Fired Up!, an after-school arts program in glassblowing, glass fusing, stained glass and glass beadmaking, has been recognized for its work with teens by the National Endowment for the Arts. An NEA grant of $13,000 over two years has been recommended for the program at Water Street Glassworks in Benton Harbor.
Water Street Glassworks is one of 1,145 not-for-profit organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency's second round of grants for fiscal year 2011. Fired Up! teaches creativity, inclusion, teamwork, and understanding of others.
The seven-year old Fired Up! program gives teens an opportunity to make glass art in professional studios. Fired Up! students attend class, tuition-free, one day each week during the school year and more days during June and July when school's out. They make a two-year commitment to the program when they enroll.
Fired Up! students also learn to become entrepreneurs as they practice the "business of art." They plan, make, exhibit and market their glass artwork pieces. They host a reception where they demonstrate their art making skills and sell their work. Work also is sold at local art fairs, including the Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff.
Teens currently enrolled range in age from 13 to 18 and come from nine different middle and high schools. One is home schooled.
The program inspires hours of dedication by volunteers as well as generous community support, says Sarah Hess, Executive Director of
Water Street Glassworks.The teen glass program "is the very heart and soul of Water Street Glassworks," Hess says. She adds it is participating teens' "talent, passion, and dedication to personal and community transformation that fuse the entire program into the success that it has become."
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Sarah Hess, Water Street Glassworks
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