GlassRoots Settles Into Its New 10,000-Square-Foot Home at 23 William Street in Teachers Village
Newark's nonprofit glass art center celebrated the grand opening of its new downtown home on Oct. 6 with a molten-glass ribbon cutting — a space twice the size of its longtime Bleeker Street studio, built for students to learn in the hot shop itself.
GlassRoots, Newark's nonprofit glass art center, is now open in its new home at 23 William Street in downtown Newark's Teachers Village, after a grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that culminated in a molten glass ribbon cut by Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, New Jersey Stage reported on Oct. 20 in a story read in full this cycle.
The new space is a 10,000-square-foot facility — about double the organization's longtime home — designed by Inglese Architecture and Engineering and built by Phelps Construction Group, according to the report. Executive Director Carol Losos narrated the organization's journey at the opening, from two torches at the Boys & Girls Club of Newark to the purpose-built facility, and Baraka worked with Studio Director Rob Panepinto to make an original glass-blown artwork on the spot from the ribbon fragments.
The move changes how the program teaches. Instructors previously traveled to partner schools to teach classroom-friendly forms of glass art; now students come into the studio and into the hot shop itself, experiencing glassblowing up close, The Montclair Girl reported in its tour of the new studio. GlassRoots lists its hours at 23 William Street as Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
GlassRoots has brought glassmaking to Newark youth for more than two decades, and its own site describes the William Street center as its first permanent home, with adult classes in session and student makers learning in the new space this fall.
