Advanced Glass Art students traveled to Washington on a four day educational trip last month.

From Apr. 19 to 22, the 11 glass art students went to Washington along with Glass Art teacher Monique Boyd and  Art Department assistant Mike Da Ponte.

The main intention of the trip was to create collaboration between New Trier’s glass art students and other glass art students across the country.

The group visited Tacoma and Seattle, cities known for the vast amount of glass in the area. In Boyd’s words, “Seattle is a Mecca of glass.”

Experiencing the integration of glass art into the cities’ cultures provided students with new insight. “Something that surprised me was there were a lot of glass shops all over Seattle,” said senior Katie Barbin.

One of the main purposes of the trip was the opportunity for the students to work with Wilson High School. “Initially, my idea for the trip was to collaborate with another high school because there aren’t many schools in the whole country that teach [glass art]. So for our students to have a connection with students in another part of the country, there’s all sorts of advantages,” said Boyd.

Boyd’s excitement to meet others taking glass art was reciprocated by the students.

Senior Milena Srivastava said, “I decided to go on the trip because I thought it would be a cool experience to connect with people who make glass and kids my age that do glass art and to learn more about it.”

While working with these students was an integral part  of the trip, the itinerary was filled with other opportunities for students to learn more about glass.

“We went to a high school and a junior high school that taught glass and saw their facilities and then we went to the Tacoma Glass Art Museum. They have a hot shop with demos so we got to go behind the scenes and see that. Then we went to Pratt Center for the Arts, a private art facility center with a hot shop, so we actually saw a demo and then the students got to work for a whole afternoon and then we went to see Chihuly,” said Boyd.

All of these experiences expanded student’s knowledge beyond what they had previously learned in the classroom.

“My favorite part of the trip was going to museums and seeing things made out of glass that I would have never saw anywhere else. I learned a lot more about glass that I never knew,” said Barbin.

This is the second year students have visited Seattle.

Last year the students went to Corning, New York. “It was a little different in Corning, they have probably the largest museum in the world of glass historically and contemporary. They have a facility there that you can make glass, so we took workshops all weekend,” said Boyd.

Although glass art is a popular class, the trip is only open to glass art two and three students, a smaller group.

“Our advanced classes are one and a half to two sections of the day and the rest of the classes are beginning classes,” Boyd said.

Many of the advanced students had been preparing for this trip all year by selling their work to help pay for the trip.

“We did fundraisers, so students made work all year long and we sold it so that subsidized part and the rest was from the parents,” said Boyd.

This effort paid off as students enjoyed the trip. “I would definitely recommend this trip to people next year. Getting to be in Seattle was really fun and getting to do glass art and seeing amazing artwork was really cool,” said Srivastava.

Boyd had a hard time coming up with a favorite moment from this trip, “Getting to know students in that kind of setting, I also really enjoyed working with the students in the hot shop and the museums. I really can’t pick a favorite.”