In the Beginning: GAAC and Our History

Toan Klein

Toan Klein and Laura Donefer will talk about the early days of our movement and personal and collective perspectives on where we came from.

The acknowledged beginning of the Contemporary Art Glass Movement was a symposium at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio in 1962, headed by Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino. From that event, attendees and disciples spread out to begin glass programs in the post-secondary education system. Canadians were swept up in this momentum. Personal studios evolved from the already existing manufacturing industry. Back then, there were no purveyors of small furnaces, glory holes and annealers nor crystal and colour systems offered. Machine shops took a while to recognize the potential of making North American hand tools. As such, with a few lampworking supplier exceptions, most were imported from the European hand-blowing industry. Technical challenges were plentiful but so was the will for the thrill of working hot. Additionally, very few knew how to actually control the liquid material. Pâte de verre came along later. So again, eyes went to Europe for guidance. Eventually, the movement in the US took root and programs in Canada sprung up. We reached critical mass years ago. The stories of early struggles to launch and the number of early makers are getting smaller in time’s rearview mirror. Come and join Laura and Toan as they take you through some of our collective history. Toan was there at the very beginning. Laura ushered the Canadian Art Glass Movement onto the international stage in 1989 when she headed up a combined GAS/GAAC conference hosted at Harbourfront in Toronto. That’s when her signature Glass Fashion Show debuted.

Artist Bio: I have been involved with the Contemporary Art Glass Movement since 1970. In 1972, I immigrated from the US and apprenticed with Venetian maestro Mario Cimarosto while working at Lorraine Glass in downtown Montréal. In 1975 I set up the first hot glass artist’s studio in that city. Since then, I have stayed active in the field, including cofounding GAAC (ca.1983) and its 2nd President. In 1978, I moved to Toronto.
For better or worse, making and selling glass has been my main income throughout the years. I’ve had one-man shows, group exhibitions, commissions, displayed internationally, sold at gift shops and fairs, and eventually evolved to selling most of my work at retail in Toronto. Pieces are in approximately 20 “permanent” collections including the Royal Ontario Museum, Corning Museum, Canadian Museum of History, Musée des Beaux Arts, Montréal, Cooper-Hewitt Museum (Smithsonian Institute), New York City and Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto.