CCA News
Glass Alum James McLeod Goes Global with an Ancient Art Form
Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010, by Samantha Braman
Among the many destructive effects of the current political discord in the Middle East is the disruption of ancient local glassmaking traditions. CCA alumnus James McLeod (Glass 2002) experienced firsthand the precariousness of this rich thread of knowledge during a 2007 trip to Istanbul to teach a glassblowing workshop. Upon his return he was committed to founding Floating World Projects. The project is dedicated to transcending cultural stereotypes and prejudices via arts education and artistic collaboration. By viewing the world as full of artistic possibility—as opposed to limited by rigid and ultimately ephemeral political boundaries—FWP aims to develop cross-cultural media projects that highlight symbiotic relationships in our new global age.
Returning from Istanbul, McLeod says, "I had a new perspective on the prejudices and misconceptions that the average American has about the Middle East and Muslim countries. I wanted to change this. I founded FWP the following year together with my colleague Leo Tecosky, whom I met in 2003 at a glassblowing residency at the Creative Glass Center of America."
Currently FWP is focusing on two projects. The first, Invisible Cities, is a partnership between artists from Istanbul and artists from New York that will culminate in exhibitions in both cities. The shows will feature time-lapse videos, musical compositions produced collaboratively by Turkish and American musicians, and about 30 pieces of glass. For the past three years, seven visual artists, eight video artists, and a growing number of musicians have been contributing to this collective metropolitan vision.
The second project, The Road to Hebron, began this past July when McLeod traveled to the West Bank to document one of the oldest glassblowing studios in the world. He closely followed Yacob Natsheh, a native artist who has been mastering his craft for nearly 40 years.
View images from these projects and more.
"As far as we know, the al-Natsheh factory is one of the world's oldest glassblowing studios—dating back to the 13th century—that has been continuously operated by the same family," says McLeod.
"I visited Hebron for two main reasons. I wanted to learn from the glass masters and share information with them about my work and the glass industry in the United States. I also wanted to document an ancient industry of paramount importance that is at risk of disappearing. Since we are a media-obsessed society, it is easy to understand why so many people associate Palestine with terrorism and Muslim fundamentalism. Our goal is to show a different side of Hebron, a humanistic side. The Hebronites are just like us, with families and professions. They make art, they play music, they cook."
In addition to his work with FWP and maintaining his own studio practice, McLeod is an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He has established a first-of-its-kind study-abroad program that brings students at the college to Istanbul; he also has organized a comprehensive travel program through which students travel to Seattle to explore that mecca of contemporary glass making.
He attributes his passion for education and his confidence in his own art to his years at CCA. "It was the foundation for all of the work that I am doing right now. My Critical Studies teachers Claudia Bernardi, Michael McClure, and Lydia Matthews taught me to question everything—to ask enough questions that you begin to understand and process information rather than just absorb it superficially. My studio teachers in Glass, Clifford Rainey and Pamina Traylor, taught me about the contemporary glass community, the work ethic that is required to be successful, and how to have confidence in your abilities. I was privileged to be surrounded by a strong group of artists and students as well as generous and influential faculty members."
McLeod is planning to return to the West Bank in December of this year with FWP cofounder Tecosky and fellow CCA alum Oben Abright (Glass 2003) to apprentice with the glass masters there. They will be traveling with a Turkish film crew to execute a feature-length documentary. In spring 2011, four Turkish artists with whom FWP recently worked on a residency in Istanbul will be traveling to the United States for the first time for a month-long residency at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Also, for those in the Bay Area, all are invited to attend the January 2011 FWP exhibition and fundraiser at Public Glass in San Francisco. A number of CCA affiliates will be involved, and the money raised will go toward postproduction of the documentary footage filmed the preceding month.