Quick Facts

  • 9,254 total square feet
  • designed by Ratio Architects and built by 3D Construction
  • professional quality hot, warm, neon, and cold process studios
  • front atrium exhibition space with large viewing windows, allowing groups to watch artists working in the hot shop
  • large closed-circuit LED monitors in the viewing gallery of the hot shop
  • undergraduate classroom and studio space dedicated studio spaces for graduate students
  • studio manager's office and tool room
  • faculty offices and visiting artist office
  • geothermal heating and cooling

The Marilyn K. Glick Center for Glass is a premier glass facility, emphasizing simple, easy to maintain spaces that are not over-engineered and are ultimately flexible.

Careful consideration was given to key elements of the glass artist's process: ventilation, temperature, space to work, and the range of processes involved in the creation of glass art.

Situated on the southwest edge of campus, adjacent to Christy Woods and Ball State's Orchid Greenhouse, the facility opened its doors in 2011.

Generously funded by The Glick Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation established by Marilyn and Eugene Glick, the Glick Center was built to support and promote the practice of the contemporary glass arts at Ball State University and in the East Central Indiana Region.

The center's studio spaces, equipment, faculty, and staff support a broad-based and dynamic undergraduate and graduate curriculum in contemporary glass, as well as community outreach and education about the glass arts.


Amenities

The Hot Shop supports a range of processes including blowing, hot sculpting, and sand- and investment-mold hot casting.

Equipment

  • two 560-pound Round Day tank furnaces
  • three 15-inch Wet Dog glory holes
  • 29-inch Wet Dog pipe warmer
  • large Wet Dog garage
  • 18-inch Wet Dog color oven
  • four Wet Dog front-loading annealing ovens
  • two top-loading casting kilns
  • two complete blowing benches
  • HUB Consolidated Murrini chopper
  • a full range of torches, pipes and punties, and hand tools are available for student use

The Cold Shop was designed to offer students and artists a range of cold processes including: cutting, polishing, engraving, sandblasting, carving, and etching. This large open-concept facility provides for ample space in prepping and finishing work. Gently sloped floors with room-length drains allows for easy clean up.

Equipment

  • Englesby two-spindle lathe with a range of wheels for cutting, shaping and polishing
  • large Trinco pressure pot sand blaster 
  • Somaca grit polishing wheel 
  • Wet Dog diamond disc polishing wheel with full range of discs 
  • Somaca vertical belt sander 
  • Husqvarna 14-inch wet saw 
  • drill press with a range of core bits

The Kiln Room was designed to provide flexibility of both experimentation and specialization of warm glass processes. The range of ovens provides artists with a range of possible working methods including slumping, fusing, kiln-casting, and enameling.

Equipment

  • Wet Dog casting oven
  • Paragon Pearl 56 bullseye clamshell oven
  • two 18-inch Skutt ovens

The large classroom area is dedicated primarily to undergraduate students in the glass program and their projects. This studio is located between the hot and cold shops. Students are assigned locker storage under the worktables each semester.