summer of glass

The Brief

Amplified Media collaborated with the North Carolina Glass Center on Summer of Glass, a campaign promoting glass artistry in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The campaign was created to motivate art-loving out of towners to visit Asheville and to support local glassmakers. In addition to the marketing campaign, Amplified Media is working with Dr. Alysia Fischer, curator of the North Carolina and the Studio Glass Movement exhibit, to produce a full length documentary on the history of the glass movement.

The Goal

The goal of the campaign was to educate visitors who visit Buncombe and Mitchell Counties on the unique art scene of the Blue Ridge Mountains and to encourage these tourists to support local glass artists. North Carolina Glass Center worked with artists and galleries to plan events, tours, and exhibitions featuring glass blowers, makers, and artists from May until October 2018 throughout Asheville, Penland, and the surrounding areas.

The videos and photos were created to promote these events, as well as to highlight the wonderment of glassmaking, as expressed by the makers themselves. The vision was to create a relationship between this beautiful art form and the magic of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a region closely tied to the history of glass making and that serves as inspiration to the makers.

The Process

A group of glass makers and artists were selected as the subjects of the Summer of Glass promotional media. The campaigns focus on the artists themselves, the magic of glass making, and local culture and landscape. Artists were selected based on their skills and ties to the community, as well as their historical knowledge of the glass movement.

The studios and galleries of the participating artists were the obvious choices for the setting, and footage of the Blue Ridge Mountains was also an integral part of achieving the messaging goals set out by the campaign. Much of the Summer of Glass footage as well as the documentary focuses on Penland School of Crafts, an arts school that plays an integral part in the glass movement.

An expert historian was enlisted to simultaneously create the videos promoting Summer of Glass and a full-length documentary about WNC’s glassmaking history.

Production commenced. The Amplified team traveled to Penland and throughout the region to interview artists in their studios and classrooms, and to document the natural beauty that surrounds and inspires nearly all of the featured artists.

The footage was gathered and it was time to get to work on post-production editing. Amplified Media worked with the North Carolina Glass Center to create a two minute and a forty-five second video about the magic and beauty of this artform and its relationship to the region.

The Result

The video is featured widely throughout Summer of Glass marketing efforts. It has been featured on the Penland School of Craft’s website and on tourism hub Explore Asheville. Amplified Media, North Carolina Glass Center, and historian Dr. Alysia Fischer continue to collaborate on the full length documentary, which will serve as an exhibit and important resource at the center.