Paul Stankard discusses inviting Paul Hollister and Gary Beecham to his Penland flameworking workshop. Oral History Interview with Paul Stankard by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, April 28, 2016, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:37.

Paul Stankard: Hollister was a class act. I was invited to give a workshop at Penland. And it was paperweights. And it was very, very—there was a lot of interest in my work. I guess a lot. And Paul was this guru for classic paperweights. So when they announced that I was coming down to give a workshop, first workshop on flameworking—they called it lampworking at the time—the first workshop on lampworked paperweights, the response to that workshop was unbelievable. And they were overwhelmed by the interest—and they asked me how many people could I accommodate. I said, ‘I don’t care; the more the merrier.’ And so they said, ‘Well, we have like 37 people want to come.” I said, ‘Well, we’ll turn it into, like, a seminar.’ I invited Paul Hollister to be there and give lectures on paperweights and antique French, and just experience the whole workshop, which he did. And I invited—and then Gary Beecham, who was highly respected for his lecture on European glass. I don’t know if it’s ancient glass; I think it was ancient glass. So I invited Gary to give a lecture. And then I set up—I turned it into a seminar. I turned it into an academic experience. I just felt so—I wanted very much to just learn, just to grow into artistic maturity.