Chihuly's 44-inch-high "Red Spotted Ikebana with Chartreuse Stems," of 1992, appears in the Carnegie exhibition "Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America" and was a gift to the museum from Mr. and Mrs. William Block. Click photo for larger image. "Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice And America" Where: Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland. When: Opens Saturday, through Sept. 16. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $10; seniors $7; students/children $6. Events: 1 p.m. Saturday -- Curator's Dialogue with Sarah Nichols and author Matthew Kangas on Venetian-American relationships and seminal artist Robert Willson. 1:30 p.m. May 27 -- Gallery Talk by artists Davide Salvadore and Kathleen Mulcahy. July 15 -- Family programs, wine tasting. Videos on Dale Chihuly and Italian maestros Pino Signoretto and Lino Tagliapietra will be shown continuously during the exhibition run. Information: 412-622-3131 or www.cmoa.org. "Allure of Japanese Glass" Where: Pittsburgh Glass Center, 5472 Penn Ave., Friendship. When: Through Sept. 16. Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Admission: Free. Events: 6 p.m. Wednesdays -- Lectures by studio glass artists (free). 10 a.m. Saturdays -- Glass-blowing demonstrations ($10 adults, $5 children). Both through August. Information: 412-365-2145 or www.pittsburghglass center.org. Updates: Check the Wednesday Magazine section for weekly updates on Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! events. Related article: Leaves of glass: 'Chihuly at Phipps' celebrates a glass artist's vision

Like the beautiful, boldly colored flowers that have been announcing spring throughout the city, gorgeous displays of glass in as many dazzling shapes, sizes and hues have begun to appear as Pittsburgh's year-long celebration of glass moves into high gear.

This week, shows open at the three venues that started it all -- Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Carnegie Museum of Art and the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Offering the most pageantry is "Chihuly at Phipps: Gardens & Glass," installed by the internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly and his Washington state team, which is projected to draw thousands of visitors.

But a brief stroll to Carnegie Museum or short drive to the Glass Center will provide its own rewards, including some of Chihuly's earlier work in an exhibition that explores the relationship between American and Venetian glass artists at the former, and cutting-edge Japanese expression at the latter.

One hundred twenty-five works by more than 60 artists provide the sparkle in "Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America," a look at the flow of influence between Italy's famed glass center and American artists and collectors, from the 1940s to the present.

The Carnegie show is a good complement to "Chihuly at Phipps," says Sarah Nichols, "Viva Vetro!" curator and Carnegie adjunct curator of decorative arts, who's showing several of his later 1980s and early 1990s works.

Chihuly has had a long relationship to Venice, she points out. He is an important figure in bringing Venetian ideas to the United States and in bringing Venetian maestros to teach at Pilchuck Glass School, which he co-founded in 1971. His "Chandeliers over Venice" project was extraordinary.

Chihuly wasn't the first American to go to Venice, Nichols says. But he was, significantly, the first American glass blower. While there, he noted two things that would influence his career, she says. One was the colors of Venetian glass. "He'd never experienced this availability of color -- pots of colored glass melted in 19 furnaces, each with a different color."

The second was the idea of teamwork. "A single artist can only do so much," Nichols says, but a team can produce "much more complicated works and much larger works."

Maestros in America

In 1978 the first Italian glass blower was brought in to teach at Pilchuck, maestro Francesco "Checcho" Ongaro. When he turned down an offer to return the following year because there wasn't sufficient funding to bring his wife, he suggested Pilchuck contact his brother-in-law, which began an ongoing relationship with maestro Lino Tagliapietra.

Nichols refers to the exchange between the Venetian glass houses and young American studio artists as a "dialogue" beneficial to both sides.

The Venetians "found a sort of freedom of expression in the States, and a sort of 'can do attitude' that didn't exist in Italy," Nichols explains. The Italians had been constrained by the bottom line concerns of the factories that employed them, and by centuries of tradition.

America also provided a huge market as galleries and collectors developed. And as the glass movement grew, so did the opportunities for Italian glass artists to teach at venues other than Pilchuck, such as the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

	"In the Fire: Spinner Group in Red," a work by artist and Pittsburgh Glass Center co-founder Kathleen Mulcahy, is in the collection of Carnegie Museum of Art. Click photo for larger image.

