Art on Fire Celebration + Auction
9/18/2026 | 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM
SAVE THE DATE
Friday, September 18 | 6-11pm
Honorary Artist Amber Cowan
Pittsburgh Glass Center
5472 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 | Complimentary valet
Art on Fire is a fun party and Pittsburgh’s only glass auction. It is Pittsburgh Glass Center’s most important fundraiser that generates over 10% of the annual operating funds in ONE evening!
Proceeds directly support free public programming and accessibility initiatives at PGC, which include free monthly open houses and demonstrations, three exhibitions a year in our public-access gallery, and scholarships for everyone.
Pittsburgh’s Only Glass Art Auction
Art on Fire is a great opportunity to buy handmade, one-of-a-kind glass art while also supporting artists and Pittsburgh Glass Center. Nearly 200 handmade glass works by local and internationally renowned glass artists will be included in the live and silent auctions.
About our featured artist AMBER COWAN
Amber Cowan’s sculptural glasswork is based around the use of recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass. She uses the process of flameworking, hot-sculpting and glassblowing to create large-scale sculptures that overwhelm the viewer with ornate abstraction and viral accrual. With an instinctive nature towards horror vacui, her pieces reference memory, domesticity and the loss of an industry through the re-use of common items from the aesthetic dustbin of American design. The primary material used for her work is glass cullet sourced from scrap yards supplied by now defunct pressed glass factories as well as flea-markets, antique-stores and donations of broken antiques from households across the country.
Her recent diorama-style pieces tell stories of self-discovery, escapism and the power of the feminine by utilizing figurines and animals found in collected antique glass pieces. These figurines become recurring symbols in the evolving narrative and simultaneously pay homage to the history of US glassmaking.
Cowan lives and works in Philadelphia where she received an MFA in Ceramics/Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University. She was the recipient of the 2014 Rakow Commission from The Corning Museum of Glass and her work can be found in the permanent collection of The Museum of Art and Design in New York, The Toledo Museum of Art, and The RISD Museum.
When you join Art on Fire in person or bid from home, you directly support artists and programs that embody PGC’s mission to support glass artists and teach, create, and promote glass art.
Pittsburgh Glass Center is wheelchair accessible. A sign language interpreter is provided.
Please contact accessibility@pittsburghglasscenter.org with any accessibility concerns.
