Image courtesy of Jane Bruce.

Jane Bruce

Artist and educator Jane Bruce (1947– ) received an MA in 1973 from the Royal College of Art, London, before relocating to the United States in 1979 to study at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In 1981, she began teaching glass at Ohio University in Athens and, in 1985, started a long relationship with UrbanGlass (formerly New York Experimental Glass Workshop) in New York City. Throughout her career as maker and teacher, Jane traveled extensively. She has received several fellowships and has taught internationally, including at the Canberra School of Art (later the Australian National University School of Art and Design), Australia (1994–2004). She was artistic director of North Lands Creative Glass in Lybster, Scotland (2002–7) and director of education at UrbanGlass (1991–94 and 2012–13), where she continues to teach.

Works

Boat Ride from Constructed Landscapes series, 2019. Kiln formed Bullseye glass, mild steel, photographic detail. H: 14.25 in, L: 24.5 in, W: 3.5 in. Image courtesy of Jane Bruce. Photo: MK Luff.

Painted Shelf Bowl, 1990. Image courtesy of Jane Bruce.

Plate Full of Jars, 1987. Image courtesy of Jane Bruce.

Media

Jane Bruce discusses the transition from NYEGW’s Mulberry Street location to Brooklyn.

01:13 Transcript

Jane Bruce discusses the transition from NYEGW’s Mulberry Street location to Brooklyn. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:13.

Jane Bruce: When we closed Mulberry Street we discovered that sixty artists had keys to Mulberry Street. Cause we all had keys. I mean, I would go in at six o’clock in the morning to blow glass because it was quiet. And that changed when we went to the Strand, as it was known. The Strand Theater. No more keys, you know. It became—it had to change, it had to become more institutionalized, I think, because—you know, we needed grants, we needed funding, so we had to—you know, we had to up our game I guess. We had to become—and it was, the move was—back then it cost almost two million to build the Strand in ‘91. You know. So we—and none of us really knew, I can’t even remember how we managed to raise the money, because none of us were fundraisers. I mean we were sending out grants. Tina was writing grants, but, you know, none of us were professional fundraisers or anything like that. So the fact that we actually moved it I think is pretty amazing.

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Jane Bruce discusses what led to her teaching NYU classes for NYEGW.

02:36 Transcript

Jane Bruce discusses what led to her teaching NYU classes for NYEGW. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 02:36.

Jane Bruce: In the late seventies, 1979, I was—actually ‘78—I was sort of bored with what I was doing in London. And I had been over to the States a number of times, and I had a very good friend who lived in New York and in ‘79 I came over and he told me about this glass studio. So I went down and it was on Great Jones Street, it wasn’t even on Mulberry Street at that time. And I went down and I had a look at it. And it was pretty funky. And it was really funky compared to the studio that we had built two years before in London, which was really state of the art. And—I then went off to the GAS [Glass Art Society] conference at Corning [The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York]. And I met a man called Fred Tschida who taught neon, and I was interested in doing some neon. And another friend of mine ran the program at Tyler [Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], Jon Clark. We’d been in graduate school together in London, and John introduced me to Fred. And Fred—I told him what I wanted to do with neon and Fred said, ‘Well come to Alfred [Alfred University, Alfred, New York].’ So instead of going to New York, I ended up in Alfred at the end of 1979, thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll go to New York for the weekend,’ not realizing, coming from England, that things can be rather far apart. And it was a good four to five hour car ride to New York City. Anyway, I stayed in Alfred for two years and then I needed a teaching job and I got a job in Ohio. So four years later I actually finally made it to New York. And by that time, the New York Experimental [New York Experimental Glass Workshop, now UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, New York] was on Mulberry Street and I had got a residency for six months. And when I got there Tina Yelle—it was 1985—and Tina asked me if I would teach the NYU class which James Harmon had been doing as well, and apparently they needed someone—so Tina said they needed someone with a master’s, and at the time I was actually the only person in the studio who actually had a master’s degree. So Jim Harmone [Harmon] and I started teaching. I sort of put the curriculum together and Jim did mostly the neon. And we’d do the crits together and then Jim eventually moved down to Philadelphia, so then I did the class on my own.

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Jane Bruce talks about studio glass collectors.

0:46 Transcript

Jane Bruce talks about studio glass collectors. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:46.

Jane Bruce: Yeah, I think during the eighties the prices did start going up. I still remember the first piece that ever hit six thousand dollars, which was actually a Mark Peiser piece, if I remember correctly. And there were collectors before then, and some very serious collectors. And what happened is in the eighties, towards the end of the eighties, the prices started going—and actually, unfortunately the early collectors actually got priced out of the field. And it was because the new collectors were much more wealthier. Some very wealthy collectors came in in the eighties. And the galleries—you know, the galleries pushed the prices up, of course, you know. Which is what they should do. It’s their business.

