AO Glass is Changing the World through Art Glass

For 15 years artists Tove Ohlander and Rich Arentzen of AO Glass have created an array of beautiful art glass, exploring this fluid medium for rich new ways to reach their audience. With the opening of their new studio in Burlington, Vermont they are taking on a new challenge – to use their art to change our world for the better.  

Their art, featured on their website (www.aoglass.com) and at their studio, uses a variety of techniques that are both old and new, such as the traditional Graal technique of Sweden. For Ohlander and Arentzen each new piece is full of infinite possibility and whether it becomes a figure, a lighting fixture, a bowl, or a large installation in a lobby, each art glass piece has something unique to say.    The objects themselves are only half of the story. The best art doesn’t just passively decorate our living or working space, but actively participates in our lives and our world, creating a positive vision for what we can be and helping to make that vision a reality.    To help create positive change in the world through their art, Ohlander and Arentzen are partnering with groups like Polar Bears International (www.polarbearsinternational.org). Polar Bears International (PBI) works to preserve polar bears, but their mission is much larger, working to preserve the arctic environment the bears and other animals rely on, and create a better future for people everywhere. In their partnership with PBI, Ohlander and Arentzen create polar bear glass art and make a donation to PBI for each piece sold. And once the polar bear pieces go home, they continue to remind people everywhere of the challenges we face and the solutions we can create by working together.    In addition to non-profits, AO! Glass is also working with corporations that are making sustainability an integral part of their business, providing art that inspires employees, customers, or business partners. The story told by art glass can have an important impact, speaking volumes.   At present, as they work to open their new studio in Vermont and encounter their own challenges, AO Glass is reaching out to their community and giving glass lovers an opportunity to help. They are looking for Trailblazers who will invest in their art through inlu and receive some great value in exchange.    If you make an investing donation of $50 - $99, they will give you a 20% lifetime discount on AO Glass products. If you make an investing donation of $100 or more, they will give you a 20% lifetime discount on AO Glass products, a Polar Bear International AO Glass exclusive bear, and an AO Glass exclusive in-store credit.   The campaign to help AO Glass ends in just a few days, September 10, so contact them soon to help out, enjoy their wonderful art, and be a part of the move to use art as one tool to build a better world.  You can visit the inlu site to become a Trailblazer for AO! Glass and help them help us all.   To contact AO Glass, visit their website: http://www.aoglass.com/index.html   Glenn Croston is the author of "75 Green Businesses" and "Starting Green", helping businesses everywhere to do well by doing right.  You can find him at www.startingupgreen.com, glenn(dot)croston(at)startingupgreen(dot)com    SUP16648