Taking up the internationality of glassmakers and starting out from US universities, studio glass artists wanted to establish glass as a medium of fine art. American freedom combined with European craftsmanship, design, and conceptual art.
In 1962, Harvey K. Littleton and Dominik Labino tried out simple, gas-fired studio glass stoves in Toledo in order to make glass independently of the glassworks association. With the spread of the idea in North America, Western Europe, Australia and Japan, a global infrastructure for encounters, knowledge exchange, training, media and marketing was created.
Erwin Eisch and the Frauenau Glass Museum made the glass-making town of Frauenau the culmination of studio glass; Since 1988 the international summer academy Bild-Werk Frauenau has been bringing together glass cultural heritage and artistic innovation.
