[Glass-mit] Update: Tentative Live MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch

[Peter Houk]

Hello Glass Lab people, volunteers, and other interested parties,

Greetings! I hope this finds you as well as can be.
Usually this message about the upcoming MIT Pumpkin Patch would have been
sent out two or three weeks ago, during the height of summer. We've been
waiting for clarity. Alas - clarity has proved elusive. So, let's just call
this an update.

Last fall, a very small crew of senior instructors was allowed to return to
campus. Since we have been unable to teach any classes for the last 18
months, we have focused on developing and refining COVID-safe methods of
blowing glass and teaching glass blowing. A new compressed air/foot pedal
system has proven to be very effective, and we're excited to try it out
with Glass Lab students this fall.
Our little group has also spent a great deal of energy making this our best
harvest of glass pumpkins ever! We've reprised some of our favorite old
designs and explored new directions in patterns and color combinations. The
plan for 2021 is to do a combination online and live sale: roughly half the
pumpkins we made this year will be sold on the site
<https://mitglasslab.org/> we used last year, and the other half will be,
*hopefully*, sold live once again on Kresge Oval.
Currently, Institute event policy indicates that masking and density
requirements have been relaxed for outdoor events, and so I am optimistic
that we'll be able to have some sort of live sale in Kresge Oval this
September. But, as you all know, the COVID environment is in constant flux.
CDC guidelines and Institute policy may change quickly, so we can't know
for sure what the Kresge event will look like, or even if we can do it for
sure.
So I'm reaching out, in a hypothetical sort of way: *if *guidelines permit
us to do the live outdoor event, *I'd like to have a show of hands of those
who would be willing to volunteer to help sell pumpkins* on *Saturday,
September 25. *The setup and schedule will be pretty much the same as in
previous years, although we may have to reduce the number of lines and
packing stations in order to create more space between people and comply
with density requirements. This will be OK, since we will only have about
half the usual number of pumpkins at the live sale. Our first priority is
to keep everyone safe.
On a personal note, I have missed the community that comes together each
year to make this event happen, from the Glass Lab students and instructors
who make the pumpkins to the volunteers who help us sell them in September.
You *all *make this event possible, and with it, the continued existence of
the MIT Glass Lab.
Looking forward to seeing many of you in the near future!
Peter
[image: pumpkin collage for web.jpg]


-- 
Peter Houk
Artistic Director, MIT Glass Lab
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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