Andrew Page talks about the economic challenges New York Experimental Glass Workshop/UrbanGlass has faced during its history. Oral history interview with Andrew Page, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:31.

Andrew Page: Economics have always been something that factored into glass. It does use a tremendous amount of energy. It is something that is expensive to maintain, and the history of the New York Experimental Glass Workshop in particular was a struggle against the economic challenges of blowing glass. And for our 40th anniversary of UrbanGlass we looked back at the ten, you know, the ten year periods in the history of New York Experimental which became UrbanGlass. And a lot of the themes were—was the struggle to survive. New York City both had rising rents, which forced relocation two times. It forced a lot of financial pressure on the organization and on the people who are running it. So I think there was a scrappiness and a need to innovate, a need to think creatively not only about making art but about surviving that also characterized some of the decades of UrbanGlass since 1979. And maybe that would be one difference is just the kind of resourcefulness that’s required, the imagination to do fundraisers in association with Christie’s Auction House or to do residencies, or to offer classes in the way that they did. There were a lot of things about what we now consider sort of standard for open access studios that was pioneered by the New York Experimental Glass Workshop that have now become the mainstay, such as the fundraising auction or the outreach in terms of education and studio rentals. But it has been a struggle for the organization just because of the costs involved in making glass.