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Jane Bruce relates glassblowing to dancing with a partner.

0:33 Transcript

Jane Bruce relates glassblowing to dancing with a partner. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:32.

Jane Bruce: You know, it’s a dance, glass blowing, you’re dancing with the material. You know, it’s your partner. And I don’t think you get that; maybe when you’re throwing a pot, but—and the fact you can’t, it’s—it, with glass blowing, it’s on the end of a blowpipe. So, you’re dancing with a partner that’s your blowpipe with the glass on the end. So it’s just really, it’s just a magic—it’s just magic, you know.

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Jane Bruce talks about why she’s drawn to glass.

1:56 Transcript

Jane Bruce talks about why she’s drawn to glass. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:55.

Jane Bruce: Because it’s magic. It’s a very—you know, it is a unique state of—it’s a unique material, it’s actually classified as a unique state of matter. And there isn’t anything really like it, I don’t think. It’s like trying to make something from honey when you’re working with molten glass, you know, and it’s just a magical material. And it’s very frustrating and it’s very difficult and that’s, I think, what keeps people involved with it, because it’s not an easy—no material is easy. I mean, you know, potter friends of mine would say, ‘Well, it’s the same with clay,’ and it probably is, but—I mean, I tried clay. I love clay; I mean, if I hadn’t been a glass artist I probably would have been a potter, because both of those materials are malleable, they’re pliable, it’s not like taking a piece of wood that’s solid. And I’ve done—you know, my undergraduate degree was actually in industrial design, so with specialization in space design, but we had to do metal, wood, ceramics, you know. And the first project in wood when I was an undergraduate was to make a toolbox, so we made a wooden tool box. I can cut a dovetail. But it’s not like something that is, you know—with clay and glass, particularly with glass blowing, you’re using your—your hands are more involved in a way, you know, you—it’s through your hands much more than anything else.

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Jane Bruce talks about an important glass conference in London in the 1970s.

1:36 Transcript

Jane Bruce talks about an important glass conference in London in the 1970s. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:35.

Jane Bruce: One of the most important things that happened, I think, was—1976, ‘75, ‘76, there was a big conference in London; well, it wasn’t big. There was a conference in London, and it was the first sort of glass conference. It was called Hot Glass. And it was about a hundred and ninety people. And as Harvey Littleton said, if you—if someone dropped a bomb on the Royal College of Art during that conference you would actually wipe out the future of studio glass. And it was only a hundred and ninety people. So—and they were—at that conference it was Berto Valine, Klaus Moje, Jamie Carpenter, Gianni Toso, the Libenskýs—it was an amazing event. But even then it was—you know, it was the Libenskýs from Czechoslovakia, Klaus from Germany, Dale and Jamie from the States, Jan Rijkman from Sweden. So right from the start, it was pretty international, you know. And one of biggest—one of Harvey’s biggest influences was Erwin Eisch, when he met Erwin Eisch, who was a German—who is still alive, a German artist whose family actually were generations of glassmakers. So I think that’s different from anywhere else, you know. I tell my students, ‘If you get good at something in glass, you can go anywhere in the world,’ you know.

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Jane Bruce speaks about NYEGW at Mulberry Street and selling advertising for New Work.

01:20 Transcript

Jane Bruce speaks about NYEGW at Mulberry Street and selling advertising for New Work. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:19.

Jane Bruce: Mulberry Street was a lot of fun. It was a little bit more free-wheeling than it is these days. There was a lot of artists that treated it very much as their studio. Which still happens at UrbanGlass but not quite—we were a, sort of a smaller band, and we sort of took responsibility for different areas. And then after six months—no, actually during the six months, I was sort of—fairly broke. And Karen Chambers who was—worked at UrbanGlass and she did the visiting artist program and she did what became the Glass magazine, which at that time was called New Work. And Karen said to me, ‘Have you ever sold advertising?’ and I said, ‘No, but I’ll give it a go.’ So I sold advertising, and found out I was actually pretty good at it. And then I ended up running the education program, curating the gallery, and came on staff. And actually, basically, have been involved with New York Experimental/UrbanGlass from 1985 until now, on and off; except for when I went to Australia.

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Jane Bruce discusses teaching glass to Paul DeSomma at Ohio University.

02:38 Transcript

Jane Bruce discusses teaching glass to Paul DeSomma at Ohio University. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 02:38.

