TRANSPARENT THRESHOLDS SYMPOSIUM
November 6 & 7, 2026
WheatonArts
Millville, NJ

WheatonArts Fall Symposium is led by Jocelyne Prince and Anna Riley in conjunction
with the Museum of American Glass special exhibitions Portals and Passages and Ghost Optics.

How can the history of window and flat glass technology reshape contemporary practice with glass across various fields? How can revisiting this history help reframe dominant narratives about the built and technological environment? This symposium examines the evolution of flat glass manufacturing with the goal of broadening our understanding of material, labor, and craft in a mechanized age. Central to the symposium will be the “think-and-do” sessions combining discussion and hands-on testing of these processes. Lubbers draw, Fourcault draw, rolled, cast, and cylinder production methods will be applied to studio-scale experimentation.

Transparent Thresholds aims to bring together artists, scholars, architects and engineers to explore the embodied intelligence of industrial glassmaking and reclaim this history as a source of creative and educational innovation. Presenters include researchers and practitioners from glass, archeology, and material science. By bringing historical and industrial knowledge into the studio, this collaborative event seeks to expand the vocabulary of glassmaking, foster interdisciplinary discussion, and generate new forms of creative and technical engagement.