Glass artists feel crunch of COVID-19 shutdown. New fundraising campaign aims to help
Hilltop Artists, a local nonprofit serving Tacoma’s youth started by glass artist Dale Chihuly, recently announced its participation in a fundraiser known as Give To Glass, which is focused on supporting glass-art organizations in need.
On the fundraising website, the national campaign says it is focused on being “a joint fundraising effort designed to keep any one of the studios from closing” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Groups getting support range from Chicago to San Francisco to Tacoma.
Hilltop Artists, like many others, has been closed since March and has had no in-person classes since then. That means no working in the studio on glass-blowing projects. Started in 1994, the organization serves over 650 students a year.
The organization has been engaging with youth through free remote programming and hopes to continue to do so. Programs have included weekly lessons ranging from Glassy Jeopardy to exploring the History of Glass.
Executive director Kimberly Keith told The News Tribune the program is stable for now but always appreciates support.
“The group started this campaign Give To Glass and hopefully we can generate support for all of our organizations through this campaign,” Keith said. “It’s sort of like an endowment that we’re building. We’ve just started the campaign.”
Keith said there is one element that is key to success.
“What a lot of this depends on is getting back into our studios,” Keith said. “That’s where we make the items that we sell for our earned income stream.”
The Give To Glass campaign plans to remain open indefinitely and provide support to the long-term sustainability of Hilltop Artists.
Stability is key to providing support to youth like Ellye Sevier, a member of the program. Sevier started in the after-school program at 12 and now at 18 credits Hilltop Artists with helping her grow as a person.
“It’s given me a skill that has taught me a lot of things, like working together in a team, being flexible,” Sevier said. “It has brought me a medium of art that I really just fell in love with that I potentially hope to pursue.”
A veteran of the program, Douglas Burgess, has done just that. Burgess started with the program in 2009 in middle school and is now currently working in Tacoma on glass art.
“I pretty much wouldn’t be doing anything that I’m doing right now if it wasn’t for them,” Burgess said. “ I work at a few different glass shops right now and for a couple different glass artists as well.”
One of those is the Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio, which Burgess said he wouldn’t have been able to do without Hilltop Artists which he hopes will continue to support.
“Their support could possibly support someone’s future in this glass community that’s really thriving,” Burgess said. “Their contributions could produce multiple careers that could really take off especially in lower income communities.”
Those who want to support the work of Hilltop Artists through the Give To Glass campaign can visit the website for more info. There is no end goal as all funds raised will be split equally among the individual programs to assist in operating.
“Their contribution would really help the program right now expand in this time of really a lot of uncertainty,” Sevier said. “Allowing the program to do so would give a lot of children a lot of stability and some hope and some creative outlets in this time of isolation.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
