Off-Center Views: Glasstastic Returns to Brattleboro

4/21/25

Glasstastic Returns to Brattleboro

Glasstastic (Through November 1, 2025)

Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

10 Vernon Street

Brattleboro, VT Weds-Sun 10-4

Welcome back! I’m talking about one of the coolest ideas ever. Fourteen years ago the folks at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) launched an innovative and delightful idea. They asked kids from kindergarten through sixth grade to draw an imaginary creature and write a “story”– usually just a few lines, often filled with charming misspellings– about their beasties. As the curators note, quite a few creatures “love pizza and dancing.” A panel of 20 artists chose one to be rendered into glass sculptures based on the kids’ drawings.

It started small but these days they get more than a thousand entries from all over the country. I must say that if you’re like a lot of Americans you’re probably not feeling very hopeful about the nation these days, but the 2025 Glasstastic show is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, even when a child or two writes something personal that will tear at the old heart strings.

Here are a few images to whet your appetite. I highly recommend that you get there to see this exhibit in person. These iPhone shots can’t convey the overall vibe, whimsy, and creativity involved. Major kudos to the BMAC for taking the minds and experiences of children seriously and to the glass artists for allowing their inner children to come out and play.

Admit it. You’d like to have a “Demon Slug” on your dresser. Or perhaps a glass pirate skeleton, or Tina, an underwater creature who turns colors according to her emotions. Then there’s Alf, who has anger issues because his father died from cancer. You reckon eleven-year-year-old Simon might be sharing his own pain? We can only wish that he gets to meet “Smilie” soon. Or maybe Alfred, the 82-year-old critter whose mustache is so strong he can stand on it and can hoist little George over his head.

Photos are labeled with the child’s name and age followed by the artist’s name. Enjoy! (Ignore last label; there is a format error I can't find!)