BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Saturday, the Stained Glass Association of America Foundation, which is headquartered right here in Buffalo, will host "Facet & Forge 2024."
If you go, you can also get a ticket to create your own miniature fused glass window.
2 On Your Side visited with the Executive Director of the Association on Monday afternoon to get a preview.
"We've broken it all the way down to the playing part, which is really exciting because we do think of glass as intimidating, and breakable, and fragile, and all of those things, but it's remarkably strong, and resilient, and it's fun. It's fun to play with," said Megan McElfresh, Executive Director of the Stained Glass Association of America.
Megan McElfresh is busy getting ready for Facet & Forge 2024. The event is back this Saturday for a second time.
"We take over all of Trinity Campus. It's called Facet & Forge, and we try to break down the silos between the pubic and the tradespeople, the preservation tradespeople that are tasked with the work of maintaining and caring for these great amazing buildings," said Megan McElfresh.
If you go, you can also make your own mini stained glass window. You design it yourself, and they'll fuse it and get it back to you.
"It's almost like decorating a sugar cookie. It's one of my daughter's favorite things to do and that's how she describes it, and I can't do any better than that," said Megan McElfresh. "We are also going to have a blacksmith, we're going to have mosaic artists, we're going to have Buffalo plaster and architectural casting joining us. We have really, really, really incredible tradespeople all across the city, and quite a few of them are coming together to show us their amazing skills and talents and what they're up to, so it's going to be a really exciting evening."
Money raised will benefit the Stained Glass Association of America Foundation which provides scholarships for emerging voices, research funds, and helps with public education efforts.
McElfresh says it's great to see young people get excited about stained glass.
"For the longest time, I've been sort of one of the youngest people in the room and it's really, really cool to see young women coming into it, to see young men coming into it and playing with it in a new way because they've been exposed to it in an entirely different way than my entrance into the field, so it's just a really great time to be a glass nerd," said Megan McElfresh.
McElfresh wants people to know more about the careers available in preservation, and this weekend's event will help do that.
"I want people to never look at stained glass the same way again. I think we have this idea in our head that it's dead, or it's dying, or it's not done anymore, or it's just this untouchable thing that's kind of far away from our everyday lives, but we're surrounded by it and often preservationists are working in plain site to raise money and tell that story and make sure it stays a part of our lives. So that's the big goal of the evening is to make sure that we gain a new understanding and appreciation for all the work that's going on to save it," said Megan McElfresh.