About Us
Our Story
Founded in 1987, ten students and graduates of The Ohio State University Glass Program came together under the name Glass Axis. The group built a portable glass blowing studio and traveled all over Central Ohio teaching glass art, with a focus on the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools Program. Five years later, the organization (by then, 20 members strong) established a more rooted glassmaking studio in what is now Columbus’ Arena District and in 2001 moved to the Grandview area of Columbus. Since then, Glass Axis has grown to over 120 members and includes amateur and professional artists. In 2014, Glass Axis made yet another move to a larger space in what would become the Franklinton Arts District. During 2024, the board and staff of Glass Axis chose the new name, Columbus Glass Art Center, as a way to better define the organization now. During the next 12 months, our move to a new Franklinton location will be completed. This space is a comprehensive glass-making facility, encompassing molten glass, casting, fusing, neon, stained glass, cold working, and torch working. The space offers first-class facilities to glass artists in all stages of development, hundreds of classes and public programs each year, exhibition and retail space, high school and college internship programs, and a work credit program to help keep artists in the studio. The Columbus Glass Art Center has become a civic hub for glass art creation and learning and is a place of cultural equity that continues to adapt and grow.
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To learn more about Glass Axis history, we suggest Glass Axis: 25 Years of Columbus Community Art Glass. This 147 page book is the definitive story of Columbus, Ohio’s glass studio art movement. The book, chronicled by Glass Axis founder and retired OSU Art Professor Richard Harned, along with former and current members, looks at Glass Axis as it emerged during the growing glass movement in the 1980s, 90s and 2000’s in
 the United States.
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