Glass Courses
GLASS, BODY, SPACE AND TIME
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course is an experimental hands-on studio that introduces hot glass forming and kiln casting techniques in order to explore the body in space, time, and material. While the body will be a tool for exploring traditional and non traditional glass techniques, it is also the subject of our investigations.
Glass as a material commands choreography from the maker. Each movement we make becomes embedded in the material - a memory of sorts. Learning the material will also be an exercise in learning the body. Through in-class exercises and assignments students will have the opportunity to explore what it means to leave a trace, an imprint, residue, or a gesture captured in glass. How do our movements or actions become visible material?
This course focuses on externalizing each student's embodied experience individually and collectively as a class. Students will be strongly encouraged to experiment and push aside preconceptions of the type of art that can be made from glass. Demonstrations, lectures, discussions, individual/group critiques and hands-on work in the hot shop and kiln room will be the central learning methodologies.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00
Elective
INTERDISCIPLINARY HOT CASTING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This hands-on experimental course will give students the opportunity to investigate a wide range of hot casting methods. The class will focus on exploring and innovating with a variety of mold materials: sand, CO2, refractory, wood, metal, organic and found molds. Hot glass ladle casting will be our primary working technique. Demonstrations will not linger on the technical but rather, will function as a catalyst for students to engage in an aesthetic and/or conceptual dialogue with technique and material. Both the studio process and the information presented in this class will encourage collaborative as well as individual work. This class will permit a deep investigation into the process of casting and into the innate properties of glass.
Elective
GLASS IA STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This beginning glass major studio combines studio practice, critical discourse and contemporary issues through assignments, reports, and scheduled critiques. The course develops awareness of three-dimensional issues concerning material, concept, process and light to establish criteria for artistic striving. Students are required to develop the sketchbook as an essential creative tool.
Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GLASS IIA STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Glass IIA is an intermediate studio course in which students continue their ongoing investigation of material processes. Emphasis is on developing personal concepts and imagery and visual research skills through investigations of regularly assigned topics. Students develop a substantial idea sketchbook, participate in scheduled class activities, and group critique.
Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Junior Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GLASS IIIA STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Glass IIIA is an advanced major studio that requires intermediate glass working skills and familiarity with the material. This course stresses the continuing development of personal imagery, viewpoint, visual source research and the refinement of material processes in terms of individual artistic requirements. As preparation leading to the senior thesis project, independent studio work and individual consultation are emphasized. During this semester, each student is expected to seek out at least one professional artist outside the Glass Department and develop an artistic association with this advisor for the duration of the senior year.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
HOT GLASS CO-LAB
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course is a studio survey of glass as a three-dimensional medium. The course explores traditional and non-traditional techniques of glassblowing casting, and coldworking. The greater part of the class is spent in the studio working directly with glass.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00
Elective
BEGINNING GLASSWORKING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This beginning course introduces basic glassblowing and molten glassworking processes. It includes offhand" glassblowing, "solidworking" and glassblowing with molds. Students apply new technical skills to self-generated projects. Students maintain detailed technical notes and a project sketchbook.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $400.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GLASS IIA DEGREE PROGRAM WORKSHOP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
All Glass junior, senior, and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.
Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).
Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Junior Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GRADUATE GLASS I STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This first semester of graduate study emphasizes varied experimentation, extensive visual source research, maximum productivity and conceptual growth. Students are expected to develop professional associations with artists outside the glass department in addition to the department's faculty and its scheduled roster of Visiting Artists and critics.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $500.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Glass Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Glass
GLASS IIIA DEGREE PROGRAM WORKSHOP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
All Glass junior, senior, and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.
Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).
Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GLASS COLDWORKING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This beginning course will provide comprehensive technical instruction on basic glass coldworking" processes including glass polishing, sandblasting, etching, cutting, engraving, gluing, laminating, glass drilling. Students will apply new technical skills to self-generated projects. Students must maintain detailed technical notes and a project sketchbook.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Glass Students.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass
GRADUATE GLASS III STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
The student is expected to begin refining a personal viewpoint that incorporates glass in preparation for the graduate degree project. Studio work continues to include consultation and group critique with department faculty, its visiting artists, critics, and the student's own outside advisors.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $500.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Glass Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Glass
GRAD GLASS I DEGREE PROGRAM WORKSHOP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
All Glass junior, senior and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.
First-year graduate students register for GLASS-435G (Fall) and GLASS-436G (Spring).
Second-year graduate students register for GLASS-437G (Fall) and GLASS-438G (Spring).
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Glass Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Glass
GRAD GLASS III DEGREE PROGRAM WORKSHOP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
All Glass junior, senior and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.
First-year graduate students register for GLASS-435G (Fall) and GLASS-436G (Spring).
Second-year graduate students register for GLASS-437G (Fall) and GLASS-438G (Spring).
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Glass Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Glass
GRAD CRITICAL ISSUES SEMINAR
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This graduate seminar provides an intensive study of current critical issues in contemporary art. Each Fall a visiting curator or critic is invited to lead the course. While the themes covered each semester will vary with the visiting instructor, the structure of the course will remain the same. The class is divided into two segments: a seminar and a studio. Each week the seminar lasts for three hours followed by studio visits with each student. This course helps students carry the dialogue of contemporary art issues into the studio more effectively.
Please contact the department for permission to register. Preference is given to Graduate Glass Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Glass
ALCHEMY RESEARCH STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This is a semester long research study group focused on Alchemy and Glass. As a discipline and a material, Glass is inherently connected to Alchemy. Their combined histories have shaped our understanding of the relationship between material and meaning, the role of process in art and science and, ultimately, the ways in which making shapes knowledge. One of the goals of this research group is to explore the conceptual and material potential of Alchemy through Glass. Our research will combine the examination of practical, theoretical and historical texts along with hands-on experiments in Glass Department Shops. The group will meet weekly for discussions, research presentations, lectures and working/lab sessions. As the semester progresses the direction of our research will be determined by the materials brought forth by the group.
Offered as GLASS-7016, GRAD-7016 and IDISC-7016.
Elective
HISTORY OF GLASS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Since its chance discovery millennia ago, glass has developed into an integral and ubiquitous part of daily life. Through lectures, student presentations and field trips to the RISD museum and/or local glass studios, this course is designed to introduce students to the various ways this quixotic material has been made, used, and thought about across time. This survey course employs a chronological format and methodologies of art history, history of science, and material culture to investigate the range of glass objects, formulae, and production methods in use since glass' earliest manufacture through the mid-twentieth century. We will also examine the broader social and cultural contexts in which glass was made and explore the following themes as they relate to the history of glass: mimesis, clarity, innovation, reflection, light, and science.
Major Requirement | BFA Glass