The mission of the non-profit, federally approved Kay Bain Weiner (KBW) Glass Art Educational Foundation is to stimulate interest and promote growth in the glass art industry through educational projects.

To further this mission, the KBW Foundation has a responsibility to encourage the teaching of glass art in the public schools, where art programs have been severely cut in the face of critical budget shortages.

As a way to overcome budgetary difficulties and encourage public school teachers to include glass art in their curriculum, the Foundation is suggesting a nationwide Teach-the-Teacher program. The idea is for Glass art retailers and instructors who teach classes or who sell to public schools offer free glass art classes to art teachers. The teachers in turn would be able to teach students and initiate glass art classes in their schools. Retailers could suggest to the teachers special projects or supplies for a particular grade level. For schools in your area that do not offer Art Glass classes, this would be an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and your store or services.

Already “very favorable responses to the Teach-the-Teacher program” have been reported by Jacqui Bush, co-owner of Stained Glass of McKinney in McKinney, Texas. She adds, “We have taught six more art teachers for free and have helped them get started with glass art in their class schedules. We are now selling to the schools and the students.”

Since its founding in 2006, the KBW Foundation has presented eight scholarships for various national glass art workshops. With the cooperation of glass art publishers, it has also distributed over 2500 surplus books and magazines, patterns, videos, and CDs to schools, senior citizen centers, and adult education centers over the past year. If you as retailers, suppliers, manufacturers, or glass artist would like to recommend schools that could use glass art books, please let the Foundation know.

Presently the Foundation is compiling a national directory of schools and colleges that offer glass art classes. If you know of an educational institution in your area that would like to be included in the directory, please e-mail the Foundation with the details: name of institution, address, contact person and type of glass art being taught.