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Joan Phillips, Executive Director, Bay Area Glass Institute

Bay Area Glass Institute
410 East Taylor Street, Ste 115
San Jose, CA 95112
www.bagi.org

Up until I accepted the job at BAGI I was living in Philadelphia. I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia and a Masters in Professional Studies in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. While at the University of the Arts I was one of the founding members of Gallery One, the first ever run student gallery at the university. This is where I found my niche in arts administration. Since graduating from Pratt, I have worked in several arts not for profits in various capacities and one social service not for profit.

I was prompted to take this position because of my love for the arts. I love all types of mediums and want to see artists succeed and to educate the public on how important art is to everyday life. I also love seeing the faces of individuals of all ages when they see and create something that they didn’t think was possible for them to do. Glass is such a mysterious medium to many people, the facial expressions are wonderful. The first time I stepped foot into BAGI, the atmosphere was one of excitement, energy and I could feel the loyalty to organization by the way the artists spoke. I knew I wanted to be a part of this community and to take this organization to its next level.

Over the next year I hope to achieve more cross collaboration with other mediums and organizations, offer new classes to the already exciting ones that we offer, have more corporate team building events, community field trips and a big achievement would be to implement a mobile art shop so we could take glass blowing on the road.

I would like to see not for profits collaborate with one another and have mediums cross over into other mediums. There are so many of us and as we all know there is limited funding. I think by collaborating with one another we can reach out to a broader audience, create amazing experiences and art as well as forge relationships with one another. We can all learn something from each other whether it is how we run our offices, teach our classes or organize events. You can’t create or run an organization in a vacuum. It takes a community.

[Joan Phillips]