Sonoran Art Foundation Inc

Through publicly-funded classes, workshops, visiting artist lectures and events, we engage and educate our community on how to both make and appreciate glass art.

Sonoran Glass School is a 501(c)(3), non-profit educational organization that exists because of public and private donations and support. We're dedicated to fostering glass as an exciting and thriving visual arts medium in Tucson. All donations and sales from our gallery support SGS's mission of providing glass art education to the Southwest and beyond.

 

HISTORY

 

Founded in 2001, SGS began as the dream of a small group of local glass artists in possession of a dilapidated tire changing station in the outskirts of downtown Tucson. Over the past 14 years, we've grown into something truly special.

With public support we built four studios, each dedicated to a different glass art medium, including furnace glassblowing, lampworking, kiln-fusing, and coldworking. Today, we're a full service glass arts educational facility and the premier public access glass arts educational facility in the desert Southwest. Year-round, we provide educational opportunities through programs for public schools, workshops and lectures from visiting artists, and daytime and evening classes for beginner and intermediate glass artists. We assembled a gifted team of faculty instructors to teach our classes in our four studios: the Hot Shop, Flame Shop, Warm Shop, and Cold Shop.

PROGRAMS

We are devoted to expanding Tucson's exposure to up-and-coming, established, and world-renowned glass artists through visiting artist lectures, demonstrations, and intensive workshops. We keep our class sizes small, in order to provide maximum 1-1 attention while providing exciting Make Your Own Glass Art experiences for beginners, aficionados, and kids aged 5 and up. We aim to increase our students' knowledge of glass as an arts medium, as well as to boost their confidence, creativity, and artistic capabilities. In partnership with the University of Arizona and Pima Community College, we offer college credit through a semester-long education in the art of glassblowing (ART 265 and ART 266). We also host a wide variety of elementary through high school glass art programs each year for disadvantaged and at-risk youth. These glass art classes are free-of-charge from schools with little to no budget for Arts Education--90% of the schools we see each semester.