4th Annual Glass Symposium returning to the Museum of American Glass

“We thought it would be a good idea to start an annual symposium to try to come up with a definition of what is Mid-Century Modern and then just explore it a little bit further each year,” he said.

He said symposium organizers have come up with a definition and the presentations will focus on different aspects of it the definition.

The first presentation will begin at 10:15 a.m. Friday, and it will be on wrinkled glass.

“What happened with Mid-Century was that you departed from traditional shapes and forms — they started doing new and different forms,” Felt said. “Previously that wouldn’t have been acceptable to the American consumer, one of them being you did unusual surface treatments such as wrinkled, crinkled, things like that.”

The following presentation will be about high-end Mid-Century. Felt said it will be interesting to see the different shapes and styles that were considered expensive back then.

Then the symposium will break for lunch, which is catered and included in the registration fee.

After lunch, there will be a glass-blowing demonstration by Scott Meyer, owner of West Virginia American Art Glass.

“West Virginia is known for its glass,” Meyer said. “So they get to come in, I’ll let them tell me what they want to see, and I’ll do that. I want it to be about what they want to see.”

Felt said it will be great to be able to pair the art of glass-making with everything that symposium attendees will be learning.

“He’ll make a piece using Mid-Century technique and style. To be Mid-Century, it has to have that flowing form and the brilliant colors associated with Mid-Century,” Felt said.

After the glass-blowing demonstration, there will be a presentation on Viking glass.

Viking was a glass company located in New Martinsville that was at the forefront of commercial Mid-Century Modern glass-making, he said.

“They had a line called the Epic pattern that was a lot of large swung vases, brilliant turquoise, brilliant orange, avocado green, which was another big color. They kind of established what was the norm for Mid-Century Modern,” Felt said.

Dinner will follow, and then the last event of the day will be the American Glass Auction, which also will be held at the museum. The auction is open to the public.

Viewing will begin at 6 p.m., and the auction will begin at 7 p.m.

“This was one of the ideas to bring people in to the first symposium, and we found out we had a lot of public participation — about 100 people for the auction,” Felt said. “We have been particularly fortunate to be supported by Kelsey Murphy, a major West Virginia cameo artist.”

Pieces by Murphy, as well as glass work that has been consigned and donated, will be auctioned.

Saturday will begin with a presentation by Cliff Rock from Alum Bridge, who makes paperweights and other gift shop items. Rock will talk to symposium attendees about how glass is actually made.

“That will kind of complement Scott Meyer’s demonstration on Friday of showing us making glass,” Felt said. “He’ll be talking about how it’s made and his experiences working in local factories as well as in his own studio.”

The symposium will end Saturday with a presentation by Felt: “Is It Modern?”

Felt’s presentation is the only one presented every year, and he said it’s one of his favorite parts of the symposium because it gets people talking.

“We’ll be setting pieces out and going through and discussing each one. It actually gets quite lively discussing whether it’s Modern or not. We get people talking about the design and the influences,” he said.

Registration for the symposium is $79, which includes both days of activities and two meals. For those who are Museum of American Glass members, the cost is $69.

The symposium will be held at the museum, which is located at 230 Main Ave. in Weston.

To attend, call the museum at (304) 269-5006, although same-day registration is welcome.