"There are Venetians," she says, "who think the Americans went in and stole their techniques ... and that the Venetians haven't gotten much out of it. Whereas I would say if the Venetians chose to get something out of it they would certainly benefit."

Ongaro and Tagliapietra are among 10 Italian maestros represented in "Viva Vetro!" alongside numerous other artists with ties to Venice and to Pilchuck.

A bit of suspense

One of the latter, James Mongrain, has injected some suspense into the curator's plans. The Washington state artist, who's known for his goblets made in the Venetian tradition, exhibited in the Glass Center's 2005 "Well Hung: Chandeliers Revealed."

Nichols especially wanted to include a section of chandeliers in "Viva Vetro!" Goblets and chandeliers are "quintessential Venetian forms," she says. Plus there's "a huge interest in chandeliers at the moment."

When she asked Mongrain to lend his chandelier from the earlier exhibition, he told her he'd like to create a new work at the Pittsburgh Glass Center especially for the Carnegie show. The exciting part of such an offer is that a fresh, very up-to-the-minute artwork will be in the exhibition. Providing perhaps more excitement than necessary was that he couldn't begin working on it until last week, tight scheduling for a major museum exhibition.

And, though she's calm when she says it, there may be another layer of concern about this sight-unseen work: "I think it may break away with what he's done in the past, which has been influenced by Venetian chandeliers."

Glass central

As it welcomed Mongrain to its hot shop, the Pittsburgh Glass Center was putting the finishing touches on "Allure of Japanese Glass," a broad representation of work by contemporary Japanese artists, which opened this weekend.

	A detail of "Dinosaur," a glass sculpture by Lino Tagliapietra included in "Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America." Click photo for larger image.

A working studio, it's also the location for a number of classes, public demonstrations and lectures, as well as host to the Glass Art Society's 37th annual conference, expected to draw 1,300 attendees from across the U.S. and globe.

This is the Glass Center's first international exhibition, and the first time many of these artists have shown their work in the United States, says Heather McElwee, Glass Center Director of Education and Exhibitions.

When planning the exhibition a year and a half ago she says the staff gave consideration to expression that would add to that seen at the Phipps and Carnegie shows. They were also keenly aware of a responsibility to bring in "something new and exciting that would be educational for [GAS members]."

"Japanese glass artists were doing some really, really hot work. Really different, cutting edge, using new techniques, new processes, a new way to look at glass."

The pieces in the exhibition provide a contrast to the Phipps installation, she says. "Our show is so much more quiet." The three shows present a range of what can be done in glass, she says.

The exhibition was curated by Harumi Yukutake, a widely exhibited Japanese glass artist and GAS board member, and Japanese arts writer Tomoko Aoki.

They selected 17 artists, most of whom are in their 30s, from across Japan.

McElwee says one thing that surprised her when they opened the "26 giant wooden crates" that arrived from Japan was the diversity of the work. A row of white glass vases with faces by Hikaru Shimada, for example, has a "very whimsical look" that brings to mind Japanese animation. But there is also "very quiet contemplative work," she says.

Artist Kentaro Senuma exhibits Ikebana vessels and also practices the traditional flower arranging art. Coincidentally, Chihuly's "Red Spotted Ikebana with Chartreuse Stems" is included in the Carnegie show.

The number of major universities in Japan offering glass programs has "exploded over the last five to 10 years," McElwee says. Since there is not a tradition of glass working in Japan, "they're looking at glass with fresh eyes," she says.

Four of the artists exhibited in "Viva Vetro!" are teaching at the Glass Center this summer -- Italians Davide Salvadore and Gianni Toso and Americans Benjamin Moore and Dante Marioni. Each will give a free public talk during his residency. Other programming has been planned collaboratively by Phipps, the Carnegie, the Glass Center and the Society for Contemporary Craft.

This is one of the prettiest art years we're likely to see for some time to come, and there's no better way to start enjoying it than at the three venues responsible for putting it all into motion.