State Sen. Donald Humason Jr., left, prepares to autograph a whiteboard while chatting with Josh Simpson, a contemporary glass artist from Shelburne Falls, and a featured guest speaker at a recent Plug Into the Creative Valley networking event at Clemenza’s. A special art exhibit featuring the works of Simpson will be staged June 27 – October 18, 2014 as part of a citywide event. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The lounge at Westfield State’s University Hall was packed to capacity last week, as visitors from the community stopped by the new dormitory for an artistic experience unlike any they’ve likely seen before.
Josh Simpson, a world-renowned artist from Shelburne Falls, and his wife, NASA Senior Astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman, will be receiving honorary degrees at May’s commencement ceremony, and last week Simpson gave a presentation on his work, a scholarship that he and his wife are establishing for the arts and sciences, and his life living with an astronaut.
Josh Simpson, a contemporary glass artist from Shelburne Falls, left, and a featured guest speaker at a Plug Into the Creative Valley networking event at Clemenza’s, chats with Jennifer Dorgan, center, of Piece of My Art, and Andrea York, right, of Andrea York Photography. More than 25 local business owners were in attendance for a preview of “The Universe According to Josh Simpson,” a citywide art exhibit that will be staged from June 27 – October 18, 2014. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
“I’ve always been aware of Westfield (State) University, and I saw the campus when I was in a show (at the gallery),” Simpson said. “Bob Plasse then called me and asked if I wanted to do a show, and that one simple show has mushroomed into a bunch of shows and talks with the university.”
Simpson, whose work will be presented in Westfield this summer as part of the exhibit “The Universe According to Josh Simpson”, hails from “a town 60 miles north of New York City”, and attended Hamilton College in the ‘70s, at which time he discovered a passion for glass blowing during a trip to Vermont.
NASA’s Astronaut Catherine Coleman piloting a Cessna 172, using a flight simulator as her husband and others gather around and watch her fly at a recent WSU gala. (Photo submitted)
“Glass is a blend of sand and metallic oxides, combined with extraordinary, blinding heat, and the result is a material that flows and drips like honey,” he said of his life’s work, a material he says is both “fascinating” and “ridiculously frustrating”.
“When it’s hot, it’s alive, it moves gracefully and inexorably, in response to gravity and centripetal force,” he said.
He has since made glass, purchasing a farm house in Franklin County, where he built a studio that has produced pieces which have been displayed in museums all over the world such as the Knoxville Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and even the Josh Simpson Sphere Museum in Tokyo.
In addition to museums, Simpson’s work has also been deposited all over the world through the Infinity Project, where purveyors of his work will take two of the miniature globes he blows in his Shelburne Falls studio – one to keep and one to disperse out in the great wide world, in places as distinct as European castles and moats, Bethlehem Steel plants in Pennsylvania, and even the Arctic Ocean.
“I began to really think this out a little and thought, ‘If you want archeologists to find your work, you should hide it where archeologists go’.” he said, before speaking of a series of trips he and associates have made to various sites around the world. “Glass is silica. It’s not going to destroy the Earth – it’s inert, and it’s going to last hopefully for a long time.”
Even while visiting the White House and the Vatican City to meet President George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI, Simpson attempted to hide a little globe in each location, to varying degrees of success.
“You can’t just walk up to The White House and say ‘hey yo, I wanna hide this’, but I was invited to a brunch by Laura and George Bush for artists who’ve participated in a lot of State Department stuff,” he said, before showing the spot in the White House State Dining Room where he attempted to hide a globe. “I had to weigh all of what I stand for, all of my political thoughts, all that I hold sacred, against the possibility of getting free food. So I went to the brunch.”
“My wife was actually invited to meet the Pope at his summer home, and when you meet the Pope, theres a lot of stuff that goes through your mind,” Simpson said humorously. “I’ve got a planet with me, but there’s these burly Swiss guards with swords who take things seriously. So theres now a planet behind a Swiss guard in a drawer (in the Pope’s summer home).”
In addition to pictures of his globes and his adventures with world leaders, Simpson also showed snapshots of his family’s trip to Kazakhstan in 2010 to see his wife off into space aboard Soyuz TMA-20, a mission which lasted 159 days and returned back to Earth from the International Space Station on May 24, 2011.
“I just want to show slides about what it’s like to be a family with an astronaut training, getting ready for her last mission,” he said prior to the event.
Afterward, western Massachusetts’ foremost glass artist took the time to speak with attendees, posing for photos and cajoling folks to buy raffle tickets in hopes of winning one of Simpson’s glass globes, the proceeds of which will go towards the Josh Simpson and Cady Coleman scholarship.
“We’re really grateful for their support and they’re helping with the scholarship is very generous of them and we’re very appreciative,” said Westfield State President Dr. Elizabeth Preston.
“It’s been wonderful. It started with our gala, we – the University, the City, WOW (Westfield On Weekends), the BID (Business Improvement District) – have been talking with him,” said Lisa McMahon of the Westfield State University Foundation. “At the gala, he and Cady were there and that’s when this was announced (the scholarship raffle), and I think it will gain traction as we go through all the different events over the course of the summer.”
“The Foundation is so pleased. We’re working on scholarships right now that are awarding $134,000 (from the Foundation),” she continued. “This scholarship will go on in perpetuity for Westfield State students for years to come. It’s wonderful to have a partnership with he and Cady.”
“It was amazing. The whole place was filled. It was great,” said Simpson after the event. “Both of us (Cady and I) are profoundly supportive of education – science and art. Cady talks often about STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – while I talk about STEAM – science, technology, engineering, art and math – so we are very enthusiastic about it and delighted that there will be a scholarship here that might actually help somebody complete school here at Westfield State University.”
“The Universe According to Josh Simpson” will run in Westfield from June 28 to October 13, and feature gallery exhibits, an art walk, a street festival, a film series, lectures and numerous children’s activities.
