LA PLUME — Keystone College’s on-campus glass studio, featuring all the equipment and technology needed to produce fine works in the artistic medium of glass, is about to take to the road.
Literally.
Thanks to a state program and a partnership with the historic Dorflinger Glass Museum in White Mills, Keystone is constructing a mobile glass studio for use at local schools, festivals, conferences, and concerts.
Production of the glass studio began the week of June 15 as Keystone College students and glass experts from as far away as Colombia, South America, gathered on campus to construct the studio.
The mobile studio, complete with its own glass furnace and all the component parts of a working glass studio, will be driven to local schools beginning this fall to provide high school students with a unique opportunity to experience glass making. In addition to the artistic and aesthetic aspect of the process, students will learn some of the chemistry and physics principles behind the heating and molding of raw materials used to make glass objects.
Funding for the project originated from Dorflinger, which gave Keystone $40,000 it received through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Earned Income Tax Credit program. Keystone was also accepted by DCED as a partner in the program.
The mobile glass studio will be operated by Keystone faculty member James Harmon, an internationally recognized glass-making artist and combustion engineering expert.
So far, 10 school districts agreed to participate in the mobile glass program: Wayne Highlands, Western Wayne, Wallenpaupack, Scranton, Lackawanna Trail, Blue Ridge, Carbondale, Forest City, Montrose and Mountain View.
Plans call for the studio to be taken to schools districts for two-day hot-glass learning events.
