Berkeley’s Stained Glass Garden to Celebrate 50 Years of Art
West Berkeley’s Stained Glass Garden is an active community hub built on artistic expression. Fifty years after opening its doors, in many ways, the glassmaking studio and gallery is a mosaic in and of itself.
The venue rents studio space for making fused glass panels and glass lampshades. The organization sells supplies to artists, holds classes for students and, in their gallery, showcases the works of more than 100 local glassmakers. “Many of whom got their start in our classes at some point in time,” says Julie Orchard, Stained Glass Garden owner.
The space is open daily, welcoming seasoned professionals, recent retirees and new visitors influenced by Instagram. “There’s a whole new generation of young folks coming out and creating with glass,” says Orchard, who also hosts many longtime glassmakers. “An hour ago I was with a someone who has been our customer for all 50 years. It’s just a wonderful, unique place.”
The range of artists who find peace in glasswork will be present on Sunday, Sept. 20, as Stained Glass Garden celebrates its 50th birthday with a block party.
The event, which includes a community mosaic project and works from students over the past half-century, will take place in Berkeley’s Fourth Street shopping district. The organization has called the area home long before it turned into the bustling upscale neighborhood it is today, with a Sur la Table, Sephora and Herman Miller outlet all a short walk away.
“We were the first store down here,” says Orchard of what was then a small home-studio, founded in 1976 by Joan McLean. Orchard first joined Stained Glass Garden in 2004 and soon “fell in love with glass and all of its aspects,” she says.
Now, her glasswork community extends far beyond the shop. “I actually had a student in the delivery room with me when I was having my first child,” Orchard tells me, “and a different student was the pediatrician the next day.”
The work itself extends beyond the shop’s walls as well, and can be seen throughout the region. One of the company’s instructors was a part of the team that recently restored the glass at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. In the Bay Area, “if you look at a stained glass window in somebody’s house,” she says, “it’s probably from Stained Glass Garden.”
When McLean semi-retired in 2008, Orchard took over the store. “She just was a great mentor, and gave me complete freedom to build the store as I saw fit,” Orchard recalls.
McLean is officially stepping away this year, making this weekend’s event a bit of a retirement party, as well as an opportunity to see Stained Glass Garden’s next chapter, says Orchard.
Eventually, the torch could get passed down in more ways than one.
“My 11-year-old daughter,” Orchard says, “just designed, cut, ground and soldered her very first stained glass panel just about two weeks ago.”
Stained Glass Garden’s 50th anniversary party is Sunday Sept. 20 from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. at Stained Glass Garden (1800 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710). Check here for more information.