Beau Anderson, glass artist will be the Featured Artist in the Arkansas Craft Gallery Saturday March 9 from 10 to 5. Beau was born in Bellingham, Washington in 1980 to parents who were artists, outdoor adventurers and avid cyclists. While in home school Beau focused on glass beadmaking alongside his mother, Sage Holland and woodworking with his father, Tom Anderson. Sage introduced Beau to the torch by age seven. He became a student of all things creative via Montessori and home schools, Waldorf Schools and Whatcom Community College as a part of the arts community by 1988.
After moving to Arkansas in 1993 he continued his glass beadmaking to the extent that he became a passionate teacher of the art form, pairing up with his family to generate new designs together and spread the unlimited freedom within techniques found in the history of glass. Along with his historian step-father, Tom Holland, he researched ancient glass in museums and private collections. Beau has demonstrated and taught the art of flame working soft glass throughout the Americas and the world since the early 1990s at small private studios as well as schools and institutions such as Corning Museum of Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pilchuck Glass School, the Mussee de Perle in France, and The International Glass Beadmakers Gathering, as a member. He’s also a member of the Glass Art Society and Arkansas Sculptors Guild.
He developed a revolutionary new bead release technique, called Liquid Core, using a tungsten rod as a mandrel, a method he’s been using since about 2003. He sells kits with instructions in this method, plus beads from the entire family at http://beauxbead.com. Updates on classes and shows can be found on several Facebook profiles of family members.
He has been featured in Ornament Magazine, Bead and Button magazine, in Cindy Jenkin’s book, Beads of Glass, 1000 Glass Beads by Lark Books, and The History of Beads by Lois Sher Dubin, Abrams Books, among others. Beau has had the honour of installing studios and demonstrating in the Flame working arts in France, Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, and Northern India in the Tibetan home of the Dahli Lama, as well as Stone County, Arkansas and North Little Rock.
After sharing his love for glass in many workshops he began creating 3 dimensional forms in glass. In 2008 Beau was fortunate enough to take a workshop with the Master in Soft Glass Sculpture, Lucio Bubacco in Murano, Italy. Since then he has been pursuing the elegant fluid expression of Flame worked Soft Glass Sculpture, integrating nature with human forms in frozen motion, communicating their complex interdependence.
Beau and his family members are a part of the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour Sept.13-15 at the QMC Building on Sawmill Road, north of Mountain View. As members of the Arkansas Craft Guild, they will again have a booth at Artisans Market on the Square during Arkansas Folk Festival, April 19 and 20 in Mountain View. The Guild was incorporated in 1962 as a for-profit cooperative to market quality handicrafts, and to further develop the skills of these artisans, now headquartered in Mountain View at the Arkansas Craft Gallery, open Tuesday throught Saturday from 10 to 5.
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Arkansas Craft Guild & Gallery”Promoting Handcrafted in Arkansas since 1962″
Website: www.arkansascraftguild.org
Phone: 870-269-4120
Email Address: arkansascraftguild@gmail.com
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 800, Mountain View, AR 72560
Gallery hours: 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday
Visit us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/arkansascraftgallery
Cathy Drew is a lifelong resident of the region that she loves to promote. She was born in downtown Batesville in the late ’60s, located in one of the eight counties she now enjoys encouraging people to visit.
Drew became associated with the Ozark Gateway Region in 1990 while working at the ad agency (The Media Market Inc.). The agency handled marketing for the regional association, where she and her co-workers produced an annual tabloid publication. She began working as the Ozark Gateway Region director in June 2000.
After Drew became director, she took the region to the next level by helping the tourism organization create a new website and moved it from the old newspaper paper tabloid publication to a color magazine format. She helped open a visitor center for the Ozark Gateway, allowing visitors to pick up information from the entire state 24/7. Over the years, Drew has helped the organization meet new marketing goals, such as in- and out-of-state marketing, assuring that all 100,000 copies of their magazines are distributed each year.
In 2016, she assisted in creating the first Ozark Gateway Region Golf Classic. The tournament continues to grow each year, allowing the organization to expand its co-op program and helping each county have dedicated promotion. Drew stays busy at Ozark Gateway as the ad sales manager, magazine editor, day-to-day office operations, trade show representative, and magazine distribution representative, all while ensuring that the region is represented all over Arkansas and southern Missouri.
Drew was featured in several local and statewide publications over the years, as well as the 1997 cover of the Ozark Gateway Region tabloid, along with her then 4-year-old son, Jon. She has received several awards, such as the Batesville Rotarian of the Year in 2010 and a three-time Paul Harris Fellow.
She also has served as an Independence County election commissioner for several years. She now serves as their co-election coordinator, helping with behind-the-scenes management of voting equipment, day-to-day election deadlines, and poll worker training.
Drew is Batesville Rotary Club Past President, and is the Rotary Clubs’ current membership chair.
In March of 2018, Drew was honored with induction into the Arkansas Tourism Hall of Fame for her many years of dedicated service to the tourism industry.