The Arkansas Arts Center, the state's pre-eminent art institution, hopes to raise the pulse rate of art lovers with its big "Hot Color Cool Glass" exhibit that opens Friday, as Werner Trieschmann reports in Friday's Arkansas Weekend section.
Two of the prominent names in the field of glass art - Louis C. Tiffany of the coveted Tiffany lamps and Dale Chihuly, the eye-patch wearing impresario of glass objects that look like sea urchins - are represented. To celebrate the large show, which contains more than 120 pieces and consists of three separate exhibits, including two organized by the Arts Center, there will be panel discussions, lectures and a Mobile Hot Shop - basically, a traveling glass studio complete with working kiln - at the museum for a week.
Organizers at the Arts Center figure to expand the base of glass fans that flocked to see the "Dale Chihuly: Installations" show in 2000-01. That show had neon bright glass pieces of enormous size as well as thousands of smaller pieces suspended from a Plexiglas ceiling. "Hot Color Cool Glass" only has a single Chihuly, as it aims to show a wider scope of the art of glass, from its beginning as a decorative medium to today's multiple forms and manipulations.
"I've been telling people that if you liked Chihuly, you'll love this show because it has lots of glowing color, incredible delicacy and big, bravura pieces," says Arts Center director Nan Plummer. "And that if you hated Chihuly, you'll still love this show, because we've gathered art with ideas, not only eye candy. New techniques, current concepts and different ways of using glass are what is on display."
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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