"Pro Rata Lyricism Screen" by Artist Susan Stinsmuehlen Amend

"Genesis 212" by Artist Brian Berman

"Azurite" by Artist Doug Lochner

"Particles" by Artist Helle Scharling Todd

"Wearable Art/Untitled" by Artist Teal Rowe

The first exhibition at the Ojai Valley Museum in 2012 highlights the museum’s Libbey Glass Collection juxtaposed with contemporary glass works by seven regional artists: Brian Berman, Teal Rowe, Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend (Ojai); Doug Lochner (Oak View); Robert Eyberg, Helle Scharling-Todd, Michael Zelcer (Ventura). In addition, a private collection of antique American glass will be on view in an adjacent gallery.

“American Glass Works” is an original exhibition organized and curated by Museum Director Michele Pracy and supported by the Exhibitions Committee of the Ojai Valley Museum. It is the first time in 44 years the museum has mounted an exhibition of glass works. The show pays homage to Edward Drummond Libbey, turn-of-the-century industrial glass mogul and Ojai developer. It also heralds the excellence of studio glass currently created by selected Ventura County artists.

Fortuitously, the exhibition debuts on the 50th anniversary of the Studio Art Glass Movement in the United States, which was born in a garage on the grounds of the Toledo Art Museum in 1962. In celebration of this seminal, modern American art movement the museum will also debut its extensive collection of Libbey Glass donated to its Permanent Collection in 2010. The exhibited regional art glass will contrast with the industrially produced, utilitarian Libbey glass and will visually describe the myriad techniques of modern glass manipulation.

This show is both an education on the history, properties, uses, and techniques relative to glass made in this country over several centuries and a visual delight. The Rotating Gallery will be alive with color, transparency, surface texture, and pattern; presenting two and three-dimensional pieces all fabricated with glass. Cut, beveled, stamped, molded, cast, fused, blown, leaded, solid core, and painted glass techniques will be on display with accompanying descriptive texts.

The scope of objects displayed include: 19th and 20th century Libbey Glass produced in factories on the east coast as souvenirs, or for utilitarian and decorative purposes and more than twenty contemporary glass pieces that are one-of-a-kind works of art. Wall texts throughout the show serve to compare, contrast, and illuminate the marvels of this medium, whatever the purpose of the object displayed.

The Ojai Valley Museum, established in 1967, is generously supported in part by Museum Members, Private Donors, Business Sponsors and Underwriters, the Smith-Hobson Foundation, Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, City of Ojai, and the Rotary Club of Ojai.

The museum is located at 130 W. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA. Admission: free for current 2012 members, adults - $4.00, students - 18 and under - $1.00, children 6–18 - $1.00 and children 5 and under – free. Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 to 4 pm; Sunday, noon to 4 pm. Tours are available by appointment.

For more information, call the museum at (805) 640-1390, ext. 203, e-mail ojaimuseum@sbcglobal.net or visit the museum website at http://www.ojaivalleymuseum.org/