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.

10/09/2026

Meet your 2026–27 BIPOC Community Table facilitators!

💚 Abigail Akindude has been a co-facilitator since Fall 2024. Abigail (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and electrician who fell in love with glass after taking classes and participating in the Bead Project at UrbanGlass. She is an alum of Brooklyn College and Hunter College who loves reading and dog watching.

🤎🆕 Inez Garcia is joining the BIPOC Community Table (BCT) co-facilitators this year! Inez (she/her) is an Alfred University alum who creates interdisciplinary art and specializes in community-engaged works and conservation. She loves spending time outdoors trail running and rock climbing in the Wasatch Mountains.

💚 Kiani Simms has been a co-facilitator since Fall 2024. Kiani (she/her) is an Emporia State University alum, therapist, and glass artist based in Kansas. Her favorite glass pieces to make are flowers and birds.

📆 Save the date! In two weeks, come to the BIPOC Community Table’s virtual gathering on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 5 to 6:30 PM US-Central. Meet more community members (and introduce yourself)!

➜ Want to register for the BCT? Read the Code of Conduct and sign up on the GEEX website: https://geex.glass/programming/bipoc-community-table/

10/08/2026

Reflecting on the overarching theme, Material Life Cycles: Sand, Glass, and Practice, the preface to GEEX Journal Volume II gathers foundational works and key references considered by the GEEX team throughout the volume's creation.

Order your copy of the GEEX Journal today—link in bio!

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Works featured:
1–2. Markus Keyser, “Solar Sinter”, 2011. Photos by Amos Field Reid, courtesy of the artist.
3. Ruth Yone Tamura, “The Great Marble Tournament on Bay Fill”, 1969. Courtesy of CCA Libraries.
4. Anna Elizabeth Riley, “The Stone for Burning”, 2016–18. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Markus Kayser (Markus Kayser)
𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳
Royal College of Art
London, Egypt, and Morrocco
2011

“In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance.”

“In this experiment, sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology.”

“Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource: the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.”

Image 1: Printing process of a flat square glass tile. Photo by Amos Field Reid.
Image 2: Solar Sinter in the Saharan desert near Siwa, Egypt. Photo by Amos Field Reid.

Ruth Tamura
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘛𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘉𝘢𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘭
California College of Arts and Crafts
Oakland, California
1969

The Great Marble Tournament on Bay Fill is the graduate thesis work of Ruth Tamura, the first person to earn an MA in Glass from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1969. This large-scale installation and game of handblown glass marbles in a gallery filled with local sand is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, performance work in the field of glass.

Image 3: Ruth Yone Tamura. The glass of Ruth Yone Tamura. 1969. California Co

10/05/2026

The GEEX Writing Center is back and open for Fall 2026!

✍️ Want to refine and elevate your written work? Whether you need help with artist statements, graduate applications, fellowship proposals, or professional writing, the GEEX Writing Center is here for you. Meet with Sara Clugage or Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie for expert feedback tailored to your needs.

➜ Need writing support? Book a 1-on-1 consult or register for the free Starter Bubble session! Visit https://geex.glass/resources/writing-center/

📅 Save the date! Sara Clugage is offering a free Starter Bubble Writing Circle on artist statements on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6 PM US Eastern. (Spots are limited, so sign up soon.)

🗓️ Want more personalized guidance? Reserve a one-on-one sliding-scale consult with Sara Clugage or Ana Matisse. 40-minute sessions are available on Monday–Wednesday and Sunday afternoons now through Sunday, December 13.

Consultations with Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie:
🔹 Mondays, from 5–6:00 PM US-Eastern
🔹 Wednesdays, from 5–6:00 PM US-Eastern
🔹 Sundays, from 1–3:00 PM US-Eastern

Consultations with Sara Clugage:
🔸 Tuesdays, from 2–5:00 PM US-Eastern

📓 Please note: for the 2025–26 academic year, GEEX Writing Center services will be offered exclusively during the fall semester. Availability is limited, so reserve your consultation early!

