The Hot Glass Roadshow, a traveling glass art demonstration, will be at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts starting Friday. Click the play button to hear an audio postcard of the event. 

During Thursday morning’s demonstration for the media, glass artists George Kennard and G. Brian set to work making a blue glass bowl and an orange glass pumpkin. Members of the roadshow traveled here from the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.

“At the Corning Museum, our mission is really just to teach the world about glass,” says Eric Meek, who supervises the glass making demonstrations for the Corning Museum. “And there’s a little bit of a story behind the roadshow. The bulk of the museum’s visitors come during the summer months. So, June, July, and August we have most of our visitors and then in the winter months, when it is a little bit colder, we don’t get quite so many folks. So, about 12 years ago, we were determined to create a second venue for glass making demonstrations at our museum. That coupled with the realization that we don’t have as many visitors in the off season, we thought ‘Well, why don’t we put our studio on wheels and that way in the off season we can travel around and visit other places and teach them about glass.”

It’s been seven years since the roadshow was in Kalamazoo. Meek says this visit is special because this year marks the 50th anniversary of studio glass—or glass made as art. Meek says working with glass can be challenging because of the way the material changes as it heats up and cools down.

“You can’t set glass down and go and have a sandwich and come back and pick up where you left off. With glass, as soon as you make a gather out of the furnace, the clock is ticking and you just keep on moving,” he says. “I often relate glass to music. When you start a piece of music, it has a tempo and it has a definite beginning and a definite ending. Glass is the same way when you start a piece, when you know what you’re going to make. To produce that piece effectively, it has its own tempo. It has its own pace. And it definitely has a beginning and an ending.”

The Hot Glass Roadshow will be at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Friday through October 14th.