Welcome Avon Place Glass, owned by Andrew Magdanz & Susan Shapiro, is located at 147 Sherman st in Cambridge, MA. We make a variety of handblown vases, bowls, and pitchers in bright contemporary designs and colors. Our studio has a complete hot shop facility where we make blown glass. We also do special projects for architects and designers, as well as our own one of a kind glass sculptural pieces. Classes are offered through the Cambridge Adult Ed Program by the Cambridge Glass School. We also rent furnace time, but only to experienced professional glass makers. We are open by appointment only, except for our annual studio sale and open house on December 8th & 9th Andrew Magdanz ascribes his initial involvement with the Studio Glass Movement to the Kent State murders of 1970. At the time, Magdanz was attending Dunwoody Industrial Institute in Minneapolis along with many Vietnam veterans on the GI bill. When news of the killings was announced over the school’s public address system, a loud cheer went up for the Ohio National Guardsmen. Later that day, Doug Johnson, his former junior high school art teacher and a ceramist/sculptor who had worked with Harvey K. Littleton (a founder of the glass movement), encouraged Magdanz to study at the University of Wisconsin, known for its anti-war atmosphere. It was at this school that he received his B.S. and M.A. and worked as an assistant to Littleton. He completed his formal training under Marvin Lipofsky at the California College of Arts and Crafts. He is a founding partner of Martha’s Vineyard Glassworks with wife and glass artist Susan Shapiro, and Mark Weiner. He also operates “sister studio” Avon Place Glass in Cambridge, MA. The studio on the Vineyard produces primarily functional ware. This work frees Magdanz from the financial constraints of his art pieces. He produces only ten to fifteen sculptures annually. In addition, Magdanz has collaborated with Albert Paley in creating architectural lighting and public sculptures. Magdanz’s one-of-a-kind work has evolved from simple forms that activate the surrounding space with projecting elements, to quieter pieces that produce a dialogue between interior and exterior surfaces. In the past few years, he has experimented with a broken surface, to which he has introduced color. Magdanz’s forms have an air of instability and a lightness that at times to seem to defy gravity. Magdanz is a recipient of two National Endowment for the arts grants and in 1979 was awarded a Master Craftsman Grant. He has taught at the Pilchuck Glass School, the Haystack School and the Penland School for Crafts. His work is in numerous public and private collections in the United States and abroad, including: The Corning Museum of Glass (NY), The Hokkaido Museum (Sapporo, Japan), and The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).* * excerpted from the catalog “Glass Today by American Studio Artists”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Susan Shapiro and Andrew Magdanz are internationally known artists working with handblown glass. Their works have been exhibited in The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Corning Museum of Glass, and many public and private collections. They have both attended and taught at the Pilchuck School of Glass, Haystack School of Crafts, and The Penland School. Andrew was the head of the Glass department at The Rochester Institute of Technology, before he decided to devote all his time to making glass in his own studio.
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Click here to get directions from your address A percentage of the Holiday Glass Sale proceeds will benefit The WAND Ed Fund, The South End Community Health Center, and The BB&N Financial Aid Program. WAND's mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs. www.wand.org | 781.643.6740 | info@wand.org
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