Asheville Glass Art School

North Carolina Glass Center (NCGC) is a public access educational glass facility providing a connection to glass in all forms for those with an interest from across the US. NCGC provided educational opportunities for over 2500 students during FY24. Offering a year-round curriculum of classes for students of every level, we hold courses in glass blowing, flameworking, and glass fusing, which are taught by local and nationally known artists. These vary in length, including thirty-minute hands-on introductory workshops, two and three-hour experiences, weekend classes, and multi-week durations for in-depth experiences. Class sizes vary from one-on-one instruction to large group activities that are often utilized for team building. . We also offer community programs serving youth and veterans. These experiences range from a single day activity to multi-week hands-on opportunities to learn about glassmaking in all its forms. In FY24 we continued youth programs with Hood Huggers, Open Doors of Asheville and Journeymen Asheville. We continued our work with our veteran apprentice.

North Carolina Glass Center maintains a curated gallery that represents over 80 artists and instructors. This is an educational opportunity for the Asheville Region, which attracts over 1 million visitors annually with 33% reporting that they visit for the arts. North Carolina Glass Centers location in the River Arts District, which boasts more than 300 active artists, makes it a top destination for the arts. The gallery is adjacent to the glass blowing studio, which provides active demonstrations days a week, directly educating the public and connecting them with both the material and the artists that use it. Fifty percent of artist made object sales go directly to NCGC artists, providing an economic driver for the artists in our organization. Biographies of all artists are available to the public both in person and on the North Carolina Glass Center website.