About the Bloomington
Creative Glass Center
The Bloomington Creative Glass Center is a nonprofit organization committed to bringing affordable, high quality education about glass to people in southern Indiana. It is open to any and all who have an interest in hot glass, regardless of age or experience.
2010
The first Great Glass Pumpkin Patch was held on the courthouse lawn in downtown Bloomington, Indiana. Our founder, Abby Gitlitz, created all of the pumpkins for the initial pumpkin patch!
2011
The Bloomington Creative Glass Center was officially founded by Abby Gitlitz. Over the next few years, BCGC became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational center. BCGC began offering glassblowing classes out of GRT Glass Design in Indianapolis. With the success of the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, we also began offering an apprenticeship program. This program aimed to help teach people about glassblowing in exchange for creating the pumpkins sold at the patch. Our apprenticeship program is still going strong today!
2016
BCGC offered our first-ever fusing event - the EGGstravaganza! Fun fact: the EGGstravaganza received it's name as it occurred around Easter and the bases for the suncatchers were actually egg shaped! We still have a variation of this fusing fest every spring, but now it is simply known as the Spring Fusing Fest.
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2018
BCGC found a permanent home in Bloomington for both our glassblowing and fused glass programs! In addition to a classroom and building a hot shop, our new home also included a full glass gallery and gift shop open to the public. It was only appropriate that our opening day coincided with the 9th annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch!
Adding the BCGC logo to the sign of the building!
Decorating the inside of BCGC!
The amazing volunteer crew from Opening Day/Great Glass Pumpkin Patch 2019
Adding the BCGC logo to the sign of the building!
2019
BCGC began to offer limited glassblowing and glass fusing classes to the public, as well as a semester-long kiln working class to Ivy Tech students AND our first-ever summer camp for elementary and middle school students! Twenty four campers attended that first week-long summer camp, and the program has grown every year since.
2020
The pandemic and its subsequent lockdown required BCGC to do what we do best: get creative! We wanted to continue to connect Hoosiers with glass arts, but were unable to host our usual classes or events, and definitely couldn't blow glass. To achieve this, we began offering weekly art projects and take-home kits that were assembled at home, and then returned to BCGC to be fused. Many of these kits are still offered today!
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Once we were able to safely have patrons in the glass center again, we adjusted our safety procedures. We also expanded our class offerings to include beginning and intermediate stained glass.
2022
BCGC continued to expand glass education offerings by teaching about glass around the world! Venice Reimagined: A Day of Renaissance Glassblowing, Music and More celebrated the life of Marietta Barovier, the first woman ever granted permission to open her own glass blowing studio in Murano, Italy. Venice Reimagined showcased glassblowing demonstrations featuring venetian techniques as well as period music, rapier sword fighting, and much more! Its success encouraged us to continue bringing glass education from around the world to southern Indiana through a yearly event. Every spring, we focus on a new time, place or culture!
Present day
BCGC continues to constantly evolve - whether it's adding new classes, equipment, building community or finding new ways to work with glass. We're committed to bringing a wide variety of high quality and affordable glass education and art to southern Indiana!
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BCGC is not just a center that offers classes, it's a community that offers connection through creativity. Whether it's through classes, fusing fests, the apprenticeship program, or volunteering, we hope to provide a place where people can find what they are looking for.
