Where it all began

“The Burnt Asphalt Family” began as a collaboration at Wheaton Arts-The Creative Glass Center of America between a group of all woman fellows, Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Maret Sarapu, Sara Gilbert and two other artists Sam Geer, and Skitch Manion. Art making normally has a strong sense of individualism but in glassblowing you normally rely on at least one partner if not more. Collaborating gives us access to greater resources of materials, experience, knowledge, and skill. CGCA created an environment that was conducive to collaborating through supporting the discovery of our new vision with the resources and opportunity to focus on its development. The first performance was “Turkey Dinner”, performed at Wheaton Arts, summer 2007.





The Creative Glass Center of America (CGCA) was founded in 1983 by a group of artists, educators and gallery directors who became sensitive to the particular needs and financial burdens facing glass artists. For the past 25 years, 280 CGCA Fellowships have been awarded to artists from around the world, allowing them the opportunity to focus on the development of their artwork. Today, the CGCA Fellowship Program remains the only one of its kind in the U.S. providing emerging and mid-career artists unrestricted access to the facilities and materials necessary for blown, cast and kiln formed glass.

The CGCA Fellowship Program at WheatonArts is a professional level program providing focused and self-directed artists working in glass with a concentrated period of time to work alongside their peers. Fellows work toward a common goal of advancing their careers through the perfection or refinement of techniques needed to develop a new or expanded body of work. The CGCA program is an environment where we provide the facilities, equipment and a technical orientation; however we do not have technical assistance on hand.

CGCA is housed at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, NJ, an East Coast center dedicated to the continuum of glassmaking in America. The Center is located in an area rich in glassmaking history and is within driving distance to New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.