10/02/2026

“How does nightlife offer the opportunity to create a safe space outside of a heteronormative—or patriarchal or white—environment? Nightlife, by its nature, casts darkness around you through which you can hide, and be, and become.” 🎥 Watch "Q***r Nightlife and Disco Futures with Erin O'Connor & Andres Payan Estrada"! Link in bio.

10/01/2026

“Nightlife, by its nature, casts darkness around you through which you can hide, and be, and become.” Artist and curator Andres Payan Estrada (Andres Payan Estrada) explores the ways disco and the underground music scene unlock possibilities for community, q***r joy, and new futures, in response to a question from Erin O’Connor (Erin O'Connor).

"Looking at disco and q***r culture, and the futuring that it allows for: how do these trajectories animate your work?" Erin asks. “Could you talk more about how disco and nightlife opens up liminal spaces for new social worlds?”

“You could be with your partners, you could be with your friends, you could be in community during a time where your livelihood and your identity and who you are was being challenged,” Andres explains. “Not a lot of that has changed. There's still a need for these spaces, which is why I started to focus on q***r nightlife spaces.”

“Being able to go out with my friends to these clubs, and seeing the possibilities of liberation and freedom of being who you wanted to be… I just visibly didn't see who I could be until I was in these spaces.”

“Thinking of nightlife spaces as places where you can transport yourself into a different planet or a different dimension,” he continues. “Literally thinking about that threshold when you walk into the [club] as, like, transporting yourself into a different world.”

To see Andres Payan Estrada’s work in person, check out the exhibition “Visiones Nocturnas: Q***r Nightlife in Contemporary Art” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

To learn more, check out "Q***r Nightlife and Disco Futures with Erin O'Connor & Andres Payan Estrada" on YouTube! (You’ll also get to hear some of the music he listened to while making his projects.) This short segment is part of Andres’ GEEX Talks episode, accessible in the GEEX Talks Subscriber Archive.

➜ Watch Andres Payan Estrada’s GEEX Shorts episode now! Link in bio.

09/23/2026

The print edition of GEEX Journal Volume II is here!

🔍 This issue centers on the GEEX Talks 2025–26 theme, “Material Life Cycles: Sand, Glass, and Practice”, and introduces new features to explore even more parts of the glass community.

➜ Order your copy now! Visit https://geex.glass/product/geex-journal-volume-ii/

⏳ Along with articles on topics ranging from melting glass to the curatorial process, Vol. II features brilliant art by current glass students and an in-depth guide to graduate glass programs. (There’s more parts to list, but you really should see it for yourself.)

🙏 The GEEX team is incredibly grateful to the community who have made this volume so abundant and beautiful: the Season 6 speakers; the artists and researchers who contributed artwork and writing; and the many schools and partner organizations who shared details about their programs and their students’ work.

🌅 The GEEX Journal Vol. II is available for purchase in the GEEX Shop! Grab your copy today or sign up for a GEEX subscription to access exclusive digital content, discounts, and other perks. Keep an eye out—GEEX will be releasing featured material from Vol. II on the GEEX website over the next few months.

09/21/2026

“These are objects I've drawn connections between based on their histories, materiality, ancestral connections, or deeper connections to space and geology.” 🎥 Watch the full GEEX Shorts episode, “Object Stories with Andres Payan Estrada” on youtube.com/!

09/10/2026

“One of the reasons why this is my favorite space is the layering of generations within a q***r nightlife space that has such a deep history but is also serving newer audiences. There are still communities that are thriving and bringing people in proximity with each other.” 🎥 Watch the full GEEX Shorts episode, “Beer Bottles, Mirror Balls, and Q***r Nightlife” on youtube.com/!

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.

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30 Bridgman Avenue
Toronto, ON
M5R 1X3

Website

https://www.geex.glass/

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