Jane Bruce: Paul DeSomma was a student of mine when I was at—when I left Alfred; when I left England, I went to Alfred for two years and then I went to Ohio for four years. When I was at Alfred, I met—one of the grad students at Alfred was a guy called George Johnson, who was Paul DeSomma’s brother-in-law at the time; they are not anymore. George is married to Paul’s sister. Anyway, when I went to Ohio one day out of the blue I had this phone call from Paul DeSomma saying, ‘I’m George’s brother-in-law. I want to learn glass and he said I should come and learn it with you.’ So I said, ‘Okay, fine.’ So a year later he did actually come down and he was at OU [Ohio University, Athens, Ohio] for probably two years. And they had a program—the university had a program that if you lived in Athens, you could take a class for 10 dollars for the semester. I don’t think they do it anymore. You didn’t get credit or anything, but you could take a class. If you were a resident in the town, you could take a class for $10. So I had a bunch of kids who were local, or like Paul, who—and I had some of the university students as well, but I had one, two, three, four, including Paul, who were just taking the $10 class and all they wanted was glass. They weren’t really enrolled in the university. And Paul was one of them, and Paul became my assistant. And then when I moved from Ohio to New York, Paul also moved to New York. And then he was my assistant in New York, at Mulberry Street, for about a year I think. And then Dale Chihuly came with his team—Billy Morris, Larry Jassey, I think it was Billy, Larry, Charlie Parriott, and Dale came, and they needed—I was on staff and sort of vaguely organizing it, and they said, ‘Well, we need a couple more assistants.’ And I said to Paul, I said, ‘You’re going to be one of their assistants,’ and he said, ‘Oh no, I can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Oh, yes, you are.’ Well, that was the end of my assistant because Billy loved him and they invited him to Seattle and I then had to find a new assistant. Which I did, and found a really great assistant, so—another great assistant. But that’s who Paul is, so.

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Jane Bruce discusses finding a new space for NYEGW.

02:43 Transcript

Jane Bruce discusses finding a new space for NYEGW. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 02:43.

Jane Bruce: Yeah we—what happened was in 1986, late ‘86, there was a—in the city there was a big property boom. And our landlord, CP, his son wanted to build up, because Mulberry Street was the only building in Little Italy that was only two floors. Everything else was taller, and he could build up. So he—the landlord said, you know, ‘You’ve got to move.’ So we started in ‘87, I guess. No, we started in about ‘86, looking for buildings. We found—and it was pretty difficult because everything was so expensive; I mean, not like now, but back then it was all relative. And Tina went and looked—Tina Yelle who was the director at the time—she went and looked at a place up in Harlem and decided that it was too far. We looked in a number of places. And then we looked in Brooklyn and in the meantime a group of us—Jim Harmon, me, Tina Aufiero, James Horton, Geoff Isles, Chris Cosma, we sort of formed a committee and we figured out how much space we needed. And we decided the minimum we needed was 11,000 square feet. So we started looking for 11,000 square feet plus. And Tina found this building in Brooklyn that belonged to the city. And it was actually an old bowling alley, we found a bowling ball when we went and looked at it [clears throat]. So we sort of didn’t have much choice because it was a reasonable building, rent-wise and everything, because it was a city building. And everything else we were looking at was way too expensive. And so we spent the next few years—because we didn’t actually move in until ‘91, I guess we spent the next few years raising money, doing some work, running out of money, raising money, doing work, running out of money. I mean there was—it was an old theater, and for instance there was the—I think it’s called the flies, where they would hang all the scenery when it wasn’t being used. And it was all metal strapping. It cost a quarter of a million to have that removed. Just that. And also doing cons—at that time, doing construction in the city was not like doing construction now. It was very different and it was a lot of payback.

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Jane Bruce expresses her opinion on Lino Tagliapietra’s teaching Venetian glass techniques to studio glass artists.

Playing1:14 Transcript
Jane Bruce

Jane Bruce discusses Lino Tagliapietra teaching Venetian glass techniques. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce by Barb Elam, March 22, 2016, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:14.

Jane Bruce: My personal opinion is that Lino was the best thing and the worst thing that could’ve happened to studio glass. He showed skill; what you can do when you get really, really, really skilled, but then there was a huge—and it’s not quite so bad now, but there was a huge shift in the students that were studying glass. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to be a Venetian glass blower. And a lot of other interesting techniques that actually come—I was trained as a Northern European glass blower—most of the glass blowers now in the States are trained as Venetian glass blowers. And it’s quite different techniques and it’s because the glass was very different. Northern European glass is usually a heavy lead crystal and Venetian glass is a soda lime glass, and it makes a big difference to what you can blow and how you blow it. So I think with Lino bringing back a level of skill and showing that level of skill, I think there’s less sort of experimental stuff in the hot shop.

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