Fired Up!
Water Street Glassworks is the home of the Fired Up! teen after-school glass program. Beginning in 2004 students ages 13 - 18 have attended a two-hour class once a week during the school year where they learn glassblowing, fusing, or beadmaking in the Glassworks studios.
Fired Up! was recognized in April, 2009, as one (out of 420) of the Coming Up Taller! Top 50 After-School Arts Programs in the country by The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Students are taught to design for the marketplace, annually install two exhibitions, and host and demonstrate their skills at receptions. Fired Up! students market their work in The Glassworks Gallery and take part in art fairs in the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph area each summer. Fired Up! is proud to be a part of Krasl Art Center's Art Fair on the Bluff and its Emerging Artists focus, where they set up and sell from their own tent.
Fired Up! students receive 80% of their sales profits; they return 20% to help support the program. While most students receive tuition-free scholarships, others pay for classes. Most of the students each year (up to 27) come from Benton Harbor with a few coming from surrounding communities.
Teens accepted into this exceptional, competitive program learn to become leaders. Fired Up! students exhibit their art in area shows, consistently winning top awards. They also take field trips to see the work of glass artists exhibiting at southwest Michigan and Chicago museums and galleries.
Fired Up! owes its success in part to many individual sponsors and volunteers, The Kinney Family Foundation, The Frederick S. Upton Foundation, The Berrien Community Foundation, Harbor Shores Redevelopment Corporation, St. Joseph - Benton Harbor Rotary Foundation, Entergy Corporation, and to the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Fired Up! got its start in 2004 with funds from the Michigan Office of Drug Control Policy/Recreation, Arts and Culture Committee/Citizens for Progressive Change, Cornerstone Alliance, and The Kellogg Foundation.