(ethereal music) - So the thing that's always attracted me about the medium of glass is when it's hot, when it's being worked, when it's moving, when the artist is literally dancing with it.

What keeps me coming back to it and has kept me enthralled for 30 years now is the molten glass and working with it up close.

I love the history of glassmaking here; in 1608, in Jamestown, they were blowing glass.

It was the first industry, you know, here in the US, and first export back to England was handblown glass.

Here we are, you know, a couple of hundred years later still doing it.

- There's a big movement in the museum world to have immersive spaces, and we do have immersive space here.

You're gonna see actual objects being created.

You're gonna feel the heat.

You're going to hear the noise of the furnace.

And that is so exciting.

People come here and they have kind of a physical experience.

- This theater that we've built, this amphitheater, is a full-on theater with lighting and sound and catwalk, which enables us to present glassmaking to the audience in better ways, more enhanced ways: up-close cameras, dramatic lighting, to really kind of transport them, you know, to another place with this magical material.

And a couple of board members at the time, it was about 2009, said we need a glass studio.

The original space was a renovated bank, and it had a quirkiness to it, which I love.

It had a triangular-shaped working space, which is a little unusual, but it was neat.

The initial studio was kind of an experiment: let's see what happens, let's build it.

And within five years we were already talking expansion.

And here we are, not 15 years in, and the expansion is complete.

Education is our entire mission, and we're educating the public, we're educating college students, we're educating, you know, both visitors and students about glassmaking processes, about how some of the works of our collection were created.

And this is through demonstrations as well as through classes.

We have partnerships with Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Governor's School for the Arts.

We also work with Teens with a Purpose and the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Virginia, Virginia Wesleyan University as well.

We interviewed several architectural firms up and down the East Coast from all the big cities, but it was a local firm, WPA, that really hit it out of the park.

And they were also very receptive to our suggestions.

And so, you know, to their credit, I think it really worked out.

(contemplative music) - What we leaned into was the idea that we wanted a more industrial space.

So there are the polished concrete floors, the steel, really a place where things are being made.

And also, it's not fragile or delicate.

It's really robust and strong.

- Having this facility in Hampton Roads is very special.

The Chrysler Museum is definitely a gem in this region.

For a city of this size to have a museum of this caliber, it's really special.

And then tying it to this glass studio just makes it that much more.

I hope, the legacy of this place to always be a place of learning, but also pushing the edge of what can be done with the material, and being experimental, using glass in new ways to create gorgeous memories in people's minds.

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