Bruce and Judy Bendoff attended a dinner in honor of James Baker, Director of Pilchuck, on Sunday, January 25th, at the Naples Yacht Club.  The lovely party was hosted by Joan Stonecipher, a glass collector, enthusiast, and member of AACG as well as a member of the Pilchuck board of trustees.  Joan’s daughter-in-law, Amy, is on the AACG board, as well as being secretary of the Pilchuck board of trustees, and she and her husband, Joan’s son, Mike, purchased the AACG auction piece at the recent SOFA reception. It is interesting to note that they are young collectors.

The dinner was attended by a diverse group of friends and interested parties, with representation by one of Joan’s charming guests from Sweden and another from Paris.  Jim was asked to speak about the future of glass and he commented on his confidence in the continuation of our movement, citing a second article printed in the January Wall Street Journal entitled, “Glass Becomes the Art World’s Buzziest Material.”  The article stated that “the once maligned medium is now the material of choice among the art crowd.” The article discusses works in glass transitioning from craft to recognition as art forms being sold in art galleries. This article followed an earlier September article, also in the journal, that discussed glass collecting quoting Carina Villinger, head of 20th Century Decorative Art & Design at Christie’s, as commenting,” Art glass is a great way to begin collecting art because there is so much available at so many price points.” The January 22nd article concluded, “We see it (glass) as a solid, but it’s actually a liquid; there is so much that can be done with it.  We’ve only begun to scratch the surface.”

Jim also talked about his awareness of younger collectors of glass coming along to keep our loved medium strong by entering the scene as a number of older collectors slow down or stop. Jim further commented that the number of applications by young aspiring glass artists continues at a very high level.

See two Wall Street Journal articles about glass art:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/art-glass-offers-clear-advantages-to-collectors-1411333013

http://www.wsj.com/articles/glass-becomes-the-art-worlds-buzziest-material-1421945157