Artist Studios at WheatonArts
Immerse yourself in creativity by watching professional, highly-skilled artists employ century-old techniques to create colorful works of art! WheatonArts is where imagination and artistic process meet for a wonderful arts experience for all ages! Watch fascinating artist demonstrations in the Hot Glass, Flamework, and Pottery Studios, and meet informally with the resident artists. As artists share their craft, they discuss the materials used, their scientific properties, history, and social forces that have shaped both art and culture. Our studios are incubators for ideas for resident artists and daily visitors alike!
Glass Studio
Feel the heat and be amazed as artists transform hot, molten glass into beautiful works of art! Demonstrations change daily, from glassblowing to mold pouring. Inspired by the original 1888 T.C. Wheaton Glass Factory, the building holds much of the essence and history of glassmaking in South Jersey and is considered the “heartbeat” of WheatonArts.
Flamework Studio
Volunteer artists present ongoing demonstrations of how glass beads, marbles, pendants, and miniature forms are created by melting glass rods over a hot torch.
Pottery Studio
View artist demonstrations of ceramic wheel throwing, handbuilding, glazing, and decorating functional works of art. Different types of clay are used in the studio, including a local Vineland clay that they process by hand!
The Creative Process
At WheatonArts, the creative process is considered as mission-critical as the objects collected and exhibited. While glassmaking remains one of our strongest assets, presenting it in context with other art forms is considered key to providing creative cross-fertilization. We hope to honor and share the creative process by realizing artistic vision and dialogue based on ideas, not solely on a specific material. Visiting artists augment a stable group of resident artists and volunteer staff, ensuring an enriched exchange, visual and otherwise.
Key to our mission is making WheatonArts a desirable place for artists to work and supporting them in an organizational culture that promotes creative risk-taking. We invite guests to visit the studios, offering a unique level of public access to working artists and their processes of making. Balancing this high level of visibility to the public, with the environment needed to focus and create, is an ongoing concern. We ask that all visitors respect the studios as the artist’s professional workspace.
