Thank you to our members for your continued support, and best wishes to all for a Happy New Year!

Best,


Demetra Theofanous