How do I start?

Chihuly has made famous the very seductive nature of buying contemporary studio glass.  Learning how to buy studio glass art can start in many ways.  Start with contacting your Museums, and especially Craft Centers if you have one in your city, and go see there collections.  Contact your art galleries and find out which one represents glass artists!  Go online the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass and look for regional glass groups that collect, travel, tour and see art.  Travel with Glass Collectors from groups that sponsor travel like Pilchuck, Penland, Urban Glass or Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass. 

Where Should I go to see examples of contemporary studio glass and learn more?

• National Liberty Museum located at 321 Chestnut Street in historic Philadelphia is designed to promote tolerance and understanding by celebrating America's heritage of freedom using contemporary glass in every exhibit to serve as a metaphor for the fragile nature of liberty.
• The Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass keeps a list of galleries nationwide with pictures of art and contemporary glass for you to review. Some cities are stronger in glass than others, like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, Oregon, Cleveland, Columbus to mention  a few.
• If you are in Chicago in the fall, Miami in the winter, or New York City in the late spring, you can attend SOFA (Sculpture Objects and Functional Art) exhibitions in these cities.  A large number of glass galleries show some the best known and emerging artists at these exhibitions. 
• GlassWeekend at Wheaton Village, Millville NJ, in the summer of odd-number years - sponsored by AACG and Creative Glass Center of American.
• Pilchuck Glass School, outside of Seattle, is probably the best knokw glass school and Seattle is a center of the "universe" though the school is not open year round.  The annual Pilchuck Auction occurs every fall, and a 3-day weekend for out of towners  is planned around this event.  Participants in this weekend visit the school, glass artist studios, and attend a fabulous auction with cutting edge artists.,
• Visit the ebay website and use the words "contemporary glass or studio glass".  Spend some time looking at the art, the artists and ask questions. 

What Books will help me learn more about Contemporary Studio Glass?

This is a short list to get you started:

• 20th Century Glass by Mark Cousins, Chartwell Books
• The Art of Craft:  Contemporary Works from the Saxe Collection, by Timothy Burton, Young Museum, San Francisco 1999
• Artists Confronting the Inconceivable:  Award Winning Glass Sculptures.  Published Interfaith Institute, this is collection of glass sculptures which commemorate the glass obtained from the National Liberty Museum
• Australian Studio Glass: The Movement, Its Makers and Their Art, by Noris Ioann, 1996
• Clearly Glass: Pilchuck's Glass Legacy tby Llody Herman
• Contemporary Glass by Susanne K. Frantz, Henry N Abrams, New Orka, 1989 (includes an extensive bibliography)
• Contemporary International Glas, by Jennifer Hawkins, Opie Harry N Abrams
• Dictionary of Glass Materials and Techniques by Charles Bray, A&C Black Londo
• Glass, by William S Ellis, Avon Books, New York 1998
• Glass Art, by Peter Layton, University of Washington Press, Seattle WA
• Glassblowing: A Search for Form, by Harvey K. Littleton, Van Nostrand Reinhold
• Glass Today: American Studio GLass from Cleveland Collections, by Cleveland Musuem of Art 1997
• Glass Today by American Studio Artists by Jonathan L Fairbanks, MFA Boston 1997
• Venezia Aperto Vetro, International New Glas By Attilia Dorigato and Dan Klein Venice Italy 1996
• Sculpture, Glass and American Museums by Martha Drexler Lynn 2005
• Looking at Glass, A Guide to Terms, Styles and Techniques, by Catherine Hess, Paul Getty Museum, 2005

My Recommendations:

If you are a beginning collector, my belief is that you should look and look and look at more glass.  Wherever you may be in your travels or a home, the more you are able to select for your own collection the more you can select and watch your collection grow.  Sometimes it helps to get into the glass groove by trying your hand at it yourself.  There are several schools in the US with courses for beginners.  For example, Urban Glass in Brooklyn offer workshops as short as a single weekend in blowing, slumping, casting and paperweight making. 

Finally, locate your nearest collector's group and join up even if you cannot attend. It keeps you up-to-date on current glass related events in you area, and best of all, opportunity to meet other new and experienced collectors and tour others collector's homes, galleries and artists studios.  The field of contemporary glass provides a friendly camaderie among collectors, artists and dealers.