GEEX: Glass Education Exchange

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GEEX: Glass Education Exchange

Serving glass education through community-building programming and resource-sharing.

GEEX is an online platform serving glass education through community-building programming and resource-sharing.

07/20/2026

“I'm a collage maker; I've made collages forever,” Erin O’Connor shares (erin_o_connor). “I've always had a making practice. Even as a girl, I had the easel and the desk. And the desk ‘won out’ at the end of the day.”

Learn more about the breadth of Dr. Erin E. O’Connor’s studio practice, from field research to collagework. Erin, author of “Fire Craft: Art, Body, and World Among Glassblowers,” gives a tour of her studio: from some of the books that influence her writing to her favorite Micron pens.

“Much of the ‘easel’ part of my studio practice takes place as field work. I'm going out, doing field work at the batch company, making glass, and I write about it. A lot is happening outside of these walls in one way, shape, or form, and it's connected to making.”

“The other part of the practice is the actual writing. I think about typing as possibilities, like sketching, and then I start doing the weaving work by hand,” Erin explains. “If I could have saved all of my papers from writing ‘Fire Craft’, I imagine it filling up an entire gallery space. It would be hinged on a binder like 20 feet long.”

Watch "Studio Practice: Studying Glassmaking with Erin O'Connor" on YouTube! This GEEX Short is a highlight from Erin's GEEX Talks episode, available on the GEEX Talks Subscriber Archive.

➜ Watch Erin O’Connor’s GEEX Shorts episode now! Link in bio.

07/09/2026

“There's the material agency to [glass], but there's also a geopolitical story. I think it just behooves us as people of the world to be familiar with these stories.” Learn more about Dr. Erin O’Connor’s research for her upcoming book, “The Middle Mineral and the Mine.” 🎥 Watch the full episode, "Glass Production, Silicosis, and Global Glass Chains"! Link in bio.

06/30/2026

“I think about Greg and Tom as conciatores—someone who mixes glass batch—and the entire Spruce Pine Batch Company compound as a conciatore laboratory or workshop.” Dr. Erin O’Connor talks about her second book, “The Middle Mineral and the Mine: A Geoanthropology of Studio Glass.” 🎥 Watch "Mentorship, Mêtis, and Mixing Glass Batch" on youtube.com/!

05/18/2026

“The process of making is one of discovering.” Artists Nasser Alzayani and Rachel Berwick discuss Nasser's artistic voice and the impact of Rachel's mentorship through his transition from the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship to the RISD Glass MFA program. 🎥 Watch "From Deserts to Store-Bought Sand 🤝 Mentorship with Nasser Alzayani & Rachel Berwick" on youtube.com/!

05/11/2026

“If you practice, experiment, and research, eventually there is some serendipitous moment where these things come together.” 🎥 Watch "Balancing Material Exploration and Research" with Nasser Alzayani on youtube.com/!

05/06/2026

Last chance! Vote on speakers for the upcoming season of GEEX Talks by Monday, May 8.

➜ Vote now! Find the Google Form here: https://linktr.ee/geexglass

🔵 The upcoming season, "Object Lessons: Coldworking, Labor and the Glass Factory," was chosen by popular vote. To explore the nominees, please check the Google Form link in our bio. GEEX has also created an in-depth summary that includes short descriptions, keywords, nominators' remarks, and links to relevant work and artist websites.

💧 GEEX Talks is a community-informed and artist-driven online lecture series focused on traditional and unconventional approaches to glass art. For anyone seeking a path in the glass field, GEEX offers a record of predominantly BIPOC and q***r fine artists, craftspeople, scientists, historians, designers, community organizers, and more.

05/04/2026

"How do you decide which gaps in the archive should be left open and which ones do you attempt to imaginatively reconstruct through the retelling of stories? How do you see through official historical documentation to uncover the gaps in the archive?" 🎥 Watch "Art, Archival Absences, and Sharing Research" on youtube.com/!

04/27/2026

“Using photography, using drawing, finding ways to selectively mask certain texts and parse through all of the flowery language to get to the root of what is being said.” In the latest GEEX Shorts episode, artist Nasser Alzayani () discusses the process behind his latest series examining the history of the British Political Agency Garden in Manama, Bahrain.

“This series began with the discovery of this enormous amount of digitized British documents — many of them confidential and were meticulously kept in colonial archives,” artist Nasser Alzayani explains. “Some of the first records that I found were these simple logs that described the comings and goings of the Agency Garden.”

“As I was reading through these letters, logs, and confidential intelligence reports, public announcements, requests for seeds: even a printing press so that they could counteract growing dissent on the island. You'll find things like a bill from the Water and Electricity Ministry Authority for their use of water in the garden. The British Political Agency will get back to them, saying, ‘Hold on, we've never been billed before.’”

“I began sifting through the words and attempting to clarify the true meaning between the lines,” he notes. “What emerged was a series of works reframing and retelling the found narratives which highlights the toxicity of British colonial practice and allows for this poison to really come through.”

“It's been an exciting way of going back to some of the ways of working that I really loved, going back to ten-plus years ago, when my practice was mainly drawing-based. This was something I wanted to try again and embrace.”

Watch "Reveal & Conceal: Close Reading British Colonial Records with Nasser Alzayani" on YouTube! This short segment is part of Nasser's GEEX Talks episode, accessible in the GEEX Talks Subscriber Archive.

➜ Watch Nasser Alzayani’s GEEX Shorts episode now! Link in bio.

04/22/2026

Who would you like to hear from next year? Vote on speakers for GEEX Talks by May 8!

➜ Vote today! Help GEEX continue building an expansive survey of glass art: https://linktr.ee/geexglass

🔵 Based on popular vote, the next season is “Object Lessons: Coldworking, Labor and the Glass Factory.” The Google Form in our bio links to a detailed overview including: short descriptions, keywords, nominators' comments, and links to artists’ websites/relevant work. If you’re able, please take the time to review and familiarize yourself with the 18 nominees!

💧 GEEX Talks is a community-informed and artist-driven online lecture series focused on traditional and unconventional approaches to glass art. For anyone seeking a path in the glass field, GEEX offers a record of predominantly BIPOC and q***r fine artists, craftspeople, scientists, historians, designers, community organizers, and more.

💬 Thanks to everyone who has participated so far! The community nominated 18 potential speakers—now it’s time to let us know who you’d like to hear from.

04/13/2026

Vote on speakers for the seventh season of GEEX Talks! Based on popular vote, the next season is “Object Lessons: Coldworking, Labor and the Glass Factory.” Who would you like to hear from?

➜ Vote for a speaker by Friday, May 8! Visit the Google Form here: https://linktr.ee/geexglass

🔵 Which stories would you like to hear next year? The form links to a detailed overview including: short descriptions, keywords, nominators' comments, and links to artists’ websites/relevant work. If you’re able, please take the time to review and familiarize yourself with the 18 nominees!

💬 GEEX Talks is a community-informed and artist-driven online lecture series focused on traditional and unconventional approaches to glass art. For anyone seeking a path in the glass field, GEEX offers a record of predominantly BIPOC and q***r fine artists, craftspeople, scientists, historians, designers, community organizers, and more.

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30 Bridgman Avenue
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M5R 1X3

Website

https://www.geex.glass/

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