Craft Around the Country

Midwest Glass Art Expo Brings a Major Glass Show to the Milwaukee Area

This weekend, glass art exhibitors and vendors will gather in West Bend, Wisconsin, to share tricks of the trade and learn from one another.

By Jon Spayde
September 15, 2026

Digital Only

Glass

Free To Read

Photo by Rhododendrites, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

An artist turns glass in a kiln at Brooklyn Glass during Open House New York Weekend in 2018.

Chris Feavel is good at putting together ambitious craft shows on short notice.

He’s the chief revenue officer at Hot Shot Oven & Kiln, which manufactures kilns and ovens for glass, metalwork, and machining in the Milwaukee suburb of West Bend, Wisconsin. Deciding he wanted to bring fine knives and tools by far-flung makers to West Bend, he took just three months to organize a May showcase called the Midwest Knife and Tool Expo.

Only four months later, he and his team are about to kick off the Midwest Glass Art Expo at the Washington County Fair Park and Conference Center in West Bend. Held on September 19 and 20, it will showcase fine glass by multiple artists, plus tools, demonstrations, and a wide range of classes.

“The Glass Art Expo kind of blossomed from the need for a major glass show in the Midwest,” Feavel says. Shows like the Glass Craft and Bead Expo in Las Vegas or Refract: The Seattle Glass Experience are major trips for Midwesterners, he notes. “I wanted us to create something here that not only allowed artists to sell their artwork and vendors to sell their equipment and their tools, but also for education.”

Photo courtesy of the artist

A landscape in fused glass by Wisconsin glass artist Josh Krogman. He will exhibit at Midwest Glass Art Expo in West Bend.

One measure of the expo’s word-of-mouth success is the fact that all of the classes, which range from fused glass and glass stringer technique to vitrigraph basics, are full—but Feavel points to the learning that can come from seeing the work of the artists and tool exhibitors and by attending the demonstrations.

Standouts among the 45 exhibitors include Dallas-area fused-glass artist Betty White and Floridian Annie Dotzauer; Josh Krogman, who creates stained glass in his Madison, Wisconsin, studio The Vinery; and Columbus, Ohio–based Alexandra Fresch, a master of many techniques, including pâte de verre molding.

“We’ll also have a number of tools available from Creator’s, Morton Glass Works, and Toyo,” Feavel says. “There’ll be glass cutters, nippers, runners—you name it, anything you need to do glass art. Oceanside from Southern California and Youghiogheny Glass from Pennsylvania will be there, showing art glass for fusing. They’ll also be supplying glass for a mobile glassblowing studio where we’ll be doing demos.”

Photo courtesy of the artist

Krogman with a stained-glass window that he custom-made for a customer.

Jon Spayde is a writer and editor in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A former contributing editor to American Craft, he writes on art, psychology, education, and personal growth for a number of regional and national publications.

Learn more about the Midwest Glass Art Expo online.

Website Instagram

Before you go!

We believe that making creates a meaningful world, and we hope you do, too. Deeply researched and impactful journalism on the craft community is in short supply. At the same time, being featured in craft-centered media and articles can have a major effect on a maker’s or artist’s livelihood, particularly those who are just starting in their career. You can help support our mission and the work of makers around the country by becoming a member or by making a gift today.

Thank you!
American Craft Council

Join Donate