The tenth and final Glass Madison exhibition, Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW, opens Wednesday, October 16th, at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery, with a reception from 4-7pm.

Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW
October 16 — March 9, 2025

Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 16, 4-7pm

Location: Ruth Davis Design Gallery, Nancy Nicholas Hall, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI

The power of shaping glass has played a critical role in the history of UW–Madison. Home to the first academic glass program in the nation, UW-Madison is known for moving glassmaking into the hands of American artists in the early 1960s. Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW articulates the much longer history within which this development took place, where glass and its making have always been deeply entangled in the research and teaching enterprise of UW.

Glass has enabled us to see near, far, into, and beyond. This exhibition brings together glass from nine research and teaching collections across campus, offering different perspectives on: the definition of glass itself; the range of how the material can be shaped; and the methods of seeing and thinking made possible with this material.

Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW foregrounds the material intelligence of this unique state of matter. This exhibition celebrates the embodied skills of glassmakers who make possible the imaginations of researchers across the arts and sciences, playing an instrumental role in UW’s history of innovation.

Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW is part of Material Intelligence, on view in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery at the Center for Design and Material Culture from October 16, 2024 – March 9, 2025. Gallery hours are open Wednesday-Sunday.

Curated by Helen Lee and Kagen Dunn, with deep gratitude for our campus partners: Tracy Drier and Lauren Aria of the Department of Chemistry Glass Shop, James Lattis of Washburn Observatory, Marsha Wolf of the Department of Astronomy, Liz Leith of University of Wisconsin–Madison Anthropology Collection, Kari Backes and Casey Whyte of Babcock Hall Dairy Plant, Laura Monahan of University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum, Carrie Eaton University of Wisconsin Geology Museum, Jim Reardon and Steve Narf of the Department of Physics Lecture Demonstrations, Deena Patterson of the Walnut Street Greenhouses, Philip Barak of the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, and Billy Winner of the UW Physical Plant.

Spheres of Influence is supported by the Center for Design and Material Culture, the Anonymous Foundation, the Chipstone Foundation, Marilynn R. Baxter Fund, the University of Wisconsin – Madison Division of the Arts Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts, University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Education Impact 2030 Helen Burish Fund, and the University of Wisconsin – Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Glassblowing Techniques Worldwide: Workshop with Klaus Paris
Friday, November 1 @ 12:30pm

Location: Chemistry Glass Shop, Room B201, 1101 University Ave, Madison, WI

Klaus Paris, Master Craftsman in Scientific Glassblowing and State Certified Engineering Glass Technologist, will be sharing glassblowing techniques in a public workshop at the Chemistry Department’s Glass Shop. Paris will share glassblowing techniques he demonstrated and learned through his participation in the American Scientific Glassblower Society and compare Scientific Glassblowing training programs in Europe, Australia and the United States. Founded in 1952, the American Scientific Glassblowers Society (ASGS) began as a professional organization with the objective to further the education of its membership concerning all aspects of scientific glassblowing.

Space is limited for this workshop, please register.

Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW Curator’s Gallery Tour
Friday, November 1 @ 3–4pm

Location: Ruth Davis Design Gallery, Nancy Nicholas Hall, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI

Join UW Glass Lab Associate Professor Helen Lee on November 1 at 3pm for a guided curator’s tour of Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW. Lee will walk viewers through this holistic history of glass at UW-Madison. This exhibition includes over forty historical works of glass from across nine research and teaching collections at UW, broken into four themes: (1) “Natural” Glass, (2) Imaging and Optics, (3) Glazing, and (4) Instruments and Apparatus. Participants will leave with a greater appreciation of a broad range of entry points into the history of glass at UW-Madison.

Space is limited, please register.

Why do we need Scientific Glassblowing? Visiting Artist Lecture by Klaus Paris
Friday, November 1 @ 4–5pm

Location: Nancy Nicholas Hall, 5th Floor, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI

Klaus Paris is a second generation scientific glassblower, born and trained in Germany. Paris will speak about the German glass training programs, the similarities and differences in being a scientific glassblower in different countries and cultures, what industries are in the need of scientific glassblowers. Paris will share some insights in his projects throughout his over 40 years of glassblowing, from sealing a gold wire thin as a hair into glass, over producing tubing 30 feet long, developing new apparatus for the nuclear and hydrogen research or training robots for glassblowing. His lecture, as the Instructional Chair of the Scientific Glass Technology program at Salem Community College (SCC) in New Jersey, will end with an overview of the art and scientific glass program at the SCC.

Space is limited, please register.

Spheres of Influence: Glass Across UW