Pittsburgh Glass Center

Meditations on Glass is a new, unique way to experience our current exhibition: A Fine Intoxication: Gathering Glass. 

Using a variety of guided mediation techniques, participants will be invited to open their "eye-mind," a kind of visual awareness that uses the eyes to focus on an object and then allow one's awareness to grow beyond one's sight.  Instead of engaging the breath or a mantra to stabilize the mind, participants will use the exhibition pieces as objects of our meditation.  

The session will start with a basic introduction to vipassana (clear seeing) meditation, followed by the invitation to wander around the gallery until you find the artwork that interests you most. Next you will be invited to rest your gaze on that artwork as you are guided through a series of instructions to become more aware of the color(s), saturation, light, shape, positive and negative space, etc. As the body relaxes and the senses attune, you will be able to drop into a deeper relationship with the glass art object and even enter the mind-state of the artist at the time the artwork was created. Ultimately, this produces a heightened sense of presence and an intimate awareness of the relationship between artwork and the self, far beyond what the eyes can see.

While studies show that the average length of time a person spends looking at an artwork is 15 seconds, we will spend at least 15 minutes "looking" at two or more glass artworks of your choice with space in-between for reflection, sharing, and/or questions. 

Workshop lasts about 90 minutes. 

No experience/knowledge necessary of either meditation or glass art. This is non-religious experience. All are welcome.

About the Instructor

Jeffrey Dorsey has been leading guided weekly meditation sessions and seasonal retreats for groups for more then two years. Jeffrey created Meditations on Glass having been inspired by a Buddhist workshop called, Opening the Eye-Mind and by the book, Look, Look, Look, Look, Look Again, Buddhist Wisdom Reflected in 26 Artists by one of his teachers, Kevin Townley, Jr. Dorsey teaches similar sessions using artwork at the Carnegie Museum of Art's Mindful Museum program. His heart work builds on 30 years of creative artmaking, ritual, mindfulness/ meditative practices, and training in various therapeutic modalities, leadership models, and anti-trauma facilitation. His practices blend the teachings of the wisdom traditions, mysticism, and modern-day scientific approaches to mind body awareness. Dorsey's aim is to teach people skills to regulate their own nervous systems through creative experiences that reconnect us to our senses, our bodies, other humans and the more then human world. You can view his current art/healing project at anotherlight.art. 

Dorsey is also an arts administrator who has currently the Executive Director of Union Project, a ceramic arts center in Highland Park. Fun fact: From 1999-2009, he was manager of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative (a collaboration of The Bloomfield Garfield Corporation and Friendship Development Associates) who created Unblurred, First Fridays on Penn and who acquired and sold the building to the Pittsburgh Glass Center at our current location 5472 Penn Avenue. Jeffrey lives in Friendship with his wife, two adult children, and